Optus today have announced the great news for Sydney and Perth users when they launched their 4G Network.
They’ve released both 4G USB and 4G Wi-Fi hotspot hardware giving access to their brand new 4G as well as the 3G/3g+ networks.
Optus’ internal testing claims wireless data speeds of up to 200Mbps which is truly astounding and almost certainly attributable in part to their acquisition of Vivid Wireless which gave Optus access to wireless spectrum previously unavailable to them.
Promising more around the corner with their network improvements, our source has also noted discussions overheard of “Samsung and HTC 4G phones deliverable to customers very soon”. As a consumer, it’s only a good thing to have another 4G network to battle Telstra and hopefully push prices down.
Lets hope their coverage is good.. Optus is dismal where I live, at my house it’s full reception, drive 5 minutes down the road (still in full suburbia) and reception drops to 1 bar
Would be interesting to see an actual SpeedTest result !!! Anyone thinking of buying this ?
What frequency is this running on? Any plans for Melbourne release? With Telstra hiking up their data prices, i’m interested…
According to the Optus network Coverage map, they are using 1800Mhz.
https://www.optus.com.au/shop/mobilephone/coverage
that’s the same as telstra… are devices interchangeable?
In theory yes: but you’re then putting a “Next G Optimised” device on drOptus…
This will not end well for anyone!
Why not divide by zero? 😛
Which spectrum does optus use for 4G? The same as Telstra?
At the moment yes, but they have acceess to 700Mhz as of June next year that “in theory” will allow them HUGE speeds over good distance too. 700mhz spectrum is currently in use for Analog TV for anyone that’s wondering.
They would have to be able to buy enough of that spectrum when the government auctions it off next year first though XD
I’m pretty sure voda and Telstra would be looking at acquiring parts of the spectrum as well as apparently it’s the best for LTE.
With more spectrum than Telstra and cheaper pricing, it’ll be interesting to see how Optus backhaul will cope. Hope they smash Telstra.
Do we know what spectrum they’re using yet?
Why doesn’t Optus invest their time and money in improving existing networks? The introduction of 4G has diversified their service offering but doesn’t change the fact that their still offering mediocre services. I struggle to find reception with existing 3G networks travelling to and from work. However with my work phone using Telstra services I find them being absolutely mind blowing when making comparisons.
They are and already have in some areas. Entire country will have an additional 3G frequency to utilise. Research 3GPlus.
Exactly what I thought. My experience has been that unless you are in the Sydney metropolitan area, forget any sort of service quality. I am spending lots of time in the Hunter Valley and Newcastle. I wait minutes for a page to render on my phone with Optus. On the Telstra service I have in my tablet, pages just fly. It is the Optus back end infrastructure and the lack of coverage that fails them. Not the lack of 4g.
They are spending their resources to improve 3G, just not enough, they have to start on 4G now, if not by the time 4G becomes as common as 3G, you’ll be complaining on why they didn’t spend their resources to roll out and improve 4G.
From what I hear Optus are moving their 3G to 900Mhz in the “extended metro” area’s (to be the same a regional areas) later in the year, so they should have better coverage soon.
I also believe Optus are looking at using 700Hmz for 4G once it comes up for auction… assuming analog TV can finally be killed off around the country.
My sentiments exactly..
I concur, 4G is useless if the backend is over loaded. I have actually found that switching back to 2g will often give me increased data speed. Even when I have full bars of 3G signal.