Need Advice on Internet Connection

Lwelfoj on 08/09/2015 - 15:41

Hi Guys,

I need some help in figuring out what to do here, I haven't had a home internet connection for years and just used my mobile as a hotspot and have managed to keep my mobile data under control, but recently I have started some uni study and a small business and my data costs are getting a little ridiculous.
Last month I had about 18gb which on my Telstra plan is about $250 a month! No other mobile providers have decent coverage in my area so I cant go to cheaper mobile carrier.

Telstra called me the other day trying to get me to sign up for a 2 year 200gb adsl2+ contract with free phone line connection, $9 internet connection and a free modem but I'm not a fan of telstra's NBN deals and I'm worried they will charge me when I have to move to NBN (our area is not NBN ready yet but should be in approx. 6 months)

I seem to be pretty limited in choice for ISPs available to me (Paget 4740 QLD exchange). TPGs Off-net plans seem to be the best available at $59.99 a month. I already have an old modem which should still be fine to use until I get NBN.

Should I:

a) Sign up with Telstra for 2 years.
Pros - No phone line connection fee, should be good internet,
Cons - Locked into an expensive NBN provider, will have to pay fees to move to NBN?,

b) Sign up to cheap ISP (like TPG) on 6 month or month to month contract
Pros - Cheaper internet, More flexibility when NBN comes around,
Cons - Possibly crap internet, Have to pay phone connection fee and line rental (I think),

c) Stick with mobile data until NBN arrives
Pros - No set up costs, I don't have to do anything :P
Cons - High monthly cost, No Netflix :(

d) Something I haven't thought of?

Thanks in advance

Jeremy

Internet

Comments

  • spackbace on 08/09/2015 - 15:51
    +1

    Look to a month to month plan with iinet if you can. You'll just have to pay setup costs. Look to pay extra for the turbo option, depending on how far you are from the exchange.

    • welfoj on 08/09/2015 - 19:46

      Will look into it thanks mate

  • Costanza on 08/09/2015 - 15:58
    +1

    Check if belong is available at your location.

    • welfoj on 08/09/2015 - 19:30

      Pretty sure It would be as it seems they use telstra ports? But they have only 12 month plans yes?

  • oscargamer on 08/09/2015 - 16:34
    +1

    you will be charged to move to NBN if you sign up for ADSL+ (any provider)

  • scrimshaw on 08/09/2015 - 18:23

    I would go month-to-month with Belong, and later on go with Belong NBN or go with a smaller NBN provider.

    I have been with TPG for the last 6 years — unfortunately once Ive moved house and NBN was available I decided to say good bye to TPG and went with Devoted NBN, as they offer a $66 Unlimited 25/5 plan with no phone — fits my usage since I didn't need a telephone line and this worked out to be cheaper than TPG.

    • welfoj on 08/09/2015 - 20:47

      Wow thats cheap. Is there any drawbacks with going for the real budget nbn ISPs in terms of connection quality? I'd imagine there would be a noticable difference in support levels?

      • scrimshaw on 08/09/2015 - 21:28

        In theory, an NBN customer (of any telco) should get close to / very close to the speeds they paid for. This would be true if RSP's did not over-provision their bandwidth and sign up more customers than their networks can handle. However, for an RSP to be profitable, they have no choice but to use this business model and the reality is that NBN speeds are not guaranteed, and just like current ADSL business practices, you're also going to experience the occassional network logjam and slow-downs. Outside of peak hours however, the speeds you experience on the NBN will generally perform just as advertised.

        Due to the lack of backhaul capacity most 'budget' ISP's on the NBN network cannot provide maximum speeds during peak hours. It's explained here.. Will the situation be better if you went with a more expensive provider, like Telstra? It probably is, but you also have to consider that their data allowances are not as generous and the unlimited plans are also 40~50% more expensive. So it's a trade-off between speed during peak hours and price per GB

        With Devoted, they deal with this by actually capping the user to 1mbps when they detect extremely high network activity. And if the user wishes, they can lift the restriction and uncap themselves, but the number of times they can do so is limited to 5 times every month.
        If you don't lift the restriction manually, you are uncapped automatically usually after 12 midnight or earlier (depending on overall network load)

        As to whether this model is 'efficient' or 'effective' in maintaining overall network load and ensuring that everyone gets a reasonable share of the bandwidth pie, is a topic of debate on whirlpool. From my experience today though, I downloaded 3GB during the peak hour period and got capped, so that was a less than stellar experience.

        The support with this telco however is fine though — support staff seems to be local and there is a rep on WP.

        • welfoj on 09/09/2015 - 22:49

          Ouch 1mbps! I'm not sure I could handle it being that slow, even if it is only every now and then. Even though I dont have anything now If I do have it I want it to be at least as fast as my phone! Optus seems to have much better nbn plans so might look into peoples experience with them. Otherwise I may be better off just going with telstra gor adsl and nbn 😕

        • scrimshaw on 10/09/2015 - 00:58

          @welfoj:

          For the average user I don't think he/she will get capped very frequently. I'm sort of a moderate to heavy user though, and I do torrent, upload, and download large files from time to time, and my household watches standard def IPTV.

          In the last 3 months I've been with Devoted, I've only been capped about 3 times. So not as bad as you think.

  • bjdchwr on 08/09/2015 - 20:44

    I was a Belong DSL user a month ago (1.3M Download in the morning and afternoon, 0.2M Download in the evening and mostly all over the weekend!). They are NOT USING Telstra's network (Well they use Telstra DSLAM but your relationship with Telstra just ends up @ your local DSLAM).

    I was a TPG user before (at my old house) and I thought Belong was cheap ($1 activation) but I was WRONG! I would recommend you to give it a go with TPG @ 6 mo. I might be wrong but I get decent speed (1.5M Download - 1.8K from exchange, and Netflix experience is great!).

    • welfoj on 08/09/2015 - 20:51

      Yeah Ive heard a few similar reports about belong, also kicking people onto higher usage plans before they even reach their current usage limit 😨 not sure if it would be any different with tpg though as I can only get their "off-net" service which doesnt use tpg hardware.

      • bjdchwr on 08/09/2015 - 20:59

        AFAIK, if you get a upgrade from ADSL to NBN, Telstra will cancel your current ADSL plan without paying penalties.

        You may do some research yourself but, again, I might be wrong.

        • welfoj on 08/09/2015 - 21:13

          They will cancel the adsl plan no worries but only if I go with telstra for nbn, and they will charge to start that service.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join