Looks like a new offer from Belong for those lucky few with NBN connections. "Unlimited" data for $70/month with 12/1Mbps bandwidth, add another $25/month to upgrade to 100/40Mbps. No set up fee for 12 months contract and Sagemcom F@ST 4315 Wi-Fi Modem for $1 up front.
There are also extra savings through referral + cashback sites.
Referral for Belong mobile only. Referrer will receive $20 credit. Referee will receive $20 off next (2nd) payment.
Referral for Belong Broadband only: Referrer will receive $20 credit. Referee will receive $20 off next (2nd) payment.
The ISP is technically Telstra. Not sure that means Belong has access to the same "capacity" that Telstra "buys". As for the modem, that would depend on what type of internet, isn't it? FTTP and FTTN are different technologies.
I've had my ADSL2+ with them for a few years, and it's generally been good. Less congestion issues than with IInet.
True that for ADSL2+ the "Technicolor" modem is crap (Belong provides the same modem as Telstra), and gave me a 20% lower sync speed. It's in my cupboard, unused.
I'm supposed to be getting FTTN in a month (counting down the days) - not sure about the quality of the modem. Certainly not counting on 100Mbps speeds.
The ISP is technically Telstra.
False.. The ISP is owned by Telstra and nothing more.
It's as correct a statement as saying that a Skoda Yeti is technically a Bugatti Veyron cause they're both owned by Volkswagen Group.
So glad I read this. Got my Veyron on gumtree up for swaps and just had an offer for a Yeti. No deal now. Cheers scubacoles.
False.. The ISP is owned by Telstra and nothing more.
For ADSL, they use the Telstra network, Telstra infrastructure (in the exchange), and you get the same modem Telstra provides. They are effectively reselling Telstra services at a lower cost.
For NBN, I don't know what the deal is, but chances are they access the same "capacity" purchased by Telstra. Cheap ISP's have more congestion because they buy less capacity (bandwidth). That is my understanding of things anyway. To simply state that "they are owned by Telstra and nothing more" sounds incorrect to me.
For ADSL, they use the Telstra network,
Again false..
They use Telstra DSLAMs - yes,
you get the same modem - yes,
The network they use from exchange to the wider internet is completely different to Telstra's.. a traceroute proves it.
Cheap ISP's have more congestion because they buy less capacity (bandwidth).
Correct, mostly…
Cheap ISP's (like Belong) have more congestion because they buy less capacity (bandwidth).
Fixed it for you!
To simply state that "they are owned by Telstra and nothing more"
is completely correct.
@scubacoles: Ok… happy to be corrected. When I signed up, I was told firmly "Powered by Telstra". I wonder whether that has changed halfway, around the same time this article was published. When I look up my ip address, some identify it as Telstra, some as Telcoinabox.
My sync speed was higher when I first signed up too.
Appreciate the extra insights.
@Make it so:
Glad you took it the right way..
What does "Powered by Telstra" even mean?
Guarantee a marketing person thought it up!
It's just vague enough that their legal team would have passed it, but simultaneously clear enough that anyone might think it was the same service.
I bet Legal wrote some statement that "Powered" could be considered to be true in a financial sense cause Telstra Capital was invested to get the company up and running from nothing.
Telcoinabox is a Telstra service (which is also used by non-Telstra owned ISPs). Everything about it is Telstra owned, its just not the same network as the regular "bigpond" service and is a different service class.
Kinda like Jetstar and Qantas
@Thrawn:
Pretty sure you're incorrect…
http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/462890/inabox_group_plans_i…
M2 Telecommunications would be interested to know that they bought 12% of a Telstra owned company!
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:CQ4eYJR…
Looks like you're right. Been thinking all this time telcoinabox is a wholesale service of Telstra for smaller budget ISPs.
Thats pretty amazing really, Telstra reselling a competitors service for something it provides as a main core-business. Particularly considering its network capacity (very low additional variable costs)
That's it then, I'm getting a Skoda Veyron!
Not sure why he was negvoted. I'm with Belong and they're pretty (profanity) shit. I'm on a 100 plan and get 20mbps sometimes. It was good when I first signed up but it's clear they're struggling with congestion.
