astera

Just curious if anyone else here has decided to ditch a landline connection in favour of mobile internet?

Pollyana

Not had a landline for years. I use a Telstra mobile dongle for the laptop, that way when I'm travelling I can take it with me

GarryP

I'm not sure I could afford to not have a landline - Helstra are hellishly expensive.

I'm a light user, only eating up 60GB a month. Even that would cost several appendages with mobile broadband.

astera

Pollyana, what is your average monthly data usage?

Garry, normally - yes. But there are ways to get lots of data quite cheaply. Even in the UK mobile data is quite expensive, but if need lots of it the price will fall considerably. Like 1GB for 10 quid is quite steep, but 3GB for 15 quid doesn't look so bad. And 25GB for 30 quid is cheap imo.

rasen78

Have you looked at WDSL? Why WDSL? http://www.nuskope.com.au/plans-wireless.php

I'm going to look into it to see if we can get it. Fed up of appallingly slow speeds through ADSL, and not prepared to pay a fortune for mobile.

GarryP

I wish you luck finding it.

It seems that mobile broadband limits tend to be specified in the 2-10GB range for costs that would buy you hundreds of GB on ADSL.

spouse of scouse

I use iinet 4G with a mobile thing (don't know the proper name!) called a mobiihotspot. Data allowance is 10GB per month, which is plenty for me. $60 per month and you can connect multiple devices.

Pollyana

Only about 8-10GB on the laptop. But I don't use it for films and downloads of tv programmes or anything like that, its mostly just surfing. Get my weekly Casualty fix from the BBC and thats it TV-wise

I'm not really a good one to compare with if you are looking for large usage, downloaded films etc. but it suits me as I want to be mobile, not fixed to a landline.

Swerv-o

Hmmm. I've been looking at my choices as well. I think I am going to jump ship from Internode now that TPG has taken them over.

Not sure what the alternatives are, though Dodo is looking pretty good.


S

rasen78

We were with Dodo when we first moved here. Would have stayed with them when we moved if we could but they had no space on the exchange. Ended up with TPG who are ok.

astera

I have found it.

There is a very sweet way of racking up lots of data - it's a normal loophole that's fine, sort of a by-product of one feature that gives you cheap data. It's shared amongst a small group I know from Whirlpool who are keeping this far away from other sites like Ozbargain (and are not flashing it around Whirplool even) in order to keep the deal from getting pulled.

One idiot did go to Ozbargain and had the telco pull the plug on a lot of things, but they did leave the door ajar so the deal is still alive & kicking.

Naturally it's not something sustainable if everyone were to start using it, so I'm trusting my fellow users here to make the most of it but not spread this all over the place, at work, etc. Otherwise once again someone down the road will try to become an Ozbargain hero and the deal will end.

If you want the info you will need to pm me for it.

It really is a simple, straightforward way of getting heaps of data cheaply. I have nothing to gain, there is nothing funny involved. Just a major telco and a simple way of getting cheap data directly through them... IF you know how to do it.

DC10

We used Telstra mobile for a year or so. I think it was about $200 up front for a broadband device (transmitted through whole house - not a dongle as such) and then worked out at around $180 for three months (can't remember how many GB) with moderate use and not much streaming. Not a terrible option in the short-medium term (contracts seem to require 24 month committment) and if you don't use streaming, but definitely more expensive than landline/ADSL in the longer term

astera

Costs me $2.50 for every 10GB so I'm even using it for Netflix in the evenings.

I've also started making Google Play purchases and streaming those with a Chromecast which works remarkable well.

For those on the Telstra Freedom plan (prepaid phone), keep in mind that recharges give you call credit + SMS + data but leave your recharge credit intact. You can then use that credit to buy music/movies over at the Google Play store.

spouse of scouse

Not into movies. Don't download music. Like to be mobile. 10GB per month is plenty of data for me. I'm happy.

Pollyana

Same here. I like the odd TV programme, apart from that I'm not into downloading stuff - never been much of a movie watcher. The ability to take the laptop with me to work or on holiday or even just to a mates place is more important to me