Cost of communication

[Bushmiller]

How much do you spend on communication?

I know I'm still in the dark ages, but I am horrified at how much we spend on communication in our household and I'm intrigued as to whether I am a dinosaur on my own. We have a single mobile for SWMBO, a landline and an internet connection. Their costs are as follows:

Landline $74
Mobile $30
Internet $40

At first glance the monthly cost is $144. Unfortunately, while the landline includes all std calls (umm, that's not to clinics :- ) it doesn't include calls to mobiles and all local calls are charged on top. In practice the bill is about another $70 of additional charges. In round figures that is $200 per month and getting on for $2500 per year.

Living in a country area we do not have quite the range of providers available to us that our city friends enjoy. Our provider is Telstra, but it is a little like having sex with an elephant...very little enjoyment, takes ages and ages to get results and any discussion becomes a mammoth tusk (that should be task).

$2500 per year freaks me out! Or am I being a mean old bas*ard ?

Regards
Paul

[Big Shed]

Mobile (Telstra Pre-paid) $30
Landline (Soul) 30.00
Internet (Internode) 45.00 (10Gb/mth)

Only have the landline to get ADSL, all calls are made on the Telstra Mobile, $250 of calls, free between 6pm and 6am to any Oz number.

So that's $105/mth and I reckon that's a lot!

Aldi have just released a $35/mth mobile plan (Telstra 3G) unlimited calls and texts, 5Gb data.

[NCArcher]

Yes. You're a mean old bas#@rd.
So am I :D

I have 2x mobiles, landline and internet and my monthly spend is around $180. Happy to say I have nothing to do with Telstra any more though.
I could get by without a landline and possibly no mobile (have a work one as well) but I would struggle without internet.

[Schtoo]

If, and only if, you don't want to feel sick, stop reading now.




Ok, those with sufficient intestinal fortitude read on...



You know how you read in the newspapers that Japan is one of the most expensive countries in the world to live?

I don't understand that, especially curious since I do actually live in Japan, and have done so for long enough that I do pay taxes and all the rest of it.

(Still can't vote though...)

Anyway, communications wise;

Our monthly bill here is this month, ¥5227, which is about $56 at the moment. That's a big-ish bill as it's usually about ¥4200/$45.

That's for the fixed telephone line and internet.

My mobile costs about $10 a month, Mrs. Schtoo's is about $40 a month, so if we call it $100 per month, it'd be pretty darned close.

The devil is, however, in the details.

That cost is a fixed price 2 year contract, of which we're about 5 months in. That contract is rock solid, but I've no reason to break it anyway.

The 'line' is optic fibre. The phone works, and calls are inexpensive (IP phone). This month's bill includes a bunch of calls to Oz and whatnot. The internet is fast, stupefyingly fast and reliable. Typical speed is 150Mb/s down, 40Mb/s up and the fastest I've seen is 290Mb/s downloading. Completely pointless, but it's fast enough for anything and there's no limits on it of any kind for speed or amount of stuff you can download/upload. My computer tells me in the past 42 days, I've down/up loaded 152Gb of data, some of that through the home network, but I'm not shy about clicking first, wonder if it was worthwhile later.

The contract included the interweb company shelling out ¥40000 of the cost of the computer I'm using right now, and it was easily possible to get a brand new computer without paying out of pocket, just for signing up for the internet. As it is, this computer isn't a bargain model, and that was ok. You can buy almost any computer you want, they'll pay for a big chunk of it to get you to sign up.

At the moment, we're considering replacing our dumb phones with smart phones, and while they really want you to sign up for the unlimited data plans (at $55-90 a month), we won't use the data that much. Why would we? We're home most of the time, within wireless range of our home interweb. The cheapest smart phone options out there are $35 a month or so using a superseded iPhone (no thank you) or a generic 'smart phone' that isn't too bad a thing, and while the data connection is not fast, it is unlimited.

So, that's about it. I told you that you might feel sick about it.


If I wasn't hooked up to it, I wouldn't believe it myself.

Stu.

[Mr Brush]

Depends how 'country' you are - we're rural NSW, but able to get this. Try putting your phone number in here to see if they can provide service

Compare Mobile Broadband Plans & Broadband Phone Bundles Deals (http://www.spin.net.au/products/broadband)

We get a package including line rental, unlimited free local calls, unlimited free interstate calls, 20Gb data on ADSL 2 all for a total of $69.95 a month.

One bill covers everything, and I never have to deal with Telstra again !!

[Big Shed]

Mr Brush, I clicked on your link and it says that on the Regional $69.95/mth plan STD calls are charged at 17c/min with a maximum of $2.00?

[Bushmiller]

Stu

That is pretty amazing.

I think we are a victim of size in Australia. Japan has a population of 128 million, which is falling every year incidentally, and a land mass of 377,000 Km2 while we have 23 million people and a land mass of 7,700,000 Km2. Even allowing for the fact that most are concentrated on the eastern seaboard the economics of distance play their part.

Regards
Paul

[Bushmiller]

Depends how 'country' you are - we're rural NSW, but able to get this. Try putting your phone number in here to see if they can provide service

Compare Mobile Broadband Plans & Broadband Phone Bundles Deals (http://www.spin.net.au/products/broadband)

We get a package including line rental, unlimited free local calls, unlimited free interstate calls, 20Gb data on ADSL 2 all for a total of $69.95 a month.

One bill covers everything, and I never have to deal with Telstra again !!

Mr B

It probably depends on where you are as to what deal is available. When I first clicked on your link there were four plans available that were similar to yours, although not quite the same. Once I entered my telephone number a very different set of figures came up. More like $80 for a similar plan to yours, but still with a variable cost between $1000 pa to $1800pa, which is a little different to the $840 you are paying. The extra cost comes from mobile call costs.

