While Australia’s communications regulator determines a new standard for how mobile coverage maps are presented, Telstra has responded to accusations that its network doesn’t cover as wide an area as it claims.
In a blog post authored by Shailin Sehgal, Telstra’s Group Executive of Global Networks and Tech, the telco claims that its competitors want to use the new standard to “downplay the large difference between their network and [Telstra’s].”
Under the proposed standard from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), mobile coverage with a signal strength weaker than -115dBm would be classified as ‘no coverage’. Telstra disputes this cutoff point, claiming many of its users access coverage with a signal below -115dBm.
“We know that our customers use over 1 million square kilometres of coverage today that sits below the -115dBm threshold,” a Telstra spokesperson told GadgetGuy. “Our concern is that if this coverage were removed from the comparable map, we may need to find a different way to help our customers understand that it exists because we know it works, without an external antenna.”
Telstra also claimed that 1.5 million of its customers use coverage below -115dBM every month, citing internal data.
Telstra responds to TPG Telecom’s claims
As part of TPG Telecom’s submission to the ACMA’s proposed standard, it claimed that its engineers could not make calls using Telstra’s network across 20 locations included on the telco’s “full coverage” map.
Telstra responded by saying that its third-party testing is “vastly more extensive” than TPG’s tests submitted to the ACMA. Furthermore, a Telstra spokesperson explained that “no map, from any provider, can guarantee mobile service at a particular time or exact location”.
“That’s because all our maps are predictions based on extensive modelling and real-world testing.”
In contrast to the ACMA’s proposal to define mobile signal strength weaker than -115dBM as ‘no coverage, the National Audit of Mobile coverage uses a different set of metrics. This audit, commissioned by the Australian Government, refers to signal strength of -122dBm for 4G, and -126dBm for 5G, as ‘modest’. Anything weaker than -122dBm and -126dBm is classified as ‘limited’.
Telstra points to this audit as proof that “usable coverage exists below -115dBm,” the current lower-end threshold proposed by the ACMA.
It raises questions about what the finalised standard, due by 31 March, will look like before it takes effect on 30 June. Telstra supports the ACMA’s goals of simplifying coverage maps for Australians, albeit with tweaks to what data gets included.
The post Telstra hits back at claims its mobile coverage is under threat appeared first on GadgetGuy.
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