David Flynn a freelance journalist who writes for the Sydney Morning Herald and PC Magazine made the emotional claims in front of the  Managing Director of Google Karim Temsamani, Anthony Petts the Director of Sales and Marketing, and Michael Smith the Acting Managing Director of Optus Consumer.

Smith who was answering questions at the launch of the new HTC Google Android mobile phone quickly rebuked Flynn claiming that he was wrong about the network. "I don't know who he was working for but he is wrong and we take exception to his comments," he said after the conference.

Smith was backed up later by Mark Novosel a network analyst at IDC. Novosel who has recently conducted a major study of the Optus 3G Network claims that the network does not "suck" and that Flynn's perception of the network does not match with IDC findings."

IDC said that they recently tested all four Australian mobile broadband networks over a five-month period, conducting 1,580 observations to assess download and upload speeds in addition to latency.

"Optus, showed sharp increases in their relative network performance (speed and latency) over the observation period as network upgrades were rolled out," added Novosel

He added "Across all networks, IDC found the average download speed to be 1,747Kbps, while the average upload was 460Kbps, with latency averaging 447ms. Large variances in performance were seen in metropolitan areas and even in the same location on different days," he said.

IDC said that mobile broadband is now more affordable, offers larger download quotas and is faster than comparable entry-level ADSL plans. Prices fell by as much as 78% in 12 months and download allowances doubled on average.