Telstra's Next G: works better in more lifts?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 04 November 2010 15:51

Your IT - Mobility

Tech journos from Allure Media, which publishes titles such as Gizmodo and Lifehacker, got stuck in a lift, with iPhone 4's connected to Telstra working normally,  a BlackBerry Bold 9700 on Optus fluctuating between 3G and GPRS and no signal from Vodfaone, with Next G the winner.

There was no sign of Meg Ryan or Hugh Jackman, and no word of other lifts also going out of action, but today's lift stoppage was unique for being filled with some technology-loving technology journalists.

Having had to wait for 40 minutes before rescue, it's no surprise to see that smartphones were used to take photos, tweet to the outside world and compare telco network signal strengths against, with Next G the strongest, Optus vacillating between 3G and GPRS, only good for "tweeting" and Vodafone showing no signal.

Gizmodo has the additional details of 12 of Allure Media's staff plus 'one random guy from the building' in its story 'Best Network For Being Stuck In A Lift? Telstra', while News.com.au captures some of the tweets in its article 'Which telco's best for being stuck in an elevator?' that went down while 13 people were stuck in a lift, serving as a stuck-yet-connected person-by-person timeline of the events as they happened.

News.com.au's article reports that the group's rescue came when it was contacted through the roof of the lift.

It's vastly removed from yet similar to the way the trapped Chilean miners were contacted, from above, although at least the intrepid group was lucky to suffer less than an hour's wait, instead of a multi week-long, internationally televised rescue extravaganza.

That said, there's unlikely to be any Hollywood movies made of today's perhaps not-so uplifting cyber adventure, but we're definitely thankful to see there was a happy ending.

It's also an additional example of where Telstra's current slogan for Next G, which is 'works better in more places' actually rings true, but just as Optus is in the news this week for 'tricky' advertising, Telstra's no angel either.

Those with longer memories will remember that Telstra had to modify its previously misleading pair of Next G slogans 'Everywhere you need it" and "Get the coverage you need with Telstra's Next G network".

Thankfully, in this case the ad rang true. Let's the coming LTE playing field means better reception from all telcos in more places, too!