iphone in rural areas

[yowie Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close yowie]

Has anyone used an iphone in rural or outback areas connected to Telstra 3G?

How did the iphone perform?

Thank you for any assistance.

Yowie.

[sbclover Member Find all posts View Profile Close sbclover]

Yowie ,

We live in clermont central qld and have no issues with our iphones , I have a 3 and the wife has a 4 .
You can buy external aerial and charging cradles for them if you are worried about reception.

Check out http://www.strike.com.au/products/Cradles

But if you mean remote areas like the desert maybe someone else can help

Sean

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

My wife has an Iphone4 and I have a cheap nasty samsung plane jane phone. I often get excellent service where the Iphone gets nothing. We live in the country and this was also the case on our recent trip

Edit: both are with Telstra

Cheers Andrew

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

Telstra no worries. Optus sometimes works when you're close to bigger towns. 3, Vodaphone, etc forget it outside the major centres in WA. My Iphone 3gs works quite well. Used to have a Samsung with bullbar mounted antenna but now just run with the phone (Telstra). I couldn't even get optus to work inside an Optus shop in Perth.

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

I've been very impressed by the iPhone. Get coverage in all the places I never used to with other phones. Im rural and it's fantastic.

[Si & Rae Member Find all posts View Profile Close Si & Rae]

Mainly comes down to the network provider rather than the phone. As much as they are a pain in the butt, telstra is really the only option if you head out of metro areas. Have also found the external arials are well worth the expense for the extra distance they give you.

[Spurio Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Spurio]

Depends on what you define as rural or outback?

As with any telecomms, local topography has a significant affect on coverage.

Telstra has service in about half the small towns (<200 people) in central australia

There are a number of cheap satellite SMS devices now available

[yowie Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close yowie]

Thank you for all of the replies.

Was in South Australia a couple of months ago, using my old phone which has now died, so bought the new Motorola Atrix phone recommended for outback reception (we'll see later.)

With the old phone on Telstra 3G, I had reception in Leigh Creek, but not in Maree, Arkaroola or the big lake.

The wife wants an iphone, and as she was looking through the Telstra website, she found an aerial that can be used to boost reception in outback areas. Much cheaper than a satellite phone, so might be worth the money.

Thanks again,

Yowie.

[chester ver 2.0 Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester ver 2.0]

In the out back on telstra 3g iphone 3 ( i work in the pilbra so it doesnt get much further out)
Makeing calls good
Text messaging great
Uploading emails sometimes slow but usually OK
Simple text based websites Good
Complex websites or utube etc no good to slow to load

I do however think the last is more of a bandwidth problem as it is a miner camp with a lot of people talking downloading etc at the same time

[Justo77 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Justo77]

I have an i phone 3 and my wife has an i phone 4, I have found that the i phone 4 often gets reception in areas where the 3 has nothing. (We're both with Optus).

[Lorenzo Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lorenzo]

I have an iPhone too and was thinking of going down the road of getting a cheaper phone with the antenna booster hole in it so I can swap sims when I'm in the outback and still get reception... how many km's extra reception do you guys reckon you can get with a car mounted antenna?

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

I have an iPhone too and was thinking of going down the road of getting a cheaper phone with the antenna booster hole in it so I can swap sims when I'm in the outback and still get reception... how many km's extra reception do you guys reckon you can get with a car mounted antenna?

About the same as you would standing on your bullbar with the phone to your ear... They don't do much from my experience.

[Richoson Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Richoson]

Hi Lorenzo

We have done plenty of outback touring and on one trip were with a car with an external mobile aerial, we have a blue tick mobile with Telstra regional coverage. The external aerial got reception about 1 minute earlier than our phone which was inside the car. Want real reception the only answer is SatPhone and they are getting cheaper plans all the time.

See ya on the tracks, Richo.

[Brains Find all posts View Profile Close Brains]

You can hire a sat phone when required and just use your 3G phone when service is available.

[Spurio Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Spurio]

Most of the larger mining sites have installed private phone towers. These achieve a TX/RX range of around 20kms.

My definition of outback is unmarked/unsealed roads in the desert.

A car booster kit for a standard phone will not provide adequate service in the outback and away from mining outposts or small towns.

If you wish to rely on something for safety, the only answer is HF radio, a sat phone or a Sat SMS device like a SPOT.