Interesting Australian twist to iPhone 3G

I have had my unlocked iphone from the States for 3 months running with a Telstra SIM card .. no problems at all.
Naz
Australia

On 16/06/2008, at 5:50 PM, Richard Totaro wrote:

> The two carriers that have announced their intentions to sell the
> iPhone (although no plans/pricing yet) Optus and Vodafone both have
> 2100MHz 3G networks in metropolitan areas, however in the regional
> and rural areas, both carriers are in the process of building 3G
> networks using the 900MHz band. The iPhone 3G can do the 850, 1900
> and 2100MHz UMTS/HSDPA. The iPhone 3G does not do 900MHz 3G.

So will the iPhone run on the existing non 3G networks in regional &
rural Australia? The non 3G coverage I get on the Floptus network is
fine in the places I need it (& in one locale a little better that the
3G Telescum coverage enjoyed by a friend who lives there) & I can do
without the gee-whizz-bang-wow stuff when I'm out of town. OTOH being
able to talk & SMS is vital to me. Any hints on how I'd go?

Cheers, Pedro :-)

At 3:45 PM -0700 21/6/08, Pedro fp wrote:
>So will the iPhone run on the existing non 3G networks in regional &
>rural Australia? The non 3G coverage I get on the Floptus network is
>fine in the places I need it (& in one locale a little better that the
>3G Telescum coverage enjoyed by a friend who lives there) & I can do
>without the gee-whizz-bang-wow stuff when I'm out of town. OTOH being
>able to talk & SMS is vital to me. Any hints on how I'd go?

Pedro,

I'd wait until closer to the July 11th release date.

I'm almost certain Telstra will have details of their packages by then too.

In any event I suspect if you just swap out your sim card into an
iPhone the basic 'phone stuff will work, its the email and other
networking stuff that is more dependent on 3G coverage.

The problem of course is being able to "borrow" an iPhone to test this. :)
--

Regards,

Mark (}-:

Outside urban centers the iPhone 3G (Optus/Vodafone) will default to the GSM networks, and you should get normal phone + SMS. But I reckon you will be so used to having instant ubiquitous internet, you will miss it when out of 3G range ;-)

RT

Telstra will be offering the iPhone, so you can choose Telstra with 3G access in most places, or (presumably cheaper) Optus or Vodafone with 3G access in metropolitan centres over 2100GHz and GPRS (dial-up type speed) only in outlying areas.

> Telstra will be offering the iPhone, so you can choose Telstra with 3G access
> in most places, or (presumably cheaper) Optus or Vodafone with 3G access in
> metropolitan centres over 2100GHz and GPRS (dial-up type speed) only in
> outlying areas.

At the risk of being obtuse, isn't Australia an "outlying area?" Or is that
New Zealand?

Steve
The Motherland