I'm considering changing service provider for my mobile phone from Telstra to Vodafone but on-mountain coverage at Thredbo will be the key to my decision. I would be keen to hear from Vodafone users as to the extent of coverage on the mountain. I've looked at the coverage map and it indicates outdoor coverage but looks to be patchy. I rang Vodafone to get advice on current and planned coverage but the tech staff in the overseas call centre didn't even know where Thredbo was, I was eventually told "we have excellent coverage in Jindabyne" to which I responded "that's a fat lot of good, I will be 35km from there".
Have been with Vodafone for 3 years and have had perfect reception in both Thredbo and Jindabyne, even in peak AUGUST!
Vodafone coverage can be slow on some parts of the mountain, especially at certain restaurants at lunch time when heaps of people (and phones) are packed together
...also, our portable modem as well as phone is Vodafone...same/same! Clearly less people are on the network because of the Vodafail days. So lets just shut this thread down now, ok!
I believe Optus has a tower in Thredbo near the cat shed between the Kosi & snowgums chairs. I had Virgin which is carried by Optus & it had great reception in Thredbo with the exception of a couple of years ago when there was no reception at all for a few days due to a major fault within the network. I'm now on Vodafone & have never had any issues with them however there are black spots such as the very furthest cabins at Riverside cabins which are a black hole on all networks.
Last week when I went to Thredbo, I had 3-4 bars reception with Vodafone in most areas during my time there. Bear in mind, I was only at Merritts and Friday Flats at the time.
Thanks everyone for the advice. I did change over so the test will come next week. I noticed driving to Thredbo and back last Saturday that there were a few more points along the Monaro Highway, Kosciusko Road and Alpine Way where the signal dropped out on the car's screen than it did when I had the Telstra SIM.
I have both a vodafone and telstra mob (work and personal) and tend to take them both out with me on the mountain - both work fine, telstra better at times, and surprisingly occasionally vodafone better. TBH after 6 years of using both, I've never really had any real trouble with either, though they both always cut out at that bend bit not far from East Jindy.
