I’ve owned a Samsung Galaxy S android handset for 6 months now. I grabbed the phone shortly after it was released on the Optus network. So far I have had no issues with the Optus network and I’m always getting good performance from the HSDPA and 3G towers.
Recently a colleague of mine purchased the same phone but on the Virgin Mobile network. My research has shown that Virgin Mobile resell the Optus network in Adelaide.
So you would assume that the 3G and HSDPA performance would be identical?
Surprisingly there is a vast difference in the quality and performance of the two networks.
Placing the two phones (which are on different providers but the same network) near one another and loading the same website via the standard android Internet browser, Optus beats Virgin Mobile hands down. Sites load in seconds on Optus but take 10 seconds at least on Virgin Mobile. From a couple bandwidth benchmarks we determined that the bandwidth to the phones is identical. Turns out the name server that Virgin uses is really slow compared to Optus.
My tip, stick to Optus.