Todd: According to the NextG wikipedia page, Telstra uses 3G UMTS at 850MHz.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A855

The Motorolla A855 “Droid” uses 900MHz and 2100MHz for the European version (800MHz and 1900MHz for the US version which probably has differences other than the frequency difference).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Htc_magic

The HTC Magic apparently does 900, 1700, and 2100MHz in UMTS. It seems likely to work on CDMA, but CDMA devices will probably mess up the network for everyone else so Telstra won’t want to sell them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Hero

The HTC Hero apparently does 850MHz UMTS in the US version, so it seems likely to work. So it seems to me that the Telstra shop employee was basically correct, but that the HTC Hero now allows them to sell Android phones. But as I previously noted, Telstra clearly don’t compete on price so I won’t be doing business with them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_network_operators_of_the_Asia_Pacific_region#Australia

The above URL is the canonical list of Australian Mobile phone operators which is useful for ongoing research on this issue.

For data + voice/sms/whatever, you need to be on UMTS. On GSM/GPRS/EDGE,
you can have data or voice, but not both simultaneously.

This was just a Telstra Shop employee however so it with a grain of salt but worth double checking.

This would suggest the same: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1105463.html

It seems that Virgin is using the Optus network, so Optus deserves the credit for good Virgin reception (while Virgin deserves credit for not being Optus).

I was under the impression that Three always roamed to Vodaphone 2G on occasion. That said Telstra does cover a much greater area so if you travel far enough out of the city you will probably end up on Telstra – or without access.

See this project (which requires root):
“http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/”

Anyway, worth double checking..

On the carrier side, Three’s service should improve post merge with Vodafone. They’ll now fall back to Vodafone’s 2G instead of Telstra roaming when you drop out of a 3G zone. Having said that, I’ve dumped Three for Virgin because 3G was horrible at my place for some reason. Phone call drop outs, can’t send messages without going outside and standing on the balcony or resetting my phone. Virgin has much better 3G support (on Optus network), no issues yet.

-c