[AusNOG] No Optus mobile broadband in Darwin

[Kai]

Hi guys and girls,

Can anyone shed some light on Optus mobile broadband in Darwin? Optus' website service coverage map (http://www2.optus.com.au/) says it's available all through Darwin however no one in any of the Optus stores I've been to can give me any reasons why mobile broadband is not available just that "it's not available anymore and we don't have any indications when it will be back"....but if I want I can order Optus based mobile through someone in another state and then just hope like hell that the congestion doesn't hit too hard during peak and effectively be as slow as dial-up.

I tried contacting Optus last week through their website but I don't expect a reply anytime soon and if I do get a reply it'll probably be a canned copy and paste.

I can only guess that since I get the impression there used to mobile broadband here, congestion issues with mobile voice are causing issues, however I thought voice and data may be on different frequencies so congestion on the voice band wouldn't cause any issues?

Looking forward to any feedback

Cheers
Kai