CNET Australia's quick guide to 3G

By CNET staff on 14 April 2008

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For the past few years, telecommunications carriers and handset manufacturers have talked a lot about third-generation (3G) services for mobile phones. Despite all the talk, however, the companies haven't done a particularly good job of explaining what it all means; that's where we come in.

3G in Australia

For a country with a comparatively small population, Australians are taking to the latest mobile technologies with eagerness. Figures published by technology analysts IDC (seen in the graph below) suggest that the number of Australians who subscribe to 3G services will surpass those of us using the older 2G services by the end of 2008 or early into 2009.

This is in part a product of Australia's willingness to experiment with new technologies, but is also attributable to the retail environment in this country, with all the mobile carriers offering 3G services at competitive prices.

Credit: IDC Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker

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Why 3G?

The reason you will want a 3G phone is to have data transmitted to your handset faster. Downloadable content is becoming much more enticing, and our patience for downloads is becoming shorter. We want our Mobile TV to stream without pausing to buffer, and we want our new music now.

In recent times over-the-air content has been the domain of the mobile carriers. All Australian carriers provide Web portals for their customers offering wallpapers, ringtones and astrology charts, amongst other services. 2008 promises to be the year that everyone else gets on board, including manufacturers such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson. It's also the year we'll see a desktop-like Web experience coming to our handsets, thanks to Opera Mini, SkyFire and Firefox Mobile.

Do bear in mind though that 3G network coverage is nowhere near as extensive as 2G. So once you step outside heavily populated metro areas, it's more than likely that you're whiz-bang, mega-buck 3G handset will be utilising an existing 2G network.

Topics: mobile, coverage, 3g, optus, video, 3, service, phone, hutchison, vodafone, telstra, plans

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Comments (15)

  • s commented on 30/07/2009 18:05 Report abuse

    I was in warwick qld and i got better coverage on the yes g 900mhz than in brisbane with optus 2100mhz 3g and i woudn't be the first person to say this is to update towers in the major citys to run 2100mhz/900mhz on the same tower or use all the 900mhz frequencys on the network for umts and use 1800mhz for gsmand if vodafone ran 2100mhz/900mhz side by side i would switch to vodafone and it would help in the peek times of the day and it would be interstring if telstra went to 850mhz/900mhz side by side for next g and use 1800mhz for gsm and it would help travelers with roaming into australia on there phones

  • ay-non-nee-mouse commented on 22/04/2009 15:05 Report abuse

    Please could someone tell me how 3G hsa improved on 2G technology - project

  • quietachievers commented on 12/01/2009 18:56 Report abuse

    Mobile rollouts. Its full of contradictions. Different perspectives exist depending on where you sit. I don't want to bore you with too much info but to cover a few they are 1) the frequency spectrum each Telco purchased at huge cost from the govt sets boundaries. eg just like free to air TV ch10 cant transmit on ch 7 frequency. 2) each frequency has physics lower freq 850 or 900Mhz go further higher freqs 2100Mhz are attenuated and dont travel as far. 3) You have limits on number of customers the freq can hold in a geographical area, then you use a different freq in same area to allocate more customers. eg GSM 900 used first, then GSM1800 overlaid. 4) the planning cycle to develop an annual budget is slower than the realities in the market and what competitors do. 5) Snr mgmt have to sign off on the hundreds of millions required in the annual budgets. 6) Governance doesn't allow you to just alter the agreed objectives despite market shifts. 7) Aus population is 1/10th the USA so comparing prices is foolish. 8) there is a constant opposing tension between where the base station ought to be from engineering models and the realities of council and residents objections. 9) those realities lead to base stations costing more than planned/justifying that variation and taking longer. This is why black spots exist as well as geographical issues such as hills, buildings. The you get a vendor telling fibs about their equipment capabilities, marketing who live in a different dimension, contractors fib about their capabilities, handset supply challenges, revenue forecasts that aren't met, supply demand changes in contractor availability, weather that affect rollout schedules, record inconsistencies from previous rollouts. Thats probably enough for now as there is another 20 or so challenges. My point is that if your a customer little of the above matters so ignorance is bliss. The people doing this in each Telco are pretty amazing. We could always do better.

  • Arthur Beresford commented on 14/12/2008 22:22 Report abuse

    What company handles 3G connections and accounts
    Is it exclusive to TELSTRA

  • Moleman commented on 01/10/2008 13:46 Report abuse

    I live in a 3G zone, but am in the need of mobile internet access, not interested in today's cost though, if it was to be resonalble like the US market, I'd be very happy.

  • THECAT commented on 06/07/2008 23:41 Report abuse

    IF A PHONE IS UNLOCK TO ALL 900MHZ TO 1800MHZ WILL THIS WORK IN AUSTRALAN PERTH CBD DONT CARE ABOUT WEB ECT JUST NEED TO MAKE CALLS

  • Martin commented on 06/07/2008 16:51 Report abuse

    John: You might be better off with a 2-way that neatly fits in your flannelette shirt pocket. Technology moves on. Get over it. Clearly you like technology enough to use the internet. How about you stop whining and buy a sat phone if you're so worried about coverage, then you wouldn't have to wait for "black spots" to be filled where nobody actually lives and where taxpayers have to fund putting in a base station for idiots like you when there is no sound business case for doing so. If you don't like being remote, don't live there.

  • <a href=http://www.set-phones.net/BenQ-Siemens-EL71.html>benq-siemens el71</a> commented on 13/05/2008 00:30 Report abuse

    I always on journey for my business purpose. I want to take some info about this 3g technology for my business. In this article i found my answers. Thanks for your this great and beneficial information about 3g.

  • John commented on 30/01/2008 20:38 Report abuse

    Old analog phones worked everywhere...but some people were worried someone might listen in on thier phone calls, so we had digital forced on us. CDMA was supposed to fix all the black spots. Now we are having 3G forced upon us so some trendy people can make video calls and search the web at an inner city coffee shop...make up your minds, and remember people do live out in the bush and need phones too......

  • wwongalea commented on 25/09/2007 15:15 Report abuse

    Telstra keeps sending information on Next G phones which have no reseption where we live. Please dont contact us again until you have a phone that will work where we live B Beaumont

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