Telstra's blue tick phones

By Joseph Hanlon | April 16, 2009 | 35

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Joe capitalises on a life-long love of blinking lights and upbeat MIDI soundtracks covering the latest developments in smartphones and tablet computers. When not ruining his eyesight staring at small screens, Joe ruins his eyesight playing video games and watching movies. Twitter: @Joseph_Hanlon

Telstra's blue tick (Credit: Telstra)

The announcement of Telstra's CDMA network shut-down in April 2008 certainly ruffled the feathers of rural customers who had been concerned about losing their existing network coverage.

To counteract these concerns, Telstra established the "Blue Tick" as a way of indicating to its customers which Next G capable handset has superior reception in regional areas, as per Telstra's own in-house testing procedures. These tests include practical handset trials both in the labs and on the ground in remote areas, emulating typical usage where possible.

Because we haven't tested these claims ourselves we suggest that you don't consider the blue tick a guarantee of clear reception, but more a recommendation to help start the conversation with your local mobile phone dealer about which handset will best suit your needs.

As with all mobile phone technologies, this list fluctuates; with phones being added and subtracted as they become available or are superseded. Below is the current list of blue tick phones reviewed by the editors at CNET.com.au.

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Telstra T6
1 of 8

CNET Rating6.8

User Rating5.5

Price:AU$129.00 | Brand:Telstra | Comments:81

The T6 is the phone we never expected to see from Telstra. The price tag on the T6 is spot on for a phone with this feature set, and the Telstra Blue Tick should offer those in remote areas some peace of mind. Full Review »
The Good
- Small, lightweight and attractive, Next G compatible, Telstra Blue Tick
The Bad
- Low-res display, Poor media components

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Telstra T6

Mobile Phones

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danielr posted a comment 9 months ago
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Australia

I live in a remote area and Telstra phone are not working most of the time, I live in a small town and Telstra assures me that I have good reception, but the reality is that for me to get some coverage I have a car antenna (one of the big antennas that people here put on their bull bars) in my house window. When they put up the towers they tested the mobile whilst in vicinity of the tower in which the town is not. So most of us bought mobiles with patch leads to hook a little antenna to But Telstra in all there wisdom do not make mobile with patch leads anymore (none that is affordable) as they tell us we don't need that anymore as our mobiles now work with out them --not true.
We have the same problem with internet most of the town has bad reception and regularly loose connection, I decided I would go westnet as they are able to give internet in the town i am (not all towns around me are this lucky)
I have excellent coverage and speed, I tried Telstra a few weeks ago and I could not do banking online as it was to slow, so went back to westnet and the problem is fixed. We desperately need another mobile carrier, I can tell you that no one would stay with telstra.

TravisD posted a comment 2 years ago
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Have had a Nokia N95 (editors choice) and I think the most important feature of any blue tick phone is the ability to plug in an external antenna through a tether plug (not to be confused with tethering modems).

Unfortunately most new phones don't have this. For $50 you can buy a tether and aireal that will massively increase your range. The N95 doesn't have this (but can do via car kit). The ZTE 165 is cheap on ebay and is my pick (had outright for $100)

matt posted a comment 3 years ago

whats is the best phone for rual areas?

chickoa posted a comment 3 years ago

does the iphone4 have this so called rural tick ??

Cheryl posted a comment 3 years ago

I used to have CDMA as well and never had problems when we traveled with friends I had reception they didn't with thier next G. I was finally forced to make the change, my present phone is GSM and works ok, now I am tryin to upgrade my phone to next G to enable me to social network, now I am told only a blue tick phone will work in my area, so I am limited to handsets and guess what most of them are telstra brand which are not comoatible with my bluetooth intergration in my car yet my old GSM is I have 2 handset options and Telstra don't sell either of them yet they have blue ticked them.

Arkaydan posted a comment 4 years ago

We used a Samsung A412 with Telstra Next G.... and toured Tassie. Ppl with us were using 3 and Optus and they hardly ever had a signal anywhere. We had a signal 98% of the time and they couldnt believe it. In Hobart they both bought Next G plug ins for their computers and are going to change their phone providers as they both want to travel around Australia.

Karl posted a comment 4 years ago

Bought a next g ZTE 165 because we regularly go bush have an external aerial on my vehicle. Would class the coverage as ok not exceptional. Will upgrade to the next phone to ensure compatibility with other devices. What would make more sense is an affordable satellite phone network, for everyone to use that wants it.

ruralnurse posted a comment 4 years ago
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Australia

I live 300 k's northeast of Hedland WA.My Samsung SGH-A411 next g phone is streets ahead of my old CDMA.Not really flash in the summer but adequate in cooler weather. However my next g broadband plugin is scratchy in the middle of Hedland. Why don't you people having trouble get a satphone? They are now relatively inexpensive and never fail, provided you get a Telstra one. I have one for when mobile is out of range.

ken posted a comment 4 years ago

I've traveled from east to west across the top and nth to south down the middle and down the east coast...Unless you are on the east coast, next g is pretty pointless unless you live in a town or..(when you get way out west)...live in an aboriginal comunity or in a town with a large population of them. you might as well have gsm