Optus to change the rules

[Malifice]

You mentioned yourself in the first person, 5 times.

Malifice disaproves of this post.

 

[Sublime]

Telstra have released their own package for $50 for the whole year. Infinite times better than Optus even just for the better network.

That said though, if you have the means to get PayTV, the quality will be tons better than any phone streaming.

 

[40yearBLUE]

Telstra have released their own package for $50 for the whole year. Infinite times better than Optus even just for the better network.

That said though, if you have the means to get PayTV, the quality will be tons better than any phone streaming.

I am not an expert, but been doing some reading on this in the past few weeks.

Its true that 3G has been slow in some places for some (probably most, mine was terrible on Voda but now acceptable at 2mbps on Optus) people. Voda's 3G was way oversubscribed for the bandwidth they had as an example and could barely handle the voice traffic let alone data, and Optus was not much better until HSDPA and HSPA+ which has increased speeds over the past year or so. And LTE (4G) looks like increasing speeds even further with theoretical speeds of 100mbps but with 40mbps being the promised speed under optimal conditions, that said, more likely about 10bps in reality once everyone starts to subscribe. Right now Telstra is the only network up, and only usb dongles and 1 phone currently work on it, and its only just been rolled out and in limited areas at the moment, so as you would expect it is barely utilised so those that do, are enjoying optimal conditions.

http://www.pcauthority.com.au/Review/290148,htc-velocity-on-telstra-4g-reviewed.aspx

Users of the new HTC Velocity are getting between 30mbps and 40mbps on Telstra 4g but as more variety of 4g capable phones arrive and more users jump on that will no doubt drop, but 40mbps is incredibly fast, in fact if you have a 1.5 gig per month data limit you could burn through it on the first day!

And its worth remembering that dial up was limited to 56kbps, 40mbps is 40,000 kbps. Many people still use dial up believe it or not. We only just convinced my Mum to switch to ADSL at Christmas!!!

Its interesting the perceptions people have of what streaming is though. Satellite and FTA TV is streaming. (Most peoples pay TV is satellite not cable). Its sending video and audio over the air from transmitters to receivers. No different to what the GSM network does, the differences are in the way it is done, the frequency and the bandwidth and the strength of the signal they transmit, for example TV used to transmit a high powered signal from a single tower in each city/region, they too now have mini towers and repeaters at lower power, and of course we all know that mobile phone towers are everywhere but each one only transmitting at I think only 5 watts but not sure on that.

And 4g is very capable of transmitting in 1080pHD. Netflix in the US currently do it and have been for a year or so. With good speed, you will get an initial buffer period of a few seconds to a minute or so, then will be watching virtually live (the buffer creates an actual real time lag), but if your speed is super fast you may have no real time lag (buffer) at all and it will buffer on the fly.

So no, not really better quality, provided you have good service in your area. Not sure how much territory outside of metro that Telstra's 4g covers, but if you are in a 4g area the quality should be no different.

As for $50 for the entire season, thats an Optus TV live killer. Thanks Optus and Fed court, competition in the free market at play and well done Telstra for competing instead of sulking. $50 for the season and un-metered, is very fair and reasonable offer and will probably win me for a new contract on a 4g phone.