Attention Hamilton Island Residents

Whitsundays Online

Update 10.00pm 1 Aug 2009 : A person in the vicinity of Ben's home who is on Telstra 3G has reported that they are getting 100kbps/40kbps - double the old dial up speeds and about 2/5 of the slowest ADSL service you can get. The speed test was done through Telstra's own speed test service.

Update 15:19 1 Aug 2009
Ben Southall just 'tweeted' the world to advise he was in a black spot, but Telstra have just rectified it.

The Chairperson of Tourism Whitsundays has 'kicked off the debate' that the Telstra 3G services on and around the Whitsundays are poor.

Telstra has been blamed by Tourism Whitsundays and Tourism Queensland, because of its "not great reception", and "poor mobile phone or internet access" for the lack of daily blog posts by Ben Southall, the winner of 'The World's Best Job'.

Ben's access to the internet is via Telstra Wireless 3G.

Telstra now provides only 3G wireless internet access on Hamilton Island as the ADSL service was pulled out around 2 years ago. Telstra have boasted about the super fast speeds and reliability you are getting over there (see the TV ad below starring another Director of Tourism Whitsundays).



Is this TV ad true? Are you getting super fast services, speeds and reliability?

Please send your comments (anonymous comments allowed) to us as we would like to hear your stories, especially as Race Week is coming up, with over 100 boats and a thousand people, with probably half of them on Telstra 3G Wireless.

History of Communications on Hamilton Island :
Communications on Hamilton Island has had a cheqeured history. When telecommunications were deregulated in Australia back in the 1990's, Telstra said it would have to have a monopoly of services on the island, otherwise the island's users (and/or the island) would have to pay more for service calls. (Gt Keppel, Lindeman and Hayman were some of the islands that remained with Telstra).

This encouraged HIE (Hamilton Island Enterprises) to look around for a telco to provide services on the island, and in 1998 they picked Nomad Telecommunications - they went bust in 2000.

Sirius Communications took over Nomad's duties and assets, and ran the telco services. In that time, Sirius installed ADSL services for the businesses and residents - they lost the contract in 2006.

In 2006, NEC took over the telco contract, and boasted in its press release that "Hamilton Island, in the Queensland Whitsundays, will undergo a dramatic technology overhaul following the announcement of a multi-million dollar deal that will see ICT solutions giant NEC transform the Island into the most technologically advanced resort in the country. The 10 year deal will see NEC provide Hamilton Island with a full suite of state-of-the-art telecommunications services and technologies with facilities like broadband, VoIP and Video on Demand, being a first ever for the popular holiday and conference destination - adding another dimension to the Whitsundays overwhelming appeal." In just 2 years, NEC were NBO'd*. (NEC was commonly known on the island as 'Never Ever Connected').

Telstra returned to Hamilton Island in 2008 - installed 3G wireless, and then decommissioned the ADSL service.

*NBO - Next Boat Out - a term used on the islands that you have to leave the island, if it was your intention to or not.

10.00pm 1 Aug 2009 A person in the vicinity of Ben's home has reported that they are getting 100kbps/40kbps on Telstra 3G wireless - double the old dial up speeds.

Disclaimer : The Editor has an interest in a satellite communications company. In 2002, for the NASA AstroBiology Conference, we installed a 11Mb wireless network around 90% of developed Hamilton Island, which made it the first island in the world where you could walk around with a laptop and be connected to the internet - this was 7 years ago. Due to concessionaire conflicts, we had to pull out our system in 2004.