Your Vodafone coverage just got a big boost in the arm today

Heading outside the populated metropolitan areas of Australia has always been a gamble for mobile coverage. While all three of Australia's telco networks claim they deliver services to over 95% of the country, that number reflects Australia's condensed coastal population.

Australia is a lot of land, with the vast majority of its people clustered on the coast.

Telstra has long-been the best option for rural coverage, but a deal announced last year between Optus and Vodafone means that regional coverage for both telcos is set to get a lot better.

Vodafone is the big winner here. Switching on today at midday, Vodafone's coverage will expand from around 400,000 square kilometres to over 1,000,000.

(For reference, Australia's entire landmass is over 7.5 million square kilometres, so there's still more area you won't get a signal than where you will. But then again, a lot of Australia is a dry, inhospitable desert, so you probably don't need mobile coverage there anyway).

In terms of coverage, TPG's new regional network means that Vodafone now reaches 98.4% of the Australian population, which is an increase of 3% (up from 95.4% before the network expansion). In pure number terms, that means almost 800,000 more Australians will be able to get Vodafone coverage.

How it works

The expansion in Vodafone (and Optus') network comes about following an agreement last year between Optus and Vodafone (well, more precisely TPG Telecom, but whatever) to share the 4G and 5G radio access network in regional areas while continuing to operate their own core networks.

For Vodafone, that means access to an additional 2,500 Optus mobile towers, while it also allows both telcos to share spectrum, making the connections you get (and the subsequent data speeds) in regional areas better as well.

"TPG Telecom’s family of brands are now in more towns and regional destinations than ever before thanks to this innovative network sharing agreement.

"For our customers this is all about providing great coverage and service at great prices. For our business, it’s about significantly increasing our addressable market overnight so we can better compete for and retain customers right across Australia."

– Iñaki Berroeta, TPG Telecom Chief Executive

The arrangement also means that all of Vodafone's brands and MVNOs – including iiNet, TPG, Felix, Lebara, Kogan and Lyca Mobile – will benefit from the improved coverage from today.

And best of all, the improvement comes at no extra cost.

Should you switch?

I can't actually answer that question for you, because it depends on a huge number of factors, most important being what the network coverage is like in your specific area.

But if you have avoided Vodafone because it has lacked coverage in regional areas where you need it, then it could be time to take a look again. More than doubling your landmass coverage is no small feat, and will undoubtedly open up the network to a wide range of new users.