Telstra’s just made my life easier by forcing me to upgrade my account from wireless broadband I to wireless broadband II. Having locked me into a 2 year contract on the first system, they cancelled it after about a year (their right to do so was all in the contract) and said I could only have access to the same plan by signing up for another 2 year contract at the same cost – effectively locking me in for longer than I’d agreed initially. Well I got another modem for free, so that was nice.
Anyway, I’ll be visiting Korea in a couple of weeks and the new system has global roaming. So I investigated the charges. This is what the Bigpond website says “International roaming on your BigPond Wireless Broadband Mobile service is charged at $15.00 (GST excl) per MB, plus an additional $0.50 (GST excl) flagfall (connection fee).”
So there you go. I can chew up 20 odd megs on a couple of hours on the net and getting my email. So that’s just $300 a session. Cheap really. If you’re James Packer. I think WiFi in the hotel will be more competitive – but who knows.
Just a question? can’t you go wothout intenet connection for a few weeks??? oe days??? or hours???
Yes I can.
But I might not want to.
Has anyone ever done a comparison on what Telstra charges and what the rest of the world pays,is Broadband in OZ to expensive,an ideas at all
I even baulked at letting my work pay for it for company travel. Ludicrous.
I have been playing advocate for a few folk getting tangled up in the Telco mess. The billing is a minefield and the one way powers of terms of service bloody disgusting.
Optus recently did an upgrade of service on their landline phones, with the rider buy it or find another provider.
Having joined a dubious independent campaign against the Deputy Prime Minister (conservatives continue a strangle hold on Lyne) I am particularly interested in the excesses of the major telcos.
With a campaign we chew up the broadband allocation and accept that cost. The real concern is for the increasing numbers who sign-up without even knowing they have signed-up for anything; then finding themselves in deep doo doos.
I can understand your reason for going ahead with something which might be less than ideal, from a contract point. I would love to see a real discussion on what these deals are doing to people who really dont have the means to understand what it all means.
Bah to Bigpond, I say.
This is one area where the ALP can take most of the blame. They stuffed up the initial privatisation of Telstra by not separating it into a fixed line wholesale company and one or mopre retail companies. This has allowed Telstra to behave like the schoolyard bully ever since. If anything, they are getting worse.
Nic:
Roaming charges, i believe are set by the host nation. All the local telco here does is charge their cost of what is billed them plus a cost margin eual to the price of a local call. Our roaming charges are not that expensive. We went to morocco this year where roaming was 10 bucks a minute!
I like Telstra and admire his boss for taking the hard nosed approach. Telstra has a right to protect it property from being ravaged by the the government. It was sold to the shareholders in the way it was and therefore Sol is doing the right thing by protecting shareholder property. Optus doesn’t have to intall any copper wires to the home. Screw them.
On the other hand the blame for the bad system is the intial privatization.
If the government tries any crap about busting the firm up there is section 52 to protect the shreholders.
Telstra has also a shot at winning the latest legal battel over Coonans gift to the other players. It was rigged. The government is playing favourites which i hope comes out in the court case.
So every host nation charges $15 a meg do they JC?
Jc is giving us the Telstra shareholder’s view. Let’s just say it differs from the consumer’s view.
But Nic, why are you playing around with Bigpond? It’s the most expensive service around, and it’s notoriously unresponsive. Go to http://www.whirlpool.net.au and look at the forums, where lots of telcos and isps are discussed. They also have some interesting discussions on wider telecoms policy from a group of people who are very technically literate (though, alas, not always economically literate). You should also take a look at their Broadband Choice comparison pages and see what you’re missing.
And yeah, both Labor and Coalition have nothing to be proud of in this area.
DD,
I agree, but they had an early lead in wireless broadband that made them the only option for me a while back. Even today I can’t find a wireless service you can use as your main service (ie not just for the odd day of travelling) at a better rate than Bigpond. $60 per month for 1 Gig per month. I don’t mind the rate, but I only use it (when staying at my Mum’s farm outside Hall) for three week bursts during the school holidays. $720 is a lot to pay for 9 week’s access through the year plus the chrissie hols (during which time, I have to also use dialup to make sure I fit under the bandwidth cap).
Can you recommend a better service?
whirlpool are definitely worth checking out. If (if) you can use a landline then Bigpond are the last choice, there are much better deals going.
The 2 year contract from Bigpond is blatant theft. Plenty of other companies offer 12, 6 and monthly deals, and for a much lower per unit cost. I am on a landline and the deal I got from my ISP (aanet) was nearly half the price of Telstra’s (at the time I signed the deal), and for twice the speed, and a much higher download limit. Now, 12 months later, I only have to give one month notice to terminate the deal, with no penalty.
Wireless is a different story, there isn’t anywhere near the difference between competitors, though there is still enough to shop around.
Well, show me the package that beats the one I’m on JM?
Tony Disclaimer
Nicholas [9],
Roaming charges – perhaps that single price is just the average… So whilst it’s expensive relative to the alternatives in a place like Korea, there is probably other countries where there may not be any other cost effective solution.
DD [10]. just me [12],
If you’re outside of the major metro areas, I’d suggest you won’t find a provider that has the equivalent level of coverage for wireless broadband. Individual regional providers may cover various locations, but if you want a service that is going to work in multiple town and country locations – then you’re most likely going to end up with the Telstra/BigPond service.
Nicholas
If DSL is available, then the choices open up more. But then you’re probably still not going going to solve your problem of only needing the service on a casual basis.