@tren:
He was negvoted cause the statements he made were incorrect.
Belong do not re-sell Telstra's services. That's why they are "pretty (profanity) shit".
He said 'effectively reselling'. They're a subsidiary offering NBN services off of Telstra's network at a lower cost. Most of us would have understood what he meant by that.
Whatever. At the end of the day their service sucks.
They're a subsidiary
Yes
offering NBN services off of Telstra's network
No - this is the incorrect bit.. they offer NBN Services off Telcoinabox's network
at a lower cost.
Yes
At the end of the day their service sucks.
Yes
I thought I saw this last week, but it was either here… or people were SH.TTING on belong.
NBN is the new ADSL. If you want cheap unlimited, you've gotta make a/some compromises.
Thank Malcom Turnbull for that: remember no one needs a higher speed than 12Mbit according to Malcom the Idiot.
My Dad's on a cheaper Exetel plan…
Would be $89/month for 100Mb/unlimited including a free voip phone number (calls extra).
http://www.exetel.com.au/broadband/nbn
And if you only wanted 12Mb/unlimited it would be $59/month.
Very interesting, but doesn't include a normal phone line, for those who need/want one.
Been smashing ClubTelco unlimited ADSL2+ for a few years now. $40/mth (plus annual fee), no contract. Been rock solid. Got several friends onboard, too.
NBN was ran to my door, something I thought I'd sell my first-born to have… But how much speed does one really need? I sync at 1.4MB, and can pull-down big stuff fast.
There will be NO normal phone lines with NBN. It becomes voip… you use your nbn bb connection.
upload speeds…
You're right. Massive increase, compared to my 1Mbps. But I have no real use for it. Maybe run colo/backup/web server for family business.
Exetel are notorious for hopeless speeds and selling unlimited services which they then kick people off (for using their unlimited service too much).
Seriously do not waste your time and money.
Anecdotally I signed up for Exetel FTTB and they didn't provide an installation date for a fortnight. Couldn't give me an ETA when I called them after the two weeks, so cancelled. Called Telstra and had an install date given to me on the phone, 7 days from then. Service is exactly 100/40, peak hours, through ethernet. You get what you pay for with NBN.
There's no unlimited plan for Skymesh?
"To match"
Skymesh do not match unlimited plans.
Skymesh said they do not match Unlimited plan:(
ask for 1TB instead.
1TB != Unlimited…
Don't troll on ozbargain please.
I've been with them for 6 months, never had an issue with speed. Also, if you sign up for the standard speed, remember that it's Megabits not Megabytes, you can use this very unclear term to your advantage, if you get what I mean. I complained and now have 100/40 for a better price.
I don't get what you mean.
Exetel is cheaper, although I do hear people complain about speeds when on 100/40 plan. Can anyone who has exetel 100/40 tell me their experience? All I hear is shit, but then again, no one goes onto a forum to say that their internet is performing just as it should…
Go to WP and read the isp forums… there is a dummy spitter on all of them blaming the isp for something.
Yeah, but where there's a lot of smoke, there's more likely to be a fire rather than one, unfortunate individual.
Exetel's forum is a Furnace… I'm a happy current Exetel user (Telstra Port, old pricing), but I'll be jumping ship when the NBN arrives.
Been with Exetel for over 10 yrs. Had via optus then Telstra when we moved. Now on NBN FTTN and it is perfect.
Now… about Exetel support :-( LOL.. Guides and advice given during NBN changeover was pathetic but finally managed to work it out.
They are cheap and you have to cut a lot of corners to be cheap in that business.
If you can figure things out yourself then they are good… otherwise pay the $ for an isp with better support.
@xywolap:
How long has your area had FTTN?
Enough time that the free 150mbps CVC has been exhausted and contention is an issue, or only recently?
I'm 100% confident that Exetel will cut corners on CVC and I'm not willing to have a slower service than I already have at the times when I use the internet (pretty much exclusively in peak hours).
