Hi All,
I'm currently writing an essay regarding Internet service providers and wondering what are the things consumers look for in making their decision. What are the important priorities? I know that the website is finding bargains but do most people go on price alone or other decisions?
We go for value, not price. Dodo may be cheaper, but a lot people avoid it because of a reputation of being oversold, leading to low speed, drop outs and high pings.
For me its stability foremost, then download limit, speed, then price. But its not always about more is better, its about how well it suits your needs. For instance, a download limit of 500gb is not much different for my needs than unlimited. Neither is a speed of 50mbit over 10mbit. I might pay more for these, but its not necessary.
that's a tough one… each circumstance has different priority's and often they have to weigh each priority against each other.
a work at home main income provider would be looking at reliability as the top priority
a gamer household would be looking for speed/price ?
a streamer would be looking for high upload speed
a pirate/netflix addict would be looking for data allowance
other issues could be
contract length
customer service hours
bundles
brand loyalty
and others have no choice , so availability is key to everyone's decision, cant go for the best value plan if its not available to you.
personally i value the following quality's in my isp , price/download allowance/reliability at about a 32%/40%/27% ratio
so i went for tpg 500gb as its fairly cheap but i never go over 500gb (often come close) so the unlimited for 10$ more is unneeded, has a high allowance 500gb ( fits my needs perfectly ) and they had a pretty good rep when i joined, are a telstra reseller and have had an acceptable amount of issues since.
i did not go with telstra because at the time they had very bad data allowances , and the price was almost double for half the bandwidth, their service had a much better reputation at the time, i would not change to them now as , they are still significantly more expensive and still have low terrible gb/$ plans
i did not go with optus because of previous issues i had with them which they could never resolve thus to me, they are unreliable ( this one is purely my opinion as to many people optus is a reliable service provider.), i dont think i would every try optus again unless i was forced to or they provided a insane valued service.
i have not moved from tpg as the major issues iv had where resolved, and the value and reliability have been pretty good.
Your mileage may vary, as everyone has different needs. To me, the most important factor is stability or a rock solid reliable connection, good customer service, then download limits, preferably unlimited, and then download speed and price. My son alone goes over 500Gb on a regular basis, and others in our family are heavy internet users as well. For all of these reasons, it is best to avoid Optus cable, and I am stuck with them right now, as Telstra cable is not available in my street, and I do not have a Telstra phone line. Any speed above ADSL2 speed is only useful if you are downloading very large files such as 13 Gb or 15 Gb files for gaming. For all other purposes, ADSL2 speed is fine, and you really don't need the higher speeds for streaming video, email, youtube etc. I live in hope that the National broadband Network will reach my street, and then I will change to the TPG NBN service. Previously, I was on the premium cable speed of 100Mbps, then I changed to unlimited at 30 Mbps, but due to cable congestion in my street, I sometimes have a download speed of 6 Mbps at peak evening times. Mine is the only computer in the house actually connected to the wireless router by network cable, and I use the Optus speedtest on a regular basis. When our speed changed from a nominal 100 Mbps to 30 Mbps, our home wifi speed did not change at all, as it is dependent on the quality of the wireless router and the wifi network adapters on the laptops. I have a very good wireless router. It took some time for me to convince the family that this would be true, even after the speed drop. Our wifi speed is great considering that we have brick interior walls. The wifi signal is even strong on the footpath in front of the house. Reluctantly, I must admit that Malcolm Turnbull is sadly correct when he talks about internet download speeds. When we really are getting 30 Mbps, our wifi speed averages 25 Mbps.Go for a Telstra reseller as they are cheaper than Telstra, and pray for the NBN to reach your street. I am currently calling Optus monthly and obtaining refunds.
Good luck with your essay! When you really are looking for an internet service provider, all of the advice above is valid, depending upon your requirements.
Thanks all for your excellent input. It would appear that many companies advertise the unlimited plan but do you think that it is only a marketing exercise that the quality and speed would be greatly different to say those on 200GB-500GB. If customers are using netflix, Youtube and Torrent downloads, Internet providers have to buy more bandwidth and wouldn't those users have their speed reduced as they are hogging the internet causing bottlenecks. Netflix has software that detects your internet speed that allows it to stream but may not be great quality. It all depends on how fast your internet speed. The faster the better the quality
I read an interesting proposition once. It was that if customers are given a limit, say 200gb a month, they will try and use it all up, because they feel they have paid for it and not using it would be wasting. But if you don't define a limit, they just use what they want to use. So, you may actually get lower usage, and its a huge marketing point.
Consumers are greedy by nature.They want more than they pay for. Remember the days for the fix line internet where you pay for extra download over your limit. That plan appears to be gone and now we have unlimited plans to cater for everyone as no one likes to get a shock bill. But do we really get what we pay for in terms of speed and quality.I think under the critical information their is a fair go policy.
Hey good timing as i've been doing my little checklist (moving out with my partner) and we're currently looking at ADSL. sigh shame to let the cable go, but can't justify for 2 people now :P
My ADSL checklist: