NBN Value for $$: MyRepublic's $60/month Unlimited 100/40 (12-month); Dual-Band Modem $1 Shipped

IVI on 20/06/2017 - 03:57
Last edited 20/06/2017 - 10:29 by 1 other user

Recently drawn to a low-cost NBN "deal" (from one of those "no guarantees" vendors, in this case, w/ a ratty web site, IMO), I paid a bit more to a different ISP for a service with about the same parameters… thanks to a Comment on the cheaper deal's comment page:

I rang, spoke with, was duly impressed by, & have now placed an Order with Singapore-based:

  • MyRepublic.net/AU

HERE'S WHY:

  • Unlike others, this ISP has very few speeds. They give you the FASTEST NBN that your address can support

(If you're in a "new development" (ie, somewhere with only FTTN), you'll suffer:

  1. A $300 fee to use an ex-Telstra ADSL copper pair (ie, until NBN replaces it with coax, expected to be under 2 years from now, in my case)

  2. Reduced speed (said to be ~35/15), until coax replaces your copper pair

I'm told that this would be the same with other ISP's)

  • On buses, we see others offering "Unlimited NBN" for ~$60/mon, but that's for the (ADSL+2 level) speed of 12 Mb/Sec.

(THE RULE IN AU IS: "Overcharge the Uninformed" …Except with MyRepublic, it seems.)

  • Are the others' modems Dual-Band?

Dunno. But we'll be able to feed our iOS devices (& possibly an old MacBook Pro…?) via 5 GHz, while our older 2.4 GHz devices can use another band, lowering contention on each band.

  • I've had only Great experiences & Low prices dealing with ANOTHER SG-based provider: MyNetFone, so my biased expectation is that MyRepublic will deliver similar Value & Performance (albeit in NBN, not VoIP).

MyRepublic is already in 4+ countries (& they plan to compete in the UK, soon).

They've had enough time in AU to get their acts together (Actually, I would guess they ARRIVED with their acts together ;-)

I'll let you know more about their service in my FTTN neighbourhood soon…

WATCH THIS SPACE.

PS What are Others' experiences with them?

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Comments

  • snowcold on 20/06/2017 - 06:15
    +2

    Run while you still can

    In my experience, their speeds vary a lot. My buddy gets ~4Mbps and they blame NBN congestion on a FTTP line. The customer support is so bad and there is almost always ~40 minutes wait.

    In my experience, it is still better than Dodo and cheap; but that is the only good thing I can say about them

    Have a look at this as well: http://www.productreview.com.au/p/my-republic.html
    While I do not trust product reviews site 100%, it is worth having a look at the comments

    • IVI on 26/06/2017 - 11:51

      If I had that kind of problem, I'd report it to TIO.

      If enough folks do that, an ISP has gotta take notice. Each one costs the ISP $$.

      • resisting the urge on 11/07/2017 - 14:24

        Yes but you still end up in a queue for support. They just make the ticket another colour.

  • EightImmortals on 20/06/2017 - 07:45

    "reduced speed (said to be ~35/15), until coax replaces your copper pair"

    So would that be the same with existing copper wires? Doesn't make sense?

    • ESEMCE on 20/06/2017 - 17:23

      OP seems to be under the mistaken impression that copper pairs will be replaced… Ever!

      • EightImmortals on 21/06/2017 - 08:00

        True but I thought that FTTN was supposed to go up to 100Mbps on cooper and not 35?

        • ESEMCE on 21/06/2017 - 08:13

          It is… "Up to" being the relevant wording there.
          This is why every technologically literate person was so anti FttN NBN. It's a scam and a complete waste of money for more than half of the coverage area. If your line length is shorter than around 500m, then you ought to have a decent connection, after that, the performance plummets and that's assuming you have high quality copper.
          If you've got poorly maintained copper, like most of the network, then good luck to you.

          If you can't achieve more than 35 down, NBN don't care. They only care if you can't achieve 25 down and even then, or if you have more than 5 dropouts per day and even then, and even then, they don't care all that much.

          You may see an improvement to your connection by having a new internal line installed.
          I saw an increase from a similar rate that you're achieving up to 50/16 following a new line install (at my cost).

          However, that only lasted a few months, then someone must've upset a join in a pit or something and I'm now back to achieving only 30/10.. Following the dramatic sync rate decline I had a period of line instability such that I hit way more than 5 dropouts per day. NBN came out unannounced a week after I reported the issue and found that my line had been stable for 5 days.
          Therefore there was no problem to fix. "Call us again when you next have issues".

        • EightImmortals on 21/06/2017 - 08:19

          @scubacoles: Sounds familiar, I've been on fixed wireless for the last 3 years and it's been great up until about October last year and now we suffer from BAD tower congestion. It's OK during the day but once the kiddies get home from school and then all the workers soon after after the speed drops down to under 5Mbps. The slowest it's gotten is .48Mbps on a Saturday night but usually it's 1-2MBps. This is on a 50/20 plan. :)

          But now they've installed a node point about 100 meters away so I'm wondering if I should pressure them to putting me onto that? When we were on ADSL2 I would average about 18Mbps and the exchange is about 2Km away so you'd think…….?

        • ESEMCE on 21/06/2017 - 09:34

          @EightImmortals:

          You wont be switched to a different node cause your copper line doesn't go in that direction.
          Due to the way the telephone network was designed (for telephone sevice), the nodes are in one corner of a distribution area "square".
          The people living in the quarter of the square nearest the node will likely get good FttN speeds, but the other 75% are likely to be in the 500m+ range with ever decreasing performance.