Yeah. I will be moving into a FTTP estate at the end of the year, so am currently getting an idea of the various plans out there. I have read a handful of comments from people on WP complaining about 100/40 speeds, but it's hard to gauge is their opinion and issue represent everyone else who has Exetel. 99% of users could be happy, not sure.
Also, I am not sure if FTTN users are more susceptible to network slowness vs FTTP.
When I move in (end of year), I am considering Exetel. Perhaps I'll give it a go and if it's shit, find another provider. Wouldn't lock myself into a 12 month contract.
Also a happy Exetel user (been 10+ years now).
It's been about 2 months since FTTN NBN came to my suburb. I'm sticking with ADSL as long as I can.
The real benefit of the NBN has been faster ADSL speed as people have jumped over and contention has reduced. Slowly increased from 6 to 8 Mbps since NBN went online. Hoping Exetel leave the capacity on ADSL the same for the period until I have to change over.
The biggest problem with Exetel is their "you're not profitable to us" email.
If you go above some unknown limit with their "unlimited" plans, then when your contract runs out, they'll simply tell you that they don't want to do business with you, and you have a few weeks to find another provider.
According to Whirlpool, this can also happen with fixed allocation plans, if you use all of your allocation every month. Can also happen if you need more than a certain number of support calls, I think it was three per year.
When John Linton ran Exetel, I recall he said that their profit averaged $2 per customer per month, and that's why they discard people who aren't profitable.
Being a budget isp means watching the bottom line very closely and they have to make the most of every drop of bandwidth to achieve that.
Its a bit like when you see "all you can eat" ….don't expect lobster and fillet steak… LOL.
If you want to download massive amounts every month then a budget provider may not be the best place to do it. For most low to moderate users it is the way to go.
The problem is that they have a limit on their "unlimited", and won't tell you what it is. Likewise with the support calls, it's not something you are warned about, and in many cases (like a problem at their end) it's also unfair.
I have an Exetel FTTP 100/40 connection. Speedtest.net reports 89.79mbps down, 37.96mbps up and 6ms ping. I haven't had any real issues with the connection since switching to them in July last year, other than the occasional lost network sync (maybe once a quarter) which has sorted itself out within a couple of minutes.
Yes the main "benefit" for Belong is that it's Telstra-backed, and might be using the same backhaul and international connectivity as Telstra. Otherwise when you just look at the pricing by itself
Not sure about TPG but I has been a long time Exetel customer until about a year ago, and the network quality is just not there (they might have improved over the last 12 months though but I wouldn't know).
They definitely don't use the same network as Telstra. Several posters on whirlpool have done the trace routes and proved it.
There is a lot of talk of them being heavily congested.
My ADSL2 connection identifies as Telstra, but I don't know whether that is the same for NBN. Personally I can't see why not - the whole business model behind Belong is to resell Telstra-backed services cheaply by reducing overhead (call up their support, and enjoy talking to people who less about internet than you do).
I went with Belong after continuous problems with other ISP's, and thus far it has been the most reliable connection I have had. Happy to pay a small amount extra for reduced frustration.
Telstra use cheap call centres, so I think your logic is flawed.
Yes the main "benefit" for Belong is that it's Telstra-backed
Id be worries then . Maybe a major outage will leave you broadbandless for a day or less
Not sure about TPG
I've been on TPG Unlimited ADSL2+ for 8 years paying $59.99 and never had a problem with them. Regardless of speed, i think $60 is a fair price for unlimited internet. Anything over $60 is just a rip off.
It doesn't make sense to the business if Belong provide the same performance/service as Telstra for less $—killing its own Telstra products.
So I would assume Belong is offering "value" products whereas Telstra is offering "premium".
No different for supermarkets selling the normally "premium priced" Browns milk at a cheaper price, branded as their homebrand.
Iinet tried doing the same thing with Jiva, which failed (in part because Belong was hard to compete with)
Belong saves on overheads by not training their staff to know about Internet.
Belong are selling "the most watered down milk you can legally put on the shelf", sourced from Telcoinabox.
Telstra are selling "Premium Jersey Cow milk", sourced from Telstra.
