Spintel ADSL 2+ Urban Bundle 500GB $49.95/M (Monthly Contract, No Set Up Fees, Line Rental Included)

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ruskiromka on 18/10/2016 - 22:34 spintel.net.au (532 clicks)
Last edited 18/10/2016 - 23:54 by 1 other user

Was recently looking for some OzBargain ADSL 2+ deals and ended up finding this one from Spintel, signed up today for the 500GB (more than enough for us). Unlimited is $5 more.

The good thing about this one is that there is no lock-in-contract, set-up fees or line transfer fees (line activation fees apply for new lines). My understanding is that 'Urban' refers to it being an Optus port.

Be prepared to potentially sacrifice a bit as Spintel is known for congestion during peak time and infrequent network dropouts, most likely would not suit a power user or somebody who values speed and reliability. Having said that if you are not satisfied you can always port out (30 days written notice).

Also get up to $25 credit through a referral (thanks Holysmoke for pointing this out):
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/spintel_referral_links

Related Stores

SpinTel

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  Holysmoke on 18/10/2016 - 22:38

  -1

  Also get up to $25 credit through a referral:
  https://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/spintel_referral_links

  • 

    ruskiromka on 18/10/2016 - 22:43

    Added to description.

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  [Deactivated] on 18/10/2016 - 22:47

  would belong be considered as a congested ISP?

  • 

    ruskiromka on 18/10/2016 - 22:52

    +7

    https://www.google.com/get/videoqualityreport/

    This shows what percentage of users get HD streams in Youtube for each ISP for a given time in your area.

    • 

      COR80 on 19/10/2016 - 13:36

      +2

      Would you look at that- helpful information, cheerfully provided. Such a nicer response than the frequent, childish "Google's your friend you lazy, retarded little bitch"-type comments.

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  congo on 18/10/2016 - 22:55

  Waiting for NBN to arrive in the west :-(

  • 

    jackspratt on 18/10/2016 - 23:53

    +3

    Don't hold your breath - if you ain't got the real NBN (FttH) by now, you will be getting the MTM (Malcolm Turnbull's Mess).

    • 

      Diji1 on 19/10/2016 - 01:05

      +3

      And Telstra is laughing all the way to the bank.

    • 

      congo on 19/10/2016 - 07:05

      Oh. So ADSL2+ is my best option in Sydney West?

      • 

        jackspratt on 19/10/2016 - 12:47

        Plug your address in here, to see what you are going to get, and when (if it is within 3 years).

        https://www.finder.com.au/nbn-tracker/map

        If it is on the current rollout plan, don't commit yourself to a contract, which will give you more flexibility of providers when you are connected.

        You can also have a look on Whirlpool forums to check the experiences of others on the various mish-mash of yesterday's technologies (the MTM).

      • 

        ausbob71 on 19/10/2016 - 16:37

        @jackspratt: my town is due for nbn within the next 3 years according to that site😀

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  dampaee on 18/10/2016 - 23:03

  If you are after reliable internet please look somewhere else. I was with Spintel for one and half year,very poor customer service and technical support if they had any.Had internet dropout issue for more than three and a half month which they couldn't fix so I had to move to different provider(TPG).My internet speed went up significantly and never had any drop out since then.

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  db2k on 18/10/2016 - 23:06

  +1

  I have Spintel for my rental … was with Belong and got upto 30-40MB being across the road from the exchange … and with Spintel … same Youtube streams need to buffer or watch at 480P (really really really slow and noticable) … ah well … it's cheap!! I paid $40 p/m with no additional fees with 40GB.

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  musicinbed69 on 18/10/2016 - 23:07

  +4

  Be prepared to potentially sacrifice a bit as Spintel is known for congestion during peak time and infrequent network dropouts

  Yeah they're one of the worst performing isps for streaming video. On the youtube speed report, if you select "percentage chart" you can see there's quite a big dip in peak time compared to other isps https://www.google.com/get/videoqualityreport/

  E.g. in sydney the top HD% is 84%, and the lowest is 56% at 8pm. Compared to say MyNetFone which goes from 80% to 70%.

  So basically, at 8pm, only 56% of the connections youtube has with spintel users have enough bandwidth to stream HD, compared with 84% during the morning. The thing to look out for is the difference between those two numbers, rather than the actual numbers themselves.

  The grey sliver on the graph is when you know to be scared. Any increase of grey means there were users who didn't even have enough bandwidth to stream Standard Definition, which should almost never happen at all on an ADSL2+ connection in Australia (every connection is capable of at least 3Mbps).

  If you look at TSN in sydney, that's a good example of an isp who is basically criminal. There was a time when spintel looked like that too. As far as brisbane goes spintel is the worst there.

  The more you know~~~

  • 

    bargaino on 19/10/2016 - 00:11

    didn't even have enough bandwidth to stream Standard Definition, which should almost never happen at all on an ADSL2+ connection in Australia

    You forget that families share ADSL connections, so a small increase at peak times may not be the ISP's fault.

    • 

      musicinbed69 on 19/10/2016 - 00:49

      +2

      That effect would be replicated through all of the isps though, so if you see it happen on one chart more than another then it is likely the ISP's fault, or if not, some kind of congestion in the infrastructure.

