AUSTRALIANS can’t get enough of mobile wireless internet, new
Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows.
Since December last year there has been a 51 per cent increase in subscribers to mobile wireless, the service that allows customers to access the net at places away from their home such as coffee shops and airport lounges.
A highly competitive market has seen mobile wireless subscriptions spike from 1.3 million in December 2008 to 2 million in June this year. They now account for 27 per cent of all non-dial up subscriptions, up from 20 per cent six months ago.
And the ABS figures on mobile wireless don’t yet take into account connections via mobile phones.
How much is Rudd spending on wired broadband again?
First a
“great leap backwards” on workplace relations then back technology that is at risk of being superseded before it comes online…figures.
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Wireless broadband may be popular with the Latte set but it’s bloody useless outside the metropolis. I’ve just won a six month battle with Vodafone who sold me a wireless service which basically didn’t work. It was functional only when nobody else within two blocks was trying to use it at the same time, and worked off the streetlights (at least that seemed to be the case, because if you went beyond the 60k zone it inevitability dropped out).
Vodafone were threatening me with debt collectors because I refused to pay the subscription. They backpedaled (and apologized) after I got the Telecommunications Ombudsman involved.
The salespeople flogging these schemes don’t have a clue, and most of the people who buy them probably won’t sign up a second time. Basically, they’re a ticket to print money, and inferior technology.
Wired technology is reliable and meets the needs of the regions. Leaving the politics and the marketing out of it, I know which I’d be recommending.
I agree but two points. First the telcos aren’t targeting you and me and secondly the young now want wireless so increased demand will justify them spending money on a better service. I even invested in an iphone.
Technology is changing and although optic fibre is the best bet at the moment who knows how good wireless will be before the Great Leader’s roll out is finished.
Kev
As a horrible old leftie, I hark back to the days when Telstra was owned by you and me and a few million others. Hocking it to the private sector was the first mistake. Something as important as telecommunications should not be in private hands, especially if national security is a consideration. Now they’re charging people to pay their bills in the Queen’s good currency.
Is nothing sacred?
I have a Telstra NextG wireless broadband card for my laptop which is faster than my ADSL landline.
I live in a rural area and I’m pretty sure the landline internet is delivered along the top strand of a barbed wire fence.
The connection fails hundreds of times a day so the router is constantly re-connecting and delaying all my bits and bobs.
I only maintain the landline because the amount of data a couple of teenagers devour a month is a bit pricey using wireless alone.
After using my NextG card during a trip from Victoria to Darwin, across the top of WA and down to Perth I’m impressed with the coverage, reliability and speed.
I’m quite convinced that wireless is the way to go in sparsely populated areas like mine where existing mobile phone towers can provide a good strength signal into valleys which would cost millions to provision with fibre.
The card works extremely well in towns and cities too so I’ve become quite used to ‘being connected’ no matter where I am without being forced to seek out a bit of fishing line poking out of a wall.
By the time Rudd has squandered another $50 billion on his tangled fishing line plan, new high capacity wireless will rip his non-existent business plan to shreds.
I can’t see anyone leaping up and down as they try to get in on the “investment opportunities”.
My 29 year old son is typical of his generation and has never had a landline.
He uses a mobile phone for calls, email and facebook (rolls eyes) as well as a camera and music playing device. He’s a cop and uses the GPS service for work as well.
His laptop has a USB NextG card and he wanders around his apartment with the thing logged into whatever blogs he is reading without thinking about life before wireless.
Vodaphone is useless for anything beyond the ‘tram tracks’, always has been.
“I even invested in an iphone” – bloody yuppie ;-)
I did a rollout earlier this year of broadband to a swag of retail outlets. They were given the option of wireless as a backup in case the landline failed.
We tested it in numerous stores, and it was a waste of space in most of them. Unreliable, useless pile of puss. And we sampled the wares of all the wireless carriers.
If it works well in the locations where you spend all your time, good luck to you. However, I take the “coverage” statistics with a pickle jar full of salt.
I was amazed though that Conroy came out and said something like most wireless users would want to have both wireless and broadband. Erm, don’t know what planet he is on, except that the taxpayer would pay for both in his circumstances. I know of very few people who have both, and they are all professionals who travel and use the wireless for work (and write it off against tax) and they are earning 6 figures. The average punter can’t afford both. Alternatively, they have private wired broadband at home, and the company pays for their wireless connection. The average punter will have one or the other, depending on their circumstances.