Friday, December 6, 2024

The freedom of the press still furnishes that check upon government which no constitution has ever been able to provide – Chicago Tribune.

HomeIssue 15Massive mobile phone demand has Telstra on the hop

Massive mobile phone demand has Telstra on the hop

By  ERWIN CHLANDA
 
If at times you feel like thumping your mobile phone, you only have yourself to blame: you – the Alice Springs public – have increased demand tenfold since 2002, and that’s a big ask for any supplier.
 
The town now has six base stations. Two more, at Undoolya and Larapinta, will come on stream later this year. More are on the drawing board: two for the eastern rural area and one south-west of The Gap.
 
New real estate needed is not easy to get: the Town Council, for one, is currently trying to get Minister Peter Chandler (Lands, Planning and Environment) on side in its objections to towers being built within the municipality.
 
Just 10 years ago a mobile was used mostly for talking, says Telstra’s Perth-based Ian Pollock, in charge of keeping the hardware up to the breathtaking growth of demand.
 
Today dad cooking dinner is likely to be online for a recipe. Kids are on Facebook or playing web based games with a mate “down south” while mother is Skyping with rellies overseas.
 
And all these gadgets may be going online via the personal hotspot from a mobile phone, or the avalanche of 4G wireless devices that has flooded onto the market.
 
At the same time, thousands of mobiles would be updating weather information. The GPS function of your mobile may be guiding you to an address on the other end of town.
 
To be able to gauge and predict demand by the number of gadgets around would be fairly easy. But there are dozens of other factors: whether it’s hot or cold, whether you’re likely to be indoors.
 
To get adequate signal the phone must drag it through the walls and that puts a greater strain on the base station.
 
A corrugated iron  roof is another obstacle, but this can be remedied with a TV-sytle antenna.
 
Are your windows tinted? More drain still. A tree’s been chopped down? A clearer path for the signal.
 
A classic bottleneck was the Finke race, slowing online speed to a crawl: many of the 12,000 spectators and crew kept up with the progress of the race on their mobiles or their iPads, producing a double whammy: firstly they were a long way from the base stations (the airport’s omni-directional facility being the closest). And secondly, there were thousands of people all trying to “get on” at the same time.
 
Mr Pollock says the new stations will provide a benefit not only to the “cells” around them, but also to the existing six cells because drain on them from the new areas will be reduced.
 
But even that’s not something you can count on because some phones, in a belts-and-braces bid, will suck signal from two cells.
 
Telstra has teamed up with boffins of the University of Adelaide to get a handle on all this, working on a form of “chaos theory” in their search for patterns that may allow to predict demand.
 
To pick the tallest hill and blast the signal out all round is yesterday’s method.
 
Today hundreds of antennae with varying angles of coverage are constantly re-positioned so they beam where the signal is need most.
 
Telstra doesn’t always get it right but Mr Pollock is sure of one thing: the doubling of demand every year is likely to continue as landlines go out of style.

2 COMMENTS

  1. We dropped our fax line due to the fact most new printers don’t have fax facilities and most businesses have moved from old technology with ensign software. Scan and send via email. I love new technology. Keep it coming and all I can say to Telstra. KEEP UP. Or better still get in front of the demand, for technology is not in the future it is here and now.

  2. Why do we not see mobile tower services installed and made available in more rural communities and where usable along roads?
    Radios were fantastic. Now more have wireless mobiles.
    Many in communities without mobile service still have mobiles for when in town. (Any stats on this ?)
    Services enables many check their bank balance from where they stand, or start learning online using their mobiles.
    Another NTG benefit is the ability of parolees, those on bail conditions, be required by court to keep same mobile number with phone charged so answer calls – regular and random checking on them.
    People around communities still able to contact or be contacted, within reasonable range.
    People visiting or passing through these communities would then be able to easily update friends and families about their travels.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

error: Content is protected !!