Oils aint Oils!
'there is a packet loss issue with your line, we will fix it ASAP'
gets a text saying 'we've fixed it, reboot your router'
still unreliable, and my down sync speed went down 1000kbps..
belong is absolute cancer.
I dunno whether this applies to Belong/Telstra or not, but it can be a valid pricing tactic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination
TLDR:
Some people will be willing to pay $X
Some people will only be willing to pay $Y which is less than $X
Sell what is basically the same product for two different prices to maximise your revenue.
They aren't selling the same product. Belong does not use Telstra's network.
Can anyone on this ISP do a traceroute to something and find out exactly what kinda peering it has? There's no real information on who's infrastructure they use (for backhaul after NBNs infrastructure) on their website, and it seems no one here overly knows beyond 'it COULD be Telstra'.
'Cheapest' doesn't mean the 'best', or even 'best-value'. It means they're a company that scrimps on costs in every possible way to pass the savings to you. As soon as a company releases 'unlimited' plans - there's the first black flag for me.
Internet is not an unlimited magic resource. The ISP has to buy a certain amount of it (bandwidth) and splits it across their customer base. The companies that offer 'unlimited' plans don't buy (anywhere near) enough of it to supply everyone on their network an unlimited service, and the end user suffers with what most people know as 'congestion'.
Doesn't matter how good a network is or who's hardware it runs through, if the ISP isn't buying enough resources to feed it, it's lights off, or in the internet's case - crawling speeds.
If you're someone who doesn't care what speed they pipe you - Beyond (and lots of others IE: Optus, Dodo, Exetel, TPG, iiNet, iPrimus, etc) are for you.
If you're someone like me, who likes reliable highest speed possible at all times (which means you'll have a metred account) - a company like Telstra is for you.
Telstra is the only remaining 'premium' ISP in Australia, and as such - you have to pay big money for it. Their peering and routing is in a class of it's own compared to every single ISP on the market.
iiNet and Internode used to be considered 'premium', but since the TPG takeover - they have been crippled and all the things that made them great (routing and peering) have been butchered. Capacity has been decreased too, resulting is congestion which never used to be a problem pre-TPG era.
TL;DR: Internet is a perfect example of 'you get what you pay for'.
So much to reply to. I agree with points, but IMO it's equally naive in other direction. Statements too strong.
Your quoted statement gets thrown-around too loosely. Such a cliche.
Telstra costs double/triple/more than what I'm paying… and they offer little-if-any difference.
Paying a higher price guarantees nothing.
"Chivas Regal Effect"
Telstra isn't even THAT much more expensive these days - especially with their current promotion they're having. $99 for 1TB 25mbps, $119 for 50mbps or $129 for 100mbps all with unlimited landline calls.
It's well worth the extra $30-odd extra over the cheaper ISP's in my opinion, considering the speeds and pings on Telstra are rock solid.
On Wp some people have gotten the speed boost for free. So $99 all up for 100mb.
I guess it comes to your own definition of what is better value. Which is why many ISPs still surviving including Telstra.
Some willing to pay more for better service and some find it not worth it.
Still I think Australia as a developed country compare to others in general should have better value and faster internet service.
12/1 on the NBN that's a joke right
That's the speed most people get during peak times on the budget bottom of the barrel ISP's 100/40 plans anyway. Haha.
For NBN, you'd think they could/would guarantee it. All this money, tech, effort… and no guarantees?
The problem is NBN are charging too much for CVC bandwidth at wholesale.
If it were to be a 'gaurenteed' speed, prices at retail be would be a lot higher (maybe even double) for the ISP's to turn a profit per connection.
As well as the number of active fibres and switching hardware in the nodes for FTTN.
200+ people sharing 2Gbps has to have problems with congestion at some stage.
That's all the speed you could ever need according to Philosopher Prince of Broadband Malcom Turnbull.
better deal on TPG for the 12/1 for $60
LONG RANT/BELONG REVIEW
ADSL user, don't flame me just because 'maybe their NBN is different'
Belong is single-handedly the worst ADSL provider I have been on in a very long time. I've been on MyNetFone, Optus, and iiNet thus far and as my family was moving into a new apartment we decided to sign a 12-month plan with Belong. They advertise as using the Telstra network but it does certainly not feel like it at all.
