Broadband

[John Saxton]

With the growing and commonplace availability of broadband ISP's carrying a range of pricing arrangements I wonder with the OZ psyche on approaching a 'must have mentality' how long before it will be before it becomes affordable as dial-up did in it's infancy...now coming down to $9-$11 per month by shopping around.

Currently Telstra are offering $29 per month with limited download so it might suit your purpose but ifn' you're gettin' a lotta plans/games etc of'n the net you clearly have to view your demands if broadband is your upgrade choice of speed.

With a regional aspect most are still restricted by access as well as the dollar penalty of living where they do if not also penalised further by requiring satellite access.

HAVE any out there accessed broadband with a good DEAL the rest of us don't know about?
Can we have your views?

Thanks in Anticipation.
Cheers:)

[Robert WA]

No good deals, but a warning.

Telstra's $29 connection is a trap. The download/upload limit is very small and the cost of excess is high. Today's, Tuesday 24th, Australian has some info and comparative pricing and is well worth a look.

Just to make you feel really deprived....
I have friends in the back blocks of Washington State, USA, 10 miles out of a small mill town. They have cable from two TV cable companies going past the front gate, are connected to one giving 50 something channels and get a free cable internet connection as part of the deal. I can't see that happening in the wilds of WA anytime soon.

[tyrone]

Be very carefull with the $29 plan unless you are a VERY light user.

Checkout www.whirlpool.net.au It lists almost every broadband plan out there and has a very large forum where you can gauge the ISP you are considering. However take what they say about the big ISP's with a grain of salt and realise that alot of the posters will be little kids who know everything .

Myself I have been with Telstra Bigpond cable for 2 years and have never had any problems.

[Dean]

Im with Optus Cable.
$69.95 per month and they just upped their limit to 12Gb downloads from March onwards.

Not a bad deal really and the service is quite good and pretty fast.
WEas previously with Telstra and the service and speed was not so good, but they may have improved since then.

[rodm]

John,
I think that dialup modem prices are competive at the moment because ISPs have had so many change over to ADSL. They have a major investment in modem equipment and without the demand competition has driven the price down. I don't think this will last and we could well see a push by ISP's and telecommunication providers to more profitable services. It doesn't make sense for ISPs to invest more in older technologies like modem services. Regional areas have a problem and hopefully an afforable decent bandwidth will be made available. With an upcoming election now is the time to start talking/emailing Federal Politicians about regional telecommunications issues.

[journeyman Mick]

I live 30 mins drive from (apparently) Australia's 2nd busiest international airport and can get most services that people living in the capitals get. My friends, who live15 mins drive from here on the other side of the river are considered by the powers that be to be living in a remote area. They don't have mains power (but they do have a beaut solar remote area power supply that you can run a welder off) or town water or mobile phone coverage, but they do have two landlines, cable TV and a satellite dish for internet access which was installed for free with a peppercorn rent access fee because they're disavantaged "remote area" dwellers. Go figure. I wish I'd bought ten mins further down the road.:(

Mick

[echnidna]

Mick

"and a satellite dish for internet access which was installed for free with a peppercorn rent access fee because they're disavantaged "remote area"

can you tell me a bit more about who to see about this remote area classification as the only way I could have a slower internet would be with a smoke signal modem

[RETIRED]

Gooday.

Friends of mine live in Narrandera and get broadband.

I live 60K from Melb. with the exchange 20 metres down the road and don't.

[journeyman Mick]

Bob,
I'll try to find out next time I see them (but they are remote, after all). Don't get your hopes too high though, I saw a program on the ABC not too long ago which covered communications in rural areas. People in the country town had services, people that lived way out to buggery from the town had solar powered exchange and satellite. People that lived a way out of town had a crappy part time landline. Seems that "the powers" draw 2 circles around rural centres. If you live inside the circle you are a "townie" and you have access to all the usual rural services (crappy landlines, and CDMA mobiles). If you live outside the second circle you're deemed remote and you get all the whistles and bells. If you live in the "donut" area (that's the term they used on the TV program) you get marginal mobile coverage and dodgy landlines. No doubt it's all part of the politics. They can get up and say that everyone living in a remote area has access to state of the art communications, and also that Telstra Mobilenet covers 90 odd % of Australia's population, and we're doing so well by "the bush" that you can sell up that government share now (so we can cut all those rural bludgers adrift and start making some serious money.):mad:

Mick

[Woodchuck]

HI all,

Broadband may be a wonderful thing, for some users it is already cheaper than a dail-up connection as you don't pay for every phone call each time you get on the net. But I don't know if you will see alot more people taking ADSL BB up in a rush even though it is getting cheaper & cheaper as a great number of people in metro areas phone lines would be pair-gained.

Also the distance of cables to the local exchange factor in quite a bit. & then how many ports made avail at the local exchange for BB also. The choice of cable is limited as a great deal of metro area in some cites doesn't have access to cable & there is no plans for it either. & if your renting in a unit or block of flats, the agent or strata title group may not allow you to have cable connected.

Cheers
Woodchuck

[Neil]

I have ADSL - 512.0 kbps cost $81.50 mth I can download and upload 250 meg per mth and pay only $1.25 per meg for anything over that.

With phone calls and monthly fees my old 56k dialup cost me more then the ADSL and as an added bonus I don't tie up the phone any more.

To top it all off, I can download files in minutes that would have taken hours or even days with the dialup.

I have pretty heavy upload and down load needs and have never gone over the 250meg limit yet.

There is no way I could ever have downloaded as much with the dialup. I remember downloading Corel 6 (24meg) on the dialup and it took 4 and a bit days. Corel 10 (67meg) took around 2 hours.

I couldn't go back to dialup after ADSL.

