OzWannabee

Hey All!

Just been told by Telstra today that we cannot have a landline to our new house, which is semi-rural, as Telstra won't do an above ground service anymore.

We have no problem getting a mobile signal so does anyone know if we are able to get internet access? And how do you find out who services your area?

Any info much appreciated!! Thanks!

Jo

Pomster

I have been told that I cannot have ADSL to my house which is in the West of Melbourne- not semi rural but poorly served!

Instead Tesltra are arranging for Wireless internet- a different modem and if you are in a signal 'blip' you might also need a booster antenna.

try asking telstra just to find your options....

quoll

If you go to the phone co websites you will usually find a link to coverage maps which will tell you where you can get 3g or next g or whatever it is called. I used a Virgin dongle down in Gippsland earlier in the year and though it wasnt lightning fast like the cable it was a good standby.

You can also get satellite broadband and that is something we were considering when thinking about going to live out in the bush - the claim is that you only need to see the sky. Cant think of the company at the mo though, sorry.

Centurion

I can't get ADSL so use Telstra 3G as of 2 days ago. Its faster than my ADSL was !

However, I did have to test different sim cards in my phone first and found that only Telstra really offered a good signal strength. Otherwise I could have signed up to a 3g service that was crap signal wise. Telstra are of course the most expensive sigh.

Whichever you decide you can just get a 3G USB router. The N3G005W from Netcomm supports the widest range of dongles. You basically just plug in your dongle to the router and hey presto you share your internet connection around your home, the same as you would an ADSL modem/router. $160 from ebay.

Whatever you do dont think that all 3G wireless broadbands are the same. They are not. It depends heavily on the area you are in and the coverage supplied by that network provider.

All said and done - ADSL would of course be cheaper and easier. But then, at least I can take this camping too

calNgary

If you have a look in a farmers paper/mag i have seen satellite connection & rural dogles advertised in them

hotfuss

Have you looked at wireless mobile broadband options? vodafone, Telstra, Optus, 3 etc.. all do it and they should have coverage checker maps on their sites..

quoll

Check out Whirlpool's forums they usually have the good gen http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/

OzWannabee

Thanks for all your replys! Looks like Telstra will service the area, Optus site wasn't working, 3 doesn't service us. I will check out the other sites today.

Will I be able to use Skype or another VOIP phone if I don't have a landline? And what are the calls like? Is there a time delay?

Thanks again!

aussiedreamer

Hi Jo

We use Skymesh, we have no problems with VOIP or skype with no time delays. Free install and you can get a landline with that if needed. Also long term thinking of Kids and school assignments if you have more than one computor you can have it wireless, so all can use at the same time.

Vodafone is not yet 3G in this area so dial up speed only and drop calls quite a lot on skype. Bigpond/Telstra mobile connect is good and will skype although works out really expensive with upload and download taken into account.

Jane

spottydog

I use a 3 mobile internet dongle plugged into one of their wireless routers. To this we (wirelessly) attach a windows laptop, apple laptop and a wireless Skype phone all of which work fine except we have found you cant really talk on the skype phone and surf together.

I only use the skype phone for calls to and from the UK and use my mobile for everything else. I've found the skype call quality to be pretty good even over the 3G connection