mand8002

We are in Wellington Point and have the same problem. My husband is an I.T consultant and works from home, so we definitely need internet. Dial up is way too slow so we have had to get wireless broadband. We have gone with Three, as theres looked the best deal at the time. We get 5Gb for $99 per month, still expensive but at this point in time not a lot we can do.

JackTheLad

I'm pretty sure Wellington point has cable. No?

If it does, you could get Foxtel from Telstra (just get their cheapest package about $37 a month), and cable Broadband also from Telstra (about $69 for 12 Gb a month, and some mad untrue advertised speed of a about 17Mbps). Works out a bit more expensive than what you pay currently, but you would have a bigger download limit, 'faster' connection, and Foxtel!

JTL

bigAPE

It is a sad situation in Australia given the capability they have. Lots of the outer suburbs of Melbourne also have poor to no-ADSL with only the inner core exchanges being ADSL2+ enabled.

I do feel for you guys. We are in a very lucky situation of being in Bayside, Melbourne, with Telstra Cable Extreme at 30Mbps downstream (~3.5MBps) & 1Mbps upstream with 60GB monthly download Oh, and it's not untrue. I regularly get 3.5MB per second downloading 1GB+ ISO images from Microsoft MSDN. It's a sight to see I tell you

Virgin/3/Telstra 3G Wirless Broadband is always an option but as The Bloke has said it's seriously expensive (we have an account left over from our arrival), but you should be aware that if you don't live within decent range of a tower with UMTS/HSDPA you will only get 170Kbps maximum over basic GPRS and it's unlikely they will tell you if you are or aren't

discobay

That Telstra Cable Extreme sounds great - how much does it cost and how long are you tied in for?

VikkiL

We live in Cleveland and have Virgin Broadband, no problems with it at all so far. We have just moved units and, as it is wireless, could just pick it up and take it with us.

Its definitely worth considering.

bigAPE

Cost a lot at $130/pm, but we have got a 9 months 1/2 price deal on it. The contract is for 12 months, I think.

We run a software consultancy in the media industry, mainly from home, so we need the best connection we can get and offset the majority of it as a business expense.

mand8002

Apparantly we can't have cable, if we wanted foxtel it would be by satellite.

discobay

And I guess that you got the 1/2 price deal because you bought other Telstra products? Well it is expensive but worth considering. I'm used to unlimited at 6Mbps for AUD3x where I've just come from and it's hard to justify paying what you are used to paying here. I may try the Virgin BB@Home deal.

bigAPE

Was it really "Unlimited" download ? So all the traffic was unmetered, there was no protocol or application level filtering on there to stop BitTorrent (etc) and it didn't drop to 256Kbps after 20GB ? WOW, that's a real good deal. The simple fact is that Australia is much more expensive for Broadband as its really still relatively new here. Most phone shops (Telstra, Optus, etc) still have no clue what the difference is between an ADSL and an ADSL2+ enabled exchange.

Yep we already had a Telstra Home phone, but that was pre-arranged by the rental company as part of a package. So far we see no reason to change. I have only had to call up Telstra once about the phone so far and that was my fault.

discobay

Yes I am sorry to say that our broadband were really good. Mine was one of the older plans and new customers could choose >10Mbps unlimited. Contracts were either 12 or 24 months. ADSL modems were delivered in person and not charged (delivery or monthly). And no filtering or shaping (I downloaded a lot of bt files). Looking back I now fully appreciate what I had.

sssstew

this is bad news to read, broadband is essential for what i do, so will definatly be checking this now when the time comes, thanks for the warning.

Cardos

I just been reading some intereting stuff regards the new Optus/Elders OPEL network and how coverage could improve and also help bring prices down in the residential markets.
Apparently Telsta are spitting their dummy due to the AU governments decision to fund Optus and not them, I read this could be one of the reasons why Telstra arnt installing new ports at local exchanges, ofc I dunno how much is rumor and how much is truth.

http://www.optus.com.au/portal/site/...extfmt=default

Mr Anderson

good advice.

im on dial up for $3.80 a month 20c call for as long as you want but only 70mb download and 18c p/mb there after but max,s out at 23 dollars. so you dont pay more than a tenner per month
They give you an internet accelerator that has my kbps up to a whopping 49kbps which is great for surfing and emails etc til we can get in to a city area in 6 months time

or they do unlimited for 9 dollars per month


all the best. the company if interested is called lizzy.com.au

riktus106

well ive just moved to Brisbane and what a shock ive just found out that if you have a big pond account then visiting their site is unmetered but if you use a voip program like teamspeak then it is classified as a download even though you are not downloading anything ...if you are playing games as in world of war craft then that also is classified as a download even though you are not downloading anything .... if you watch utube videos that also is classified as a download .....im an it engineer and there is a big difference from actual download and streaming video surely these aussie company's knows the difference between
udp and tcip streaming protocols and downloading in the uk they would be breaking the law but i guess its different hear ...and if you go on there sites :I.e. BIGPOND.COM ITS FREE ..what a con something needs to be done about this and i am going to take this further with trading standards :curse:

discobay

Good luck. It may not be layman's terms but you did say you are familiar with I.T. right?