Chers - Neil :D

[clubbyr8]

I agree with Neil, wouldn't look at dialup again. I used to be with Telstra ADSL and paid $90+ a month with a cap of 3Gb usage (not download) at 512Kb and only one email address. I'm now with Westnet for $79.95 a month and my download limit is 14Gb peak plus 14Gb off-peak and if I go over his limit the account is "shaped", no extra charges, plus I can have six email addresses (enough for the family). All this on no contract.

Broadband is definately the way to go.


Bob

[Sturdee]

We have Optus cable with 15 gig download and unlimited upload per month for about $100 which my daughter and I share.
If we go in excess of the download limit the download speed is limited to 33 k. As she downloads all her favourite TV shows the day after they are shown on American TV we use all our download limits.


Peter

[Dan]

I havn't got it yet, but looking at Neils post and comparing with some of the plans available it seems expensive to pay $81/mth with a 250MB limit. Just looking at Telstra, they will give you a 1500/256kbps connection with 500MB limit for $69.95/month. Am I missing something?

http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc-isp.cfm?id=2&re=2

I was going to try out the $29 Telstra deal because 200MB would be ok for me and extra MB's cost $0.15 each (is that expensive ?).

Dan:confused: :(

[Sir Stinkalot]

I would have thought that 500MB/Month on Broadband would be bugger all. I would regularly go over that per month on dial up alone. Now the dial up is unlimited uploads and downloads.

My favoured solution is to use the broadband at work …. it has the benefit of being super quick …. plus I get paid :) I am now finding that I don’t log on at all when I am at home as 8 hours access at work is proving to be enough.
:D

[ozplanit]

Swifttel www.swiftdsl.com.au
256 up, 64 down and 4GB monthly limit
for $45 p/mth

I believe that IInet and Westnet have just reduced prices so they would be worth a quick look.

One thing to note is that the Whirlpool plan search isn't always the latest prices, there is usually some lag between price changes and when they get published online. Give the ISP's a call to be sure

[fxst]

Dan I have a 256kps adsl conection with internode and I have a 5g limit and costs me 59.95 a mnth no contracts and usually dl 3-4.5 gig per month wouldnt be without it now
20mb on adsl would take a night to use upbig pond is a small puddle really
Pete:D

[gatiep]

Check out www.iinet.net.au , they have a whole number of 'blink plans. I used to have the blink 512+ which is 69.95, 512/128 down/up, 16 Gig 8 am to midnight and 16 Gig midnight to 8 am, 5 mailboxes and 30 meg storage.

We are three ppl using networked pc's on that and we could not get near the limit. So I downgraded to Blink 512 lite, has all the same features but 4 Gig 8 am to midnight and 4 gig midnight to 8 am. and is only 49.95!

Also, anything off Perth servers, called Blink Zone doesn't count.

If one goes over the limit it shapes to 72 kbs. The shaping count works over a 30 day period from date of joining, so it is not from 1 st to month end.

Our pcs are on 24/7 and my daughters get all sorts of stuff down, as they study IT and Multimedia and would download the world and its mother if they could. I'm not going too badly myself!

The service in Perth is exceptionally good.....I have been thru a whole host of ISP's before getting on to Iinet.

I am very happy with their service

Cya
Joe

[Neil]

OOPS I'm an idiot. Just had a look at the contract for my ADSL. The rate is $79.95 per mth, download limit is 3 gig not 250 meg and the excess charge is 15 cents per meg for everything over 2.5 gig, speed is 512 download 128 upload.

Should have looked before posting instead of relying on an aging memory.

Cheers - Neil :rolleyes:

[gatiep]

Neill..............nowadays one can do a lot better, but unfortunately when most connected to the wonder of broadband, the contracts locked them in. My downgrade cost me $39 to go from 69.95 to 49.95 but in the end it saves another $240 in a year. There is no extra charge for upgrading with my Isp.

Cya
Joe

[Wayne Davy]

I am on the same plan as Dean.

Optus Cable
12 gig download per month
Uploads not counted
5 email addresses
5 10Meg Websites (one for each email address and you can link them)
Shaped to 28.8k after the the 12gig (if I ever hit it)
Very, very fast (faster than ADSL 1500k)

With bundling (i.e. having Optus Phone line as well), this is currently $69.95 per month.

Now, on that intro plan from Telstra for $29.95 which gives you 200meg per month, bear this in mind:

* Uploads are counted by telstra towards the 200meg
* If you go over the 200meg, its 15 cent per meg
* That means that 1gig extra costs you $150!!!!!!
* Equate that to my plan of 12gig - thats $1800 PER MONTH

[Tonyz]

I just went to Chariot ADSL 256 1GB/month free instilation and free modem 18 month contract = $49.95 month Not joking

[fxst]

oops too
I forgot to mention uploads are unlimited and so is a lot of stuff on their server. If uyou use their mirror a lot of stuff is unmetered as well as is the audio streaming
Pete

[Bob Willson]

I help run the Brisbane branch of APANA

We are a club that helps people understand the web.

We also provide very cheap internet access in all states

www.brisbane.apana.org.au

[redmond]

im in wa and with swiftel it was by far the cheapest at the time i get 512 dl and 128 ul 16GB download limit uploads is unlimited and eccess download is charged at $6 a GB thats $0.006 per MB its also affiliated with waix so you get free downloads from anything in WA, by far the best and cheapest deal when i got it a few months ago its $65 a month at the moment
cant beat it

[ozwinner]

Hi All
Try here for a plan to suit.
http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc-plan.cfm?state=vic&class=0&pre=3000&cost=80&speed=512&ip=1&sort=1

Check out some of the rediculous excess charges too...........

Cheers, Al