By David Flynn
Businesses in the cities and towns of regional NSW, along with those whose work takes them outside of the Sydney sprawl, are set to enjoy some real choice in mobile broadband.
Early next month Vodafone will flick the switch to bring its 3G mobile broadband network to almost a dozen of the state's larger regional areas, including (at long last) Newcastle and Wollongong. Bowral, Kiama, Nowra, Wagga Wagga, Albury-Wodonga, Lismore, Ballina and Byron Bay will also come under the wing of the network extension.
The end of August adds many others to the list including Bathurst, Dubbo, Port Macquarie, Goulburn, Thredbo, Bega and Cooma. Vodafone says that similar roll-outs through the rest of Australia will see its 3G coverage embrace 94 per cent of the areas where we live and work.
These extensions to the mobile broadband network have been achieved by re-allocating part of the 900MHz band, which the carrier used in the original GSM cellular service. While sufficient GSM channels and base stations remain for older mobile phones, many base stations have been upgraded to use more efficient 3G technology.
This provides internet connections at 10 to 20 times the speed of the older network, with data rates of 1-2Mbps, while in comparison to the main 2100MHz 3G network the lower radio frequency of 900MHz provides the greater signal reach needed in country areas.
The same dual-band strategy was employed by Optus to extend its national 3G coverage last year. Thanks to the long throw of 900MHz, the carrier's mobile broadband soak is thick along the NSW coastline and reaches inwards some 300km to a line of towns including Glen Innes, Dubbo and Wagga Wagga.
Three has announced that customers on its 3G network, which in NSW covers only Sydney and Canberra, can now piggyback onto Telstra's Next G service to enjoy its near-blanket coverage of Australia.
This comes at a cost however as there's a "roaming" fee of 50 cents per megabyte of data.
But it's much better value than the previous arrangement that would switch Three customers onto Telstra's GSM network for almost unusable speeds at a rapacious $1.65/MB. To use the dual band service, which Three is marketing as Mega 3G, you'll need a device that works on both the 2100MHz 3G and 850MHz Next G bands.