          In order to connect to a different node, you'd need to pull a brand new copper line.. and if you're pulling a new line, you may as well make it fibre… And so we end up back where we started and should never have deviated from.

        • IVI on 26/06/2017 - 11:54

          @scubacoles:
          Many people are paying OVER $60/mon for "Unlimited 12 Mb/Sec"

          If I get over 35 Mb/Sec I'm ahead.

        • ESEMCE on 26/06/2017 - 12:19

          @IVI:

          You're going with MyRepublic.. that IF statement is once again the important qualifier!
          MyRepublic doesn't exactly have the greatest reputation for performance or service.

        • IVI on 26/06/2017 - 18:02

          @EightImmortals:
          So, do you intend to raise this as a TIO Complaint?

        • EightImmortals on 26/06/2017 - 19:11

          @IVI: I've raised it with 2 ISP's (I had a second one eliminate the ISP being the problem)and the last communication I had on the issue was that the tower was due to be upgrade sometime in Q3 this year. So I'll wait until then before making more noise. Current speed as of this message is 1.85Mbps down.

  • gwenty on 20/06/2017 - 09:15
    +1

    Save yourself some grief and go for Aussie Broadband's Whirlpool offer (Google) if you're eligible. Their on-net service is fantastic and I've never had any congestion issues since being signed up.

    Skymesh on-net (they match non-unlimited NBN plans) or Telstra ($$$) are other good options.

    • apptrack on 20/06/2017 - 09:38

      Skymesh have gone to shit too :(. They just sold the company.

      Whirlpool has complaints all over. I've moved to BuzzTelco and been perfect.

      • ShortyX on 20/06/2017 - 12:21

        Skymesh have gone to shit too :(. They just sold the company.

        Thanks for the heads up. Paul Rees has left too. :( I'll check how my Skymesh connection is fairing and jump ship if needed.

        • apptrack on 20/06/2017 - 13:31

          Apparently they have massively reduced their CVC and then buying it up again for cheaper as the prices have changed.

          That's why speeds have been so bad.

        • EightImmortals on 21/06/2017 - 08:02

          @apptrack: Oh that's interesting, I wonder if Vocus is doing the same thing ATM?

        • apptrack on 21/06/2017 - 09:16

          @EightImmortals: No vocus is just the backhaul, nothing to do with CVC.

        • EightImmortals on 21/06/2017 - 09:17

          @apptrack: OK cheers. I know my RSP uses vocus but wasn't sure who pays who for what exactly. :)

        • apptrack on 21/06/2017 - 09:18

          @EightImmortals: Who are you with?

    • IVI on 26/06/2017 - 12:06

      How can ANY reseller do better than what FTTN distances, etc. can provide to any of them?

      They'd have to include a WiFi clause ("If copper can't provide the speed you're paying for, we'll connect you to your Node via point to point Wireless).

      We get connected tomorrow, at this stage… Watch this space… :-)

  • tassieeagle on 20/06/2017 - 09:20
    +3

    I'm with Myrepublic and have had no problems.

    But man OP, this post seems more like an ad rather than a genuine question

    • IVI on 26/06/2017 - 18:11

      I was impressed by the apparent (we'll see how accurate, soon) knowledge & answers to my Q's of the guy I spoke with, when ordering them.

      So far, only the inability to change Billing Addr. to a POB addr & the req'ts that we need someone on-site during the install have been disappointing.

      Watch this space… It should be working in a week… We may change our tune… or Not… :-)

      I have No Pecuniary interest in MR… I'm a new customer, only.

  • trongy on 20/06/2017 - 09:25
    +1

    It's relatively cheap for an RSP to offer a 100/40 NBN line, but supplying enough bandwidth to supply customers needs can be much more expensive.

    A simplified view of NBN's wholesale prices (per month):

    Per customer connection, fee by line type:
    25/5 $27
    50/20 $34
    100/40 $38

    Connectivity Virtual Circuit (CVC) charges i.e. bandwidth shared between customers:
    $17,500 per 1 Gb/s

    Source: NBN Co Wholesale price list - 5 December 2016

  • JetLi on 20/06/2017 - 13:00

    Was with myrepublic, congestion was a big issue, now with Aussie Broadband and much happier.

    • EightImmortals on 21/06/2017 - 08:03

      Pretty sure ABB have setup their own backhaul network instead of renting someone else's.

  • IVI on 26/06/2017 - 12:20

    Now, 2 small issues arise w/ MR:

    1. They said NBN co's tech will NOT need access to inside the house (We need Not be present during the install)

    VS: NBN co. Says we Must be present.

    1. So far, we can't get our Bill To address changed to a PO Box address…
    • IVI on 26/06/2017 - 18:40

      Oh, we have yet to receive the Technicolour Dual-Band Modem… Maybe they wait [wisely] until NBN's tech finds a copper pair in-tact to the Orem's…?

      • ESEMCE on 27/06/2017 - 07:58

        No, that would be really inconvenient to you the customer.. to lose ADSL access before they even sent out your new VDSL modem!
        It's more likely cause MR have cocked up.

  • Nousernamehere on 04/07/2017 - 00:01

    (If you're in a "new development" (ie, somewhere with only FTTN), you'll suffer:

    A $300 fee to use an ex-Telstra ADSL copper pair (ie, until NBN replaces it with coax, expected to be under 2 years from now, in my case)

    Reduced speed (said to be ~35/15), until coax replaces your copper pair

    Umm what? Once you get FTTN.. that's it. You won't get 'upgraded' to anything else (HFC, FTTP).

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