The service was set up on the day we moved in and my mum had gotten the text message with all the crucial info needed to log in. We didn't have a modem and they didn't dispatch the supplied modem until the day after, which then took a week to get to us. I plugged in the modem after being in awe of the tiny size of this thing. We have 2 phone ports in the house - one in my parent's room upstairs and one in the kitchen downstairs. Since upstairs I had packet loss issues with the included modem, I had to leave it downstairs and the walls are thick so I was getting 2 bars max upstairs, and speeds of around 2Mbps. I game quite a lot, so this was really bad for me - I remember going on servers in Garry's Mod and having 100+ ping and 15% packet loss with lots of frequent dropouts. We ended up buying an ASUS DSL-N15 (or something to that extent) from MSY and using that upstairs, which has been a pleasant experience (the router, anyway) thus far. Also, I put a power drill through the modem they gave me.
I know more than this freaking support team. They're totally useless. See my comment above for my total experience with these buffoons. They once had what I assumed was an Australian support team but then I was connected with an Asian support agent (I'm assuming Sri Lankan).
Freaking horrid. This was taken when I was connected over GbE via a D-Link 5 port Gigabit switch connected directly to the router. http://www.speedtest.net/result/5262429744.png
I'm not far from the exchange at all and my neighbour on the same Telstra plan with their default router gets almost double the speed.
Belong has been garbage thus far. I don't recommend these idiots at all. You get stuck on tier 2 slow speeds, with the worst hardware known to mankind, and GO ANYWHERE ELSE IF YOU CAN.
Friends had belong adsl and hated it..moved to optus. I'm about to go on internode nbn myself. Not unlimited but will see how it is
Ill just add my 2 cents. Shop around and haggle with the telcos. Im with optus nbn 100/40 with unlimited and a phone line and only spending $90 /month. I also get optus tv as a nice bonus
Holy cow! How did you get one? Tell me pls!
http://www.optus.com.au/shop/broadband/home-broadband/plans
The entertainment bundle is $90 normally its an extra $20 for 100/40 but after some discussion they added it as a bonus
Belong have terrible customer service, just check their Facebook page. I was throttled for over a month and they did nothing.
Just used the belong app on my phone to changed from 1000GB to unlimited plan at no extra cost. They don't seem to have any added charge for unlimited over 1000GB. Very timely as we're about 100GB short of our cap with 10 days to go. I wouldn't have believed it possible even a year ago, but the constant streaming in our house just chews up data.
As a comment on the company - I'm with them as they got me connected much faster than either Telstra or Exetel could when I moved house, they were the only ones who could immediately give me a date for a technician to come and connect us to the NBN. There was a delay after connection, apparently NBN rather than belong related, of a few days, but due to that they gave me my first month free. Have had no troubles since (I can't get 100/40 due to distance from the node, get 25/5, which in real life is around 20/5 on speedtest).
how much n where do you buy nighthawk router , I'm going to sign up with Belong, but not skeptical of the router they give.
Or any other routers you would recommend
Ta
I'm on belong. Used my own net gear nighthawk router. Theirs was terrible.
I get 100/40 on a good day. 80/30 is average. Pretty damn happy. 18gb game Downloads like a 700meg movie used to on adsl.
Support is shit. But what provider isn't these days. Used to be on internode when they were good. Nothing will ever come close to that. 6 hrs on the phone talking to an Aussie one night tryin to get faster speeds. 6 hours!!
There is also a coupon to get a month free. I don't think you are meant to see it anymore. but I think it still works. Google it and see if you find it.
Cash rewards also have $100 back. Waiting paitently for mine.
how much n where do you buy nighthawk router , I'm going to sign up with Belong, but not skeptical of the router they give.
Or any other routers you would recommend
Ta
Office works price match. Was around $280. Good router. But you still need devices with decent wifi cards to make the most of it.
