Australie : la couverture mobile

Ce que veulent dire les chiffres de Australie

Deux nombres comptent et un seul est celui que tout le monde cite. Le débit habituel, 76 Mbit/s, dit à quoi ressemble un bon moment.

Le dixième centile, 20 Mbit/s, c'est celui qu'il faut lire. C'est le débit du dixième le plus mauvais de la journée, quand l'antenne au-dessus de la gare est saturée et que tout le monde autour de vous est dessus. Un pays à médiane haute et à plancher bas, c'est un pays qui marche à merveille jusqu'au moment où vous en avez vraiment besoin.

Si le voyage dépend des appels vidéo ou du partage de connexion, organise toi en fonction du chiffre en heure chargée plutôt que du débit habituel.

Ce qui se passe en Australie quand le réseau est saturé

La congestion n'est pas une panne, c'est un mardi soir. La question est ce que votre eSIM peut y faire, et pour la plupart des eSIM de voyage la réponse est rien : un accord de gros par pays, un réseau, et aucune issue sauf acheter une deuxième eSIM chez quelqu'un d'autre, debout dans la rue.

Ici le trafic Orbislo passe par Telstra et Optus. Quand le réseau où vous êtes se dégrade, nous vous basculons sur un autre, en plein voyage, sans que vous demandiez, et nous vous le disons après plutôt que de vous interrompre sur le moment.

Les opérateurs mobiles en Australie

• Telstra: Telstra says its mobile network covers 3 million square kilometres and 99.7 percent of Australia's population, measured with a standard handset and no external antenna. Vodafone challenged the claim in 2025, and Telstra kept it after reviewing its data.
• Optus: In September 2024 the ACCC cleared a regional network sharing deal under which Optus uses TPG's spectrum and runs the network for TPG customers in regional areas home to about 17 percent of Australians. TPG hands over or closes most of its regional sites, for an initial 11 years.
• TPG Telecom: In December 2022 the ACCC refused a similar regional deal between TPG and Telstra, which would have lifted TPG's population coverage from 96 to 98.8 percent, finding it would weaken network competition over time.

Les anciens réseaux en Australie

• Telstra closed its 3G network on 28 October 2024 and the same day blocked phones that could not call Triple Zero over 4G, including 3G voice phones and 4G phones that relied on 3G for emergency calls.
• TPG Telecom, which runs the Vodafone network, switched off all its 3G services on 15 December 2023. When the date was set, 3G carried less than 1 percent of its mobile data, and 3G calls moved to 4G or Wi-Fi calling.
• Telstra has found that some older phones fail to connect to the Vodafone network for Triple Zero calls when their own network is unavailable, and is contacting affected customers to update or replace them.

La 5G en Australie

• Telstra launched 5G in 2019 as non standalone 5G tied to 4G, which let it reach more than 500 regional cities and towns quickly. Roughly a third of its 5G footprint now also runs 5G standalone, independent of 4G.
• Telstra, Boost and JB Hi-Fi prepaid services do not have access to Telstra's 5G standalone. In areas that have only standalone 5G, phones or SIMs that support only non standalone 5G connect to 4G instead.
• Telstra had Australia's first 5G network live on the Gold Coast, in Brisbane and in Toowoomba in 2018. By early 2023 its millimetre wave 5G, a short range but very high capacity layer, was live at more than 300 sites.

Le réseau en Australie : à savoir

• Since 31 March 2026 Australian mobile providers have had to publish 4G and 5G coverage maps in four standard levels, good, moderate, basic and no coverage, first by 30 June 2026 and reviewed at least every three months. Signal below minus 115 dBm counts as no coverage.
• Those maps show where a phone should connect outdoors at ground level, on foot, and do not apply inside buildings or vehicles. Near the edge of a basic area a phone may still connect, but such connections are treated as incidental rather than reliable service.
• If an Australian mobile base station loses all connection to its carrier's core network and cannot carry emergency calls, the carrier must power it down until the link returns, unless its calls can still reach the emergency service through another carrier's core network.