Had a letter from Telstra (or is it Hellstra!) this morning to say that line rental charges are going up to 31 dollars per month. As we have no family here it means we are having to pay 35+ dollars a month while only making a couple of calls that month. Get rid of the line and use your mobile, I hear you say, but I need it for the Computer. Anyone know if Optus or others are cheaper, and do they have a low user deal?

Thanks

We had telstra and they are very expensive and they rip you off with their broadband.We are now with optus for both home phone and broadband and are very happy.There are no hiden costs with the broadband with optus unlike testra! With phoning home we always use the phone cards as they are soooooo much cheaper,hope it helps,claire

If your on broadband then talk to your folks back in uk on www.skype.com
Its free and works very well but they need to be on broadband too.

Depending on where you live you may be able to get wireless broadband. visit www.iburst.com.au

The performance is not quite as good as hardwired broadband but you don't need a telephone line. You can even get the kit at Harvey Norman!

According to a bloke at work (who is a bit of a geek and knows about these things ) you will be able to get broadband without a landline phone from next year. Hope so, then I can ditch my phone too. I only really use my mobile for local calls and Skype for international.

Telstra are a bit iffy....
was getting a bit peed with charges always on the up, have been using AAPT for 3 months now..they are cheaper and no apparent problems as yet..

what did we get a couple of weeks ago? a call from Telstra saying they wanted our business back and would reduce costs for us...huh! reduce costs now...why can't they do it anyway for everyone?

Not that I would want to defend Telstra but ......

They have their hands tied in a lot of ways by anti-competitive legislation, which means that they can offer a better deal to new customers than they can to existing ones. I know it seems really crap and unfair but it's the same in the UK too with the old monopolies like BT, British Gas, the leccy boards, etc ...

Ok, so should everyone give them the boot for a month or so then go back as a new customer...that would be interesting...

If they can bring in the top man for billions of $$$.....they must be able to help the people somehow

It's called 'churn' in the industry and to be honest it's what keeps them going. I never stick with the same supplier for too long because you get a better deal by hopping between them

I take your point about the top man being paid $ridiculous though.

I have just signed up to iPrimus. They have a package deal, the one I got includes phone line rental, 50 free local calls per month and broadband internet 5000mb, 512kbs for $79.99 per month. As we use a card for telephone calls to UK and Ireland, I dont think our bills will be anymore than this per month for telephone and internet.

This is half the price we were paying to Optus for phone and internet. When I phoned up to cancel and disconnect from Optus (luckily our contract was due to expire in a month) they offered me a $10 reduction for 6 months to stay with them LOL.

Mel

Go to this site http://whirlpool.net.au/ and type in your telephone number in the top RH corner in the area provided. Hint, its called "Broadband Choice"

That should show up the various ISPs in your area and if they have the local exchange DLSAM'ed.

Good luck not all exchanges have been done, especially out side the metro areas.