Assuming you mean the Router and not the Router/VDSL modem combo… i got OW to pricematch with MSY and paid somewhere in the vicinity of $215.
I decided to go with TPG's unlimited NBN deal, plus free calls for $99.99 a month after doing months of research.
Been with them for a month. I haven't seen my comp go below 94/38, even during peak (this is with a wired connection).
Their modem is terrible for wireless, but which provider isn't? So BYO for this part.
Support is great.
Can't complain at all with TPG.
FTTN?
Is the "modem" part okay? Because the wireless is the router part, and that is always shocking on the ones ISP's provide for free.
Do you happen to know how many people are on your cabinet? This website can tell you: http://www.finder.com.au/nbn-tracker/rollout/list
I'm supposed to get FTTN in a month, and am doing my research. Unfortunately my cabinet will have >300 households connected to it, so I am very conscious of congestion issues if I pick a "budget" provider.
Congestion issues at the node will affect even premium providers assuming NBN let the situation get that bad… Hopefully not! It'll make this already terrible joke of an "investment" an absolute debacle that should forever erase the fallacy that Liberals are inherently better economic managers than Labor.
Budget providers will skimp on CVC but that's back at the POI (likely at the nearest large exchange if you're suburban) which covers tens of thousands of homes.
If you're at all worried about congestion, you should steer clear of budget providers period!
It's FTTN.
The modem part is good. Never disconnects, but the router is bad. I'm going to change it over to my 7800n modem/router and then buy RT-AC68U.
Thanks for the link, I checked, only 169 connected premises in my area ID.
Hard to compare if you have over 300, I have checked all different times of the day and the speed on the desktop hasn't dropped past 94.
Is the 7800N a VDSL modem?
Even if it is, you're better to bridge your ISP supplied Modem to avoid any current or future incompatibilities between NBN requirements and "non-approved" modems.
Use the 7800N as a router only, unless you really need AC wireless… How many of your devices can see AC wireless?
Yep, 7800N has a separate RJ-45 WAN port to use for NBN.
A few, MacBook Air, Note 3 and Nexus 7 sees AC.
I would be using the NBN 'modem' that's installed in the premise (instead of the retailer supplied junk when I hook the 7800N), as that removes the need for the modem part or so I believe anyway.
@justmiike:
If you're on FttN as stated above, then there is no "NBN 'modem' that's installed in the premise" like you get with FttP.
It's one of the many improvements (not) of the MTM… They get to save themselves $50 or so in rollout cost per premises simply by pushing the cost of the modem/NTD onto the retailer/end user.
On FttN (or FttB), you need to have a VDSL Modem (such as the Huawei HG630 that TPG have likely supplied you).
The good news is that as above you can bridge the modem (iiNet modem can't be bridged, but TPG's can be) to your 7800N.
Bridging turns off the Router features of the Modem-Router and turns it essentially into just a NTD.
A modem is a modem is a modem, there's not really any "good" or "bad" modems, it's the router component that needs grunt and the router bit that makes a bad modem/router worse than a good one.
Instructions here
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2316401
Hm, it may be FTTP in that case, I have an NBN connection box on premise (which I refer to as the modem) that has a RJ45 cable from the UNI-D port connected to the WAN of the Netcomm Wireless N300 TPG provided.
I may have got confused as TPG referred it to me as FTTN, but setup looks like FTTP to me.
@justmiike:
That sounds like FttP to me as well.
FttN enters the house through your old telephone line.. It's basically a faster, shorter range version of ADSL.
Please avoid Belong, i had them for 6 months on NBN , signed up for 12mbps barely got 6mbps, complained so many times no use. They dont have enough backhaul. They ended up refunding me for 1 month as an apology then i quit.
I moved to Skymesh, i pay almost same as belong and i get 25Mbps, no problems since, speed test always between 23-24mbps.
avoid belong, dont believe their promo and their claim that they are telstra powered.
+1 for Skymesh, great ISP
Garbage ISP with a garbage modem. Highly doubt you'd ever hit near 100mbps. I know people on Belong 25mbps FTTP that struggle with 12mbps.