Best mobile coverage for Strava/fitbit etc

tobbogonist

tobbogonist

a registered member
Good morning,

I couldn't find a relevant thread so thought I would start a freshy.
Im currently with Vodofone (lived in melb 8 years) and the coverage is atrocious out in the NE of Vic. I drop out constantly, an example of such is below.

I'm not a strava racer type madman, I just like to track my rides and see what I've been up to. Especially on a bad mental health type day I can scroll through and pick myself back up; 'see your not a useless moron, you done all those excercise ride things once'.

Can anyone recomend a provider, I guess Telstra is the go too around here but it looks like the woolworths sim runs on the same network. Bear in mind I know as much about phone networks as i do about bottom brackets.
I have a phone, just wanting to grab maybe a cheap prepaid sim for data really.

Thanks :)
361748
 
northvanguy said:
BOOST prepaid... $30 a month and you're flying and it's 100% same as Telstra. Even says Telstra on your credit card statement.
Click to expand...
I just checked out boost and although they look good, it is only for the first 3 months.
34GB
20GB + 14GB BONUS
ON FIRST 3 RECHARGES*

But ALDI is $5 a month more and is $35GB a month.

Both have rollover data.
 
both Aldi and Boost use Telstra's unused portion of the 3G/4G network, as Telstra now pushes their 4GX network, it's a way to sell off shit that doesn't make as much revenue but still requires to be maintained.
Telstra is probably the best network for coverage, but you pay for it
When I was looking after BTS sites, Crown Castle owned most of the Non-Telstra sites and leased space to Optus, Voda and others..Voda were the worst for coverage outside of the regional areas and focused their efforts on Metro, not sure if they have lifted their game, but they were always tightarses , so I'm assuming not!
I think Crown Castle sold off all their assets to Macquarie Group, things may have improved there
 
Last edited:
fatboyonabike said:
both Aldi and Boost use Telstra's unused portion of the 3G/4G network, as Telstra now pushes their 4GX network, it's a way to sell off shit that doesn't make as much revenue but still requires to be maintained.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it is a case of weighing the pros and cons. I am currently on Tel$tra and paying $79/month for the plan I am on, or go with the likes of ALDI/Boost and not have 4GX. My current plan runs out in August and I am thinking that ALDI is right for what I want.
A lot of the time my phone is connected to my home network, it is just the times that I am away from home.
 
Macr said:
ALDI
Uses Tel$tra towers, so has greater coverage. Does not sting like Tel$tra either.
Click to expand...
this, out toward blackwood after leaving woodend telstra is only one..in saying that when i did s pst boxing day ride from launching place up into the hills on a 42deg day & a 1/3 of riders didn’t make it, incl 1 hospital visit, in the forest there very few had coverage on any network
 
Mattyp said:
i dont think mobile coverage matters? strava uses your mobiles GPS, records your path then overlays it over the map. if you're having issues its probably your phones ability to connect to satellites.
Click to expand...

I’m no expert, but I thought this as well.

I rode at Lake Mountain one month ago. Couldn’t get on the net (Telstra network) at start of ride, and couldn’t get Siri to work in car on way back down at end of the day, but my iPhone still tracked the ride on Strava.
 
Thanks heaps for the info everyone.
I've found strava to be hit and miss concerning the gps, some rides are fine and others I get no coverage at all.
I was at Beechworth mtb park a fortnight ago and it dropped in and out all ride, did the xc loop three times and it showed three seperate routes. Could be a phone thing, i've got a samsung 9 thing.

I think i might check out Aldi. I only really need data for riding, i currently get 20gb a month and use maybe 4 gb of it.

I looked at a Garmin but having only recenlty spent money on a fitbit gadget i dont want to be buying another thingy.
 
tobbogonist said:
Could be a phone thing, i've got a samsung 9 thing.
Click to expand...

It is your phone. Read this, in particular the last sentence.