We will look into it as it appears better than our current arrangements.

We are apparently in zone 2/3.

Regards
Paul

[Big Shed]

Paul, since going on the Telstra Pre-paid Encore Plan (previously with Optus) not only has my reception improved dramatically but our call costs on the home phone have reduced to zero as all outgoing calls are now on the mobile.

Telstra - Mobile - Telstra Pre-Paid Plan Offers (http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile-phones/prepaid-mobiles/prepaid-offers/)

[Mr Brush]

I just checked our Spin account, and we are apparently on a Contact Two plan which they no longer offer. Typing in our phone number, the nearest equivalent offer today would be the $79.95 Fuze Two - 30Gb data on ADSL2, line rental included, unlimited free local and national calls. Our plan is $69.95 for the same thing, but only 20Gb data per month (which we never get near to using up). Including the few calls we make to mobiles a month, our bill is typically $75-80 a month for our complete telecommunication needs.

Mobile coverage here is crap, so we tend to use our free local and national calls for most things. If I did want a cheap mobile plan with 3G coverage I'd take a look at the new offerings from Aldi (reselling Telstra 3G, but with slower data speeds).

The other thing I like about Spin is the local support - an actual live human, based in Australia, answers the call. I gave up on Telstra when the wait time on phone queues blew out to 30 mins or more, ultimately to be answered by a clueless offshore call centre operative.....

[Bushmiller]

I just checked our Spin account, and we are apparently on a Contact Two plan which they no longer offer. Typing in our phone number, the nearest equivalent offer today would be the $79.95 Fuze Two - 30Gb data on ADSL2, line rental included, unlimited free local and national calls. Our plan is $69.95 for the same thing, but only 20Gb data per month (which we never get near to using up). Including the few calls we make to mobiles a month, our bill is typically $75-80 a month for our complete telecommunication needs.

Mobile coverage here is crap, so we tend to use our free local and national calls for most things. If I did want a cheap mobile plan with 3G coverage I'd take a look at the new offerings from Aldi (reselling Telstra 3G, but with slower data speeds).

The other thing I like about Spin is the local support - an actual live human, based in Australia, answers the call. I gave up on Telstra when the wait time on phone queues blew out to 30 mins or more, ultimately to be answered by a clueless offshore call centre operative.....

I was going to ask about mobiles as that did not appear to covered in the bundle. It's only a bundle of two :?.

Aldi could be an option for mobiles. I dread SWMBO getting on the phone to Telstra. She will be glued to the phone for a minimum 45mins and sometimes considerably more. By the time she puts the phone down she is ready to tear people in half. She doesn't mind where the call centre is, but does require that they can speak and understand English at a comprehensive level.

Regards
Paul

[Handyjack]

I am paying about $115 a month for internet and landline including calls.

My mobile is with [vaya] and I am on a $17 month plan which includes 2GB of data and $700 worth of calls using the Optus network. So far in three months I would not have used 50% of the allocation in the month.

SWMBO is with Vodaphone (formerly 3) on a $10 a month rate, but spends $50-$80 a month. I am unable to get her to change as it would involve getting a new phone. Even if she spent $500 on the phone it would be recouped within 2 years on a [vaya] plan.

[fxst]

well if I wanted to cut my expenses (and reduce my information) I would drop all except my mobile which at $29 per month with $350 worth of calls. BUT I like the modern world so I just pay for what I need/want. If the cost of communication scares you don't add up the other costs like electricity, car, council costs food purchases ect. Just work with what you have and be happy ...don't worry
Pete

[rsser]

Line rental (retailed by the ISP as part of a package): $27 per month with discounts on long-distance calls cp Telstra. I make about 4 local calls a month at 26c each.

Internet with that ISP (pretty fast ADSL2+ as we're close to the exchange): 200 gig per month @ $50 per month. I don't need that volume but the Kid does as she's studying film and TV production. When she leaves ...

Mobile bought outright @ $250: Telstra Simplicity prepaid; no connection fee, 15c per min national (inc. some int'l). That's what I mainly use for voice comms.

Telstra wireless Broadband dongle for the laptop and tablet: unit @ $110. Can't recall the data rates but they're reasonable. Use this for when I'm staying in a country town over winter for several months.

Satphone for outback comms from the vehicle: unit @ $700; calls out about $1 per min. Calls in from a landline, about $20 per min (Telstra's got you by the balls there) but there's free short emails in so the workaround is obvious. This is for emergencies and I expect that the 2 year expiry date on the prepaid calls will arrive long before we exhaust the credit.

PLB for SOSs and several customisable short msgs to email/phones: unit @ $200; annual sub USD 115.

...

NBN is sposed to come by the front door by end of '15. Lotta things will change then and we'll rethink the provisions.

[steamingbill]

Hello,

Was with Telstra, following some frustration and difficulties, am now using Amaysim (which piggybacks on Optus network)

Abandoned the landline and only using mobiles and skype now.

12cents per minute on mobiles and approx 2-3 cents per minute to use skype.

10GB internet package using a sim card in a dongle lasts 365 days and cost me $80 during a sale.

Costs have gone from over $200 per month to approx $60

Was recently wondering about the Aldi deal as well.

It can take a bit of effort but I found it worthwhile to make a spreadsheet and plug various numbers in to compare the various packages available - forces you to make the effort to understand your package.

Bill

[rsser]

Good idea.

Re 3G Telstra are now supplying retailers like Aldi and Kogan big time and I'll watch with interest the impact on network capacity.

Overselling got Vodaphone into the poo and lost them many customers, inc. those with 3 that they'd bought out (me being one).