Australia: la copertura

Cosa vogliono dire i numeri di Australia

Contano due numeri e solo uno è quello che citano tutti. La velocità tipica, 76 Mbps, dice com'è un buon momento.

Il decimo percentile, 20 Mbps, è quello che vale la pena leggere. È la velocità nel decimo peggiore della giornata, quando la cella sopra la stazione è piena e tutti intorno a te ci sono dentro. Un paese con mediana alta e pavimento basso funziona benissimo, fino al momento in cui ti serve davvero.

Se il viaggio dipende da videochiamate o hotspot, pianifica sul dato delle ore di punta e non su quello tipico.

Cosa succede in Australia quando la rete è congestionata

La congestione non è un guasto, è un martedì sera. La domanda è cosa può farci la tua eSIM, e per quasi tutte le eSIM da viaggio la risposta è niente: un accordo all'ingrosso per paese, una rete, e nessuna via d'uscita se non comprare una seconda eSIM da qualcun altro mentre sei in mezzo alla strada.

Qui il traffico Orbislo passa da Telstra e Optus. Quando la rete su cui sei peggiora ti spostiamo su un'altra, a metà viaggio, senza che tu lo chieda, e te lo diciamo dopo invece di interromperti sul momento.

Australia: operatori mobili

• 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.

Australia: reti più vecchie

• 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.

Australia: il 5G

• 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.

Australia: note sulla rete

• 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.