I just got out of the lift in our office building. 12 members of the Allure Media team, plus one random guy from the building, were stuck in the lift for 40 minutes before being saved by Police Rescue. What did we do while we waited for the freedom from our cramped, metal prison? We tested 3G reception.
Our office in Darlinghurst is pretty centrally located, and outside a closed, stuffy confines of an elevator, reception from all the Telcos is pretty cruisy. But inside, there was only one clear winner.
Night Editor Elly is our resident Vodafone customer, and had absolutely no reception whatsoever on her rooted HTC Desire. Lifehacker editor Gus was on a BlackBerry Bold 9700 on Optus, and was constantly fluctuating between 3G and GPRS levels of connectivity – enough to let him tweet, but not much else.
Myself and Seamus were both using iPhone 4s on NextG, and I was sitting between three and four 3G bars consistently.
The lesson learned from this little encounter? Don’t get stuck in an elevator. And don’t let someone barge in at the last minute when the lift is already full. And if you do happen to be stuck in a lift, hope you can get phone service…
Luke Eller
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 2:30 PMMy reception on 3 Mobile was going from GPRS to nothing, so no competition with Telstra there, not that I expected any.
Chris
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 3:39 PMLuke, if you’re on Three then a quick change to Telstra and your signal would be as good as the other Telstra guys. No need to bag Three in this case, most people know that 2100MHz doesn’t have much “punch” to it.
Camb3h
Friday, November 5, 2010 at 8:19 AMI’m currently trying to get out of my 3 contract due to ongoing reception issues. Its kind of a problem that would have be believe that my apartment its one part Faraday Cage.
Sam Testa
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 2:36 PMHardly a fair test. Using different handsets introduces another variable. You need an iPhone 4 on another network to compare it to.
I suggest you hop back into that elevator with the correct equipment and mash the emergency stop button.
Los
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 3:52 PMAgree, not an accurate test at all.
How high in the building were you? Did the building have a dedicated Telstra IBC?
Nick Broughall
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 4:14 PMDude, we were stuck in a freakin’ lift! For 40 minutes! It was hardly done for scientific purposes.
Sam Testa
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 6:24 PMNick, my comment was intended as a tongue in cheek remark.
Nick Broughall
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 9:34 PMI know, and we all laughed. The others seemed a little more serious :)
lukian
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 7:43 PM@nick then don’t write a biased news article about it.
Nick Broughall
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 9:35 PMBias? To what? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard all day, and I was stuck in a lift for 40 minutes with 12 other people.
lukian
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 11:12 PMtesing bias.
Did you swap an optus or other sim into either iphone4? How can you be certain the antenna design simply isn’t better?
Likewise did you swap a trelstra sim into a Desire, both models, and repeat the process?
News is meant to be factual and unbiased, Not simply making an observed claim.
Did you pass journalism?
Nick Broughall
Friday, November 5, 2010 at 7:47 AM*sigh*
There’s obviously no point in arguing with you. If you can’t see that this was a fun way of trying to turn the stressful experience of being locked in an elevator for 40 minutes like sardines in a tin into an entertaining post for the Giz community, then my time is better spent writing content for the readers that appreciate it.
james whatsit
Friday, November 5, 2010 at 4:04 PMhaha, made my day :) lose some weight nick :P
Lukian
Friday, November 5, 2010 at 4:06 PMYou’re probably right in that I don’t see the stressful environment of being stuck in elevator for 40minutes.
I would see it as a good opportunity to read many of the books I’ve been meaning to, loaded onto my phone. Do we really need “internet” reception to keep ourselves entertained?
Out of interest, how was the wireless reception in there? :) If there was none, a Telstra SIM should have been shared to an android phone and a wireless hotspot created!
Marisa Remond
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 2:40 PMYou definitely CANNOT rely on Optus in times of a lift emergency – I had zilch. And now I want my mummy.
James Young
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 2:44 PMtotes.
Bern
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 6:37 PMWell, you can certainly rely on Optus in my building in BNE. Top floor right down to the bottom of the basement carpark. Telstra, not so much.
Legolas
Saturday, November 6, 2010 at 3:53 AMIs your building at 12 Creek Street where Optus has the office!?
dale
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 2:48 PMtelstra always wins reception wars. always. come to tassie and you will see how long you can bare being on any other network down here.
Steve
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 3:12 PMGotta agree there. Was down there recently with a car full of Optus & Vodaphone users. I was the only one with Telstra and the only one with any reception once we were about 20kms from Hobart. Lucky cause we got lost multiple times and google maps came in very handy.
Gareth
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 2:58 PMBest thing about my new iPhone 4? Moving from Optus to telstra.
Best decision I’ve made around my mobile.
Sam
Friday, November 5, 2010 at 8:05 AMSame here. Couldn’t be happier.
Caesar Wong
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 3:17 PMWhat a bunch of nerds :-P
Ha
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 3:29 PMI agree that it isn’t a fair test. Apparently at my uncle’s place you need a telstra phone to get any signal. But mine works perfectly fine on virgin. Does my phone being unlocked have anything to do with it?
Alan
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 3:46 PMi guess the winner is 3 – can choose the 3 (3G); the voda network and finally roam to telstra roaming. should be the one winning
(although recently mobile internet on my iphone on 3 in sydney CBD just stops for no reason)
SnoA
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 4:28 PMPerhaps it’s time for a story on what (not) to do in a broken lift.
First thing you should do is contact the lift service company. They are the ones that will get you out the quickest.
Most modern buildings have a emergency lift call button, hard wired to call the service people. The emergency contact number is also on a sign in the lift.
Don’t try and open the doors, and don’t call the emergency services and unless it’s actual emergency. They are often slower to respond, and tend to damage the lift.
bazuden
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 4:54 PMI have an iPhone 3GS that uses 3 and it loses all reception in the lift at work. We have these shitty old Nokia’s for work that run on Telstra, and they get full reception in the lifts. I don’t understand why my iPhone can’t switch to Telstra on roaming when I’m in the lift.
Also, I’ve found that when on roaming (Telstra) in Sydney the internet is dead slow, but when I was in Noosa, and Telstra was all I could get, my roaming was faster than my 3G connection in Sydney!
Mik
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 5:04 PMThe general tone of the article is fairly tongue in cheek, I don’t know why everyone is getting worked up over scientific credibility…
Simon Reidy
Friday, November 5, 2010 at 12:45 AM+1
It’s amazing how bad some people’s sarcasm & facetiousness metres are around here. How do they get through life not understanding humour?
Some of the responses above actually remind me of the types of things Moss from the IT crowd would say.
Luke
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 7:05 PMNerds stuck in a lift… Im suprised there was no dungeons and Dragons. Sorry, couldnt resist.
But on a serious note, i know what its like stuck in a lift, 3 hours in a confined space all by yourself isnt fun.
con
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 8:19 PMdidnt the lift have an emergency phone ?
Nick Broughall
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 9:32 PMNope
Cam Dove
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 10:14 PMarticle brought to you by telstra…?
Will Jones
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 11:42 PMLets all just face facts. Telstra has a better network than anyone else in this country (and most others).
Their customer service is shitty, and value not so great, but by God they have a good network.
Sam
Friday, November 5, 2010 at 8:08 AMI used to be a huge Telstra hater. Since Sol left though, their customer service has improved (yay Twitter support) & value seems to be getting better too.
mark
Friday, November 5, 2010 at 11:27 AMI got stuck in a lift once, or so i thought. turns out i didnt press a floor button so the lift just sat still and the lights went out. imagine my surprise/shame when someone came along (about 10 min later)and i realised there was nothing wrong