Comments on: Telstra – making life easy

By: Damien Eldridge

Damien Eldridge — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 14:20:42 +0000

I guess there is a reason why Telstra’s slogan is “now we’re talking” rather than “now we’re listening”!!!

By: Jacques Chester

Jacques Chester — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 09:50:56 +0000

Heath;

Sure, and that’s great. But upstream bandwidth is still the biggest single determinant of the economics of Australian broadband, so more is better. If (and as a libertarian I find it distasteful) government is going to be frittered away on broadband then it would find maximum impact there.

By: HeathG

HeathG — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 09:32:49 +0000

Jacques [10]

Thats already without any govt intervention.

PIPE Networks (ASX: PWK) are putting together a JV for extra trans-pacific capacity. I think there are a couple of others in the wind as well.

international bandwidht pricing is a bit of a hobbyhorse with the IIA at moment fwiw.

By: Jacques Chester

Jacques Chester — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 06:05:30 +0000

This whole debacle shows that Labor and the Coalition are going to piss billions of dollars on plans which will make the situation even worse. Australia’s broadband economics is shaped by the simple fact that all traffic in and out of the country is charged per-megabyte. Faster broadband means higher prices and stricter capping.

Where the money ought to be spent is on trans-pacific cables. Lots of big fat ones running to multiple providers in the USA so there might be some competition on the longhaul. Otherwise we’re just jerking ourselves.

By: HeathG

HeathG — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 02:33:47 +0000

My connections and experieince

Fixed broadband – Telstra ADSL -> paid for by work so no comment on price. Have always found it to be very reliable with fairly good speeds. Haven’t rung tech support in years so probably not appropriate to comment on that.

Actually starting to use the unmetered/free download stuff lately as they’ve improved the BigPond TV (IPTV/video streaming) stuff lately and so I often pump the music channel through to my media centre.

Wireless BB -> BigPond Next-G USB card .. paid for from my own pocket. Unmatched coverage and found it to have better performance (better speed / fewer dropouts) than the Three service which I had previously. Pricing – nuff said… joined on a good deal and I’m able to salary package it so I’m not paying quite the premium that others are.

By: Jonno

Jonno — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 01:09:37 +0000

Whirlpool is the go – but it can take quite a while to find what you want. This is not a mature market (and a very expensive one as an IT colleague who had worked in London said – he’s on dialup as he wasn’t prepared to pay Oz prices for broadband after what he paid in London).

For what it’s worth – my experience:

Telstra (for which my brother works is way too expensive – I was with them for a trial and service was OK). I use Internode (my brother uses TPG but is considering his options after their recent price increases).

I am an RN podcast addict and use 1.5-2 Gb a month. I don’t want to bundle phone with broadband.

I pay $40 for 5Gb (just reduced from 8Gb due to Internode’s recent price rises – for which they lost the golden boy image but will probably at least remain viable).

I was with Tee Gee but they went bust with lots of time wasted so avoid fly by nighters (I considered Soul’s unlimited $30 a month plan but am cautious so will stay with Internode).

They say that Internode’s customer service has dropped. I have always found them very helpful (and actually trying to solve the problem unlike Telstra who seemed to do the standard IT first response – it’s your fault). The best thing about them is the amazing call back facility if you are in the queue for support – I don’t have to hang on hold for hours waiting! They even rang back again after leaving a message on my 101 when I hadn’t rung within 15 minutes.

Good luck!

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:59:43 +0000

I know uploads are not costless but telcos are not charities (Telstra least of all) and I get uploads for free now so … their problem, not mine. I know they are all feeling the pinch, I’m with iinet and their new plans are significantly less value than they used to be. I’m grandfathered on my cosy 60gb but I understand why they would have to do it. Income and expenses, I get it. It may become my problem but until then, you can get a good deal without included uploads so I don’t feel any need to factor sympathy for their business pressures into my decisions.

The broadband search on Whirlpool is good but I was more thinking of the forums when I suggested them.

By: HeathG

HeathG — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:47:36 +0000

Amanda:

Uploads aren’t costless. There’s a good article in AustralianIT this week on the growing cost of upload traffic that ISP’s are facing. iiNet and internode are both reported as saying that although they have no plans to count uploads at this point – they can’t rule it out eithr if volumes/costs of upload traffic keep going up. Optus’s new plans are now counting uploads and all the mobile-centric wireless players (even the very cheap Hutch 3) count uploads.

Excess charges … matter or preference but personally if given the choice will take shaping/throttling over excess usage charges. But again… in the wirelss space.. Optus, Voda and Hutch all have excess usage charges and Hutch has $1.65 per MB charge sif you roam outside their coverage.

Whirlpool offers a convenient way to search a range of plans, but I wouldn’t rely on it as your sole source of info.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:32:56 +0000

I second the recommendation of whirlpool. And you couldn’t pay me enough to be on BigPond — excess charges and counting uploads in your quota are two of the reasons.

By: HeathG

HeathG — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:38:39 +0000

Nicholas,

There are 3GB plans available:
http://my.bigpond.com/internetplans/broadband/wireless/plansandoffers/default.jsp

How about switching up to the 3GB plan in the heavy months, then dropping back to the $34.95 10hr plan during the months where you;re hardly using your connection??

Also – not sure if you are on the “G-Fast” or “Super G Fast” 1 GB plan. When you move to 3GB they are all Super-G fast, so you’re also getting the benefit of extra speed. (i.e. full HSDPA speeds, not 256 kbps.)

Re: excess usage charges – Three, Optus and Vodafone all charge excess usage if you exceed your quota. Unwired doesn’t but is only going to be a viable choice if you live in the select parts of Sydney-Melb wher ethey operate. Ditto for any iBurst reseller.

By: Stumblng Tumblr

Stumblng Tumblr — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 18:54:42 +0000

Also, APC magazine has a couple of pages each month devoted to comparing various offerings.

By: paul

paul — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:44:20 +0000

For Club Troppo members who are wanting to escape Bigpong (as some people affectionately call it) or to compare the broadband plans of ISPs, http://www.whirlpool.net.au has useful information, including a Plan Search Tool under the heading “Broadband Choice”.

By: steve

steve — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:32:47 +0000

I’m still waiting for them to connect my broadband from the corner of the house to the computer. Last time I phoned I got passed to four different sections all with the promise that the next person was the one I wanted. I am still waiting…