But did it match reality? I know that I’ve found both Optus and Telstra’s network coverage maps next to useless in both metropolitan Melbourne and regional Vict

But did it match reality? I know that I’ve found both Optus and Telstra’s network coverage maps next to useless in both metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria, Australia, for as long as I’ve been paying attention, which started in roughly 2015. They claim almost total coverage in a way that is simply not true, especially with cheaper phones’ modems (they often have poor antennae) and modems that lack total frequency band overlap (surprisingly common, even among flagship phones from the domestic market), but even on phones with good modems and support for all frequencies. Telstra only say whether it’s 3G, 4G or 5G, with no indication of likely strength (which is extremely important—near me, they claim 4G coverage, but in practice you’ll get a weak 3G signal outside and probably nothing inside, and I believe it’s served from a tower in the next town over 10km away, but of course no one that lives here uses Telstra, when there’s an Optus tower right in the town), and Optus are only a tad better, splitting it into two strengths, without and with antenna. I wish they’d tell you where the towers actually were, because then even a layman could do a better job of estimating how usable a signal will be.