  • 

    Jackson on 19/10/2016 - 08:29

    +1

    The interesting thing about these graphs is that if you worked the evening shift and we're therefore away during peak times then you probably aren't going to be disappointed with this service and can save a few bucks

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  [Deactivated] on 19/10/2016 - 00:48

  +1

  I was with Comcen for many years and Spintel for another 10 years

  I'm leaving now

  my account is manually paid in credit pre paid every month
  however they wanted extra $16 and the credit card they tried to direct debit expired they tried to take $16 and it failed obviously
  so they charged me $15 dishonor fee.

  I asked for it to be reversed 2 times and instead
  got lectured what the line item says and means by a crackly international phone line with someone that barely speaks English.

  The outcome they'll add a ticket to 'refund' if it is approved.
  That is not good enough to wait.

  This isn't the small independent company run by network engineers I signed to support 15 years ago.

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  cpho on 19/10/2016 - 04:12

  +3

  This has been the normal price for the past year or so.
  Their customer service is also sub-par with ridiculous wait times. Its also not a 24/7 customer support. If i recall correctly, its 9am-7pm Mon-Fri which is pretty rubbish for most people who work 9-5.

  Last month i was dropping out 4-5 times a day. Called their customer support and waiting on hold woth their crappy music for almost an hour. They gave the usually scripted answers, and couldnt solve my problem, telling me it was my modem's fault and they cant help me. A week later, the dropouts suddenly stopped.

  10/10 would not recommend.

  • 

    congo on 19/10/2016 - 07:07

    Who would you recommend?
    We were with TPG and they were slow :(

    • 

      Jackson on 19/10/2016 - 08:26

      According to the graphs linked to above TPG are among the best, however I personally haven't used the. When you changed away from TPG did it get faster? It could be distance related?

      • 

        musicinbed69 on 19/10/2016 - 16:09

        TPG are pretty good with streaming video from youtube :) . But one thing about the graphs is it judges on Youtube HD streaming, and Youtube's HD streaming is something like 220KB/s .

        It's good for flushing out some problematic isps, but beyond 220KB/s it doesn't always tell the full picture. I dream of the day people will have more detailed results and isps start competing to be the fastest :( .

      • 

        Jackson on 19/10/2016 - 17:24

        @musicinbed69: fair point, but I guess for the budget conscious it's still useful.

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  scanuck on 19/10/2016 - 08:05

  I can never even top 10's on my Spintel 25/5 - any time of the day or night.

  Wouldn't take another product with these guys - but I'm actually thinking of going to ADSL - any suggestions? Or for a better NBN (Melb inner west) ?

  • 

    scrimshaw on 19/10/2016 - 12:45

    +2

    Spintel is a budget provider which means they have poor contention ratios. You can think of ISP being a reseller of water supplies to its customers (represented as a water faucet). The allocation of bandwidth is represented by the volume of water being pumped through the main pipeline (example= 200 cubic meters per second)

    The ISP decides how much water to supply at any time based on a number of variables like how much the water costs to provide at the current volume, how many customers they have, what type of plans or packages they will sell and how much these customers are willing to pay for these packages.

    If your customer base is only willing to shell out 60 or 70 a month for Unlimited plans at 25 cubic metres (speed), most likely you will be targeting the most tightass of customers and so very likely, to make any profit you need to cut down on the amount of water you supply. They might also employ less staff and instead outsource technical expertise from India.

    This is what Spintel and Tpg are doing and that's why cheap NBN providers get the most complaints regarding slow speeds during peak hours, because they have too many customers but haven't enough water to ensure that everyone gets the speed they paid for.

    • 

      musicinbed69 on 19/10/2016 - 16:18

      This is what Spintel and Tpg are doing and that's why cheap NBN providers get the most complaints regarding slow speeds during peak hours, because they have too many customers but haven't enough water to ensure that everyone gets the speed they paid for.

      However, some isps can somewhat escape it. TPG for example is a very big player, and being a big player they attract a lot of CASUAL customers too.

      These casual customers who take up the home phone deals for +$20 a month are really what is keeping TPG afloat at the moment. They're the kind of people who get unlimited so they don't have to "worry" about data and calls. And tbh that's a legitimate reason for someone to want unlimited, it is paying for a feature of not having to worry about restrictions, you'd be surprised how many people would rather pay for unlimited even if they could pay $15 a less for e.g. a 100GB cap.

      But this is terrible for smaller isps. They have to still compete with TPG on price, but the kind of customers they attract aren't very casual so end up bringing in less money. It's quite sad really, good quality isps are dying. There are people who genuinely would like to pay extra for a better service, but it's impossible to compare them, and I'm sure some of the smaller capped providers would have worse performance than TPG.

      I think we really need some regulated accountability on broadband performance to fix this issue.

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  ozf1 on 19/10/2016 - 18:11

  I saw thisl when looking around for an ADSL/phone line deal couple of weeks ago,

  "Urban", I was told by a spindle rep it meant you had to be very close or intact "IN" the CDB (Melbourne), Im in the burbs so the Urban deal did not apply to me.

  It came to about $75.00 per month on the 3023 postcode.

  Deal or No deal?…No Deal!

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  mreddie on 26/10/2016 - 13:27

  I went with Spintel only last month and it seems ok so far, I'm on the Urban plan. Getting speeds around 5-7mbps. But haven't really tested watching HD video in night time sessions yet, getting an Apple TV soon so will give it a whirl.