Good prices there bro! If I'm staying over there, I'll definitely get one. From the time I spent in Sydney, there's has been so many great offers. I especially like those all-in-one deal where it covers all your broadband needs from phone to home to mobile. But otherwise good plans for 3G[S].

That AUD$9.99 is like a license to tether hehehe! But yeah, its a drag. You've paid for the data anyway so if you tether, you're most likely using whatever you've paid again. Also, tethering on laptop consumes more data than on iPhone. Meaning more data used, more pay paid. They win too!

I think I know the explanation. It has something to do with GSM radio propagation. The exact term is near-far phenomenon. With GSM, the nearer you are to the radio base station lesser power is required to transmit to the station. The farther you are from the station, more power is required to transmit to them. In other words, when the signal reaches the station it'll be more or less the same RSSI. Thats near far phenomenon and there's a reason why they do that. Recommend do a search.

In areas where 3G stations are few and far in between, most 3G transmitting devices will be far away and is required to transmit in higher power. Additionally, the iPhone 3G/3GS by default prefers 3G signal more than 2/2.5G signals. As a result, it'll constantly keep on the look out and because signal is weak due to spotty 3G coverage it'll use more power to transmit. This one of the chief reasons why most iPhone literature recommend turning the 3G option off. Because we have better 2/2.5G coverage and reception. As a result, the iPhone doesn't need to transmit in high power due to the near-far phenomenon explained earlier.

Another reason for weak battery life or varying battery life in different countries is due to the service provider. Some service provider requires the mobile phone to transmit to the nearest tower for registration every few minutes. The more often this is required, obviously battery life will be shorter. The less the better. However, too few will cause service interruptions on your phone as you'll be dropping off the coverage every now and then.

p/s: Firmware or radio software updates can only go so far. Its just giving it the intelligence to switch to the best radio coverage available. Prioritizing 2/2.5G too much will cause slow/low network performance from customer side which results in service complaints.

This post has been edited by davidmak: Sep 21 2009, 03:56 PM