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

[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.