“App Data Usage
While recording there is no data usage unless you're viewing the maps, or have Live Segments or Beacon turned ON. Otherwise, the app just uses GPS while recording. Once you've finished recording the app will need to transfer some data to sync the activity with the Strava servers. That's typically about 1MB for two hours of recording but can vary a bit. There will also be some very small amount of data transfer to update your Feed. Please note, however, that if you can wait for a wifi connection to sync the activity or view the Feed then you can prevent all cellular data usage.”


 
Macr said:
I just checked out boost and although they look good, it is only for the first 3 months.
34GB
20GB + 14GB BONUS
ON FIRST 3 RECHARGES*

But ALDI is $5 a month more and is $35GB a month.

Both have rollover data.
Click to expand...
I went with Boost for this reason....not sure it's even true but I was sucked in....20GB enough for me.

"While both claim to use the full Telstra Network, Boost are the only phone company have access to the full network coverage. With Boost, you'll get the coverage and speed from your plan that you'd get if you went to Telstra themselves. Aldi use a 'component' of the Telstra Mobile Network."
 
tobbogonist said:
I've found strava to be hit and miss concerning the gps, some rides are fine and others I get no coverage at all.
Click to expand...
Maybe have a look at some settings in your phone...there might be power saving settings or something to do with GPS accuracy that gets reduced when your phone locks? I used to always restart my phone just before recording a ride, clears all the crap that might be running in the background and messing with it.
 
Your phone may be putting Strava to sleep after a while causing Strava to stop tracking your ride. On android, go to Settings>Battery>AppLaunch....then scroll to Strava and flick the switch to Manage manually. You then get three options and one of them is to keep app running in background. Make sure that its on. This fixed it for me.
If you have an iPhone go to Shop>Buy real phone>Choose Android.
Mobile coverage has zero effect on GPS tracking.
 
Where did you have your phone located ?

GPS needs relatively uninterrupted line of sight to the sky, in the back pocket of a XC style jersey is very good, even found in the pocket of shorts isn't too bad but buried in a backpack is near on useless as you will get patchy GPS drift.

Get yourself one of the cheaper GPS units, record ride, save and upload when you get home.
 
puffmoike said:
It is your phone. Read this, in particular the last sentence.

“App Data Usage
While recording there is no data usage unless you're viewing the maps, or have Live Segments or Beacon turned ON. Otherwise, the app just uses GPS while recording. Once you've finished recording the app will need to transfer some data to sync the activity with the Strava servers. That's typically about 1MB for two hours of recording but can vary a bit. There will also be some very small amount of data transfer to update your Feed. Please note, however, that if you can wait for a wifi connection to sync the activity or view the Feed then you can prevent all cellular data usage.”


Click to expand...
Your phone uses assisted GPS (aGPS). If the phone does not have the almanac and you don't have reception, it takes a about 15 minutes to download the almanac from the satellites.
If your phone has previously downloaded the almanac it should find its location quickly.
So it depends
 
Macr said:
Your phone uses assisted GPS (aGPS). If the phone does not have the almanac and you don't have reception, it takes a about 15 minutes to download the almanac from the satellites.
If your phone has previously downloaded the almanac it should find its location quickly.
So it depends
Click to expand...
I've done plenty of rides with my phone in flight mode and not had an issue with tracking.
 
Macr said:
ALDI
Uses Tel$tra towers, so has greater coverage. Does not sting like Tel$tra either.
Click to expand...

But low priority, at the moment with everyone's remote work, the networks been too busy to be of any use.. It also drops alot more than when I was a telstra customer.
 
There's a spot near me that usually always throws straight lines in the tracking. I usually have mobile data on when I run Strava.

Today I tried it with the data off and, coincidence or not, no straight lines. Maybe if the data is available it does use it somehow, or maybe it was just a fluke that it worked ok today...

Other activities with the reserve...
361787361788361789

Today's activity with all data turned off.
361791
 
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