First 3 months free effectively means this works out to about $61 a month. Seems like a good deal to me for anyone waiting on NBN or stuck with substandard adsl speeds. Month to month (free first 3 month offer not available for month to month) and 24 month contracts also available. Terms and conditions available here - http://smb.optus.com.au/opfiles/Shop/All/cis%20smb/Cis%20Doc…
Yep. Limit is 12Mbps Down / 1Mbps Up
Anyone considering this might be better off with the 100gb Optus deal. You can use any compatible modem and get full 4G speed (I get 40mbps). You also get free Netflix traffic.
Edit: Price is about the same and you can go month to month. I used a $30 USB stick with a mikrotik router and ubiquiti wifi.
or the 12 month contract $70 for 140GB
I live in country WA and get between 15-30 Mbps
However I have a friend in country Vic who only gets 5mbps on it
Also the service by optus is abysmal. Both of us have suffered the total incompetence of optus to such a degree that cannot be comprehended in a modern country!!
Our service is quite good here. It can get slow or drop out from time to time but about what you'd expect for a shared wireless service. I have the USB modem up a pole outside the house.
I have the USB modem up a pole outside the house
Wow great idea. I generally get a good signal but that is something worth checking out.
By bad service I meant the incompetence of optus as a company. Simply too much to list here, mostly to do with bad training and systems but having had internet accounts in 7 other countries optus is the one I have the least faith in.
Yet I keep getting sucked in by their superior data allowances.
do you stream Netflix though your ipad? I was told these are only free if in a tablet.
Through Chromecast or android phone. I'm not sure what counts as free but it does show an amount of uncharged download each month that is about 20gb depending on the month.
Can you link to the details of this deal please.
how did you get burnt on the 4G service?
The first night the 50GB cap was exceeded by another 15GB. Thing was, I came home, connected it all up, connected my mobile only ran fast.com, and went down the coast for the weekend.
That night I get emails telling me I have exceeded the cap. When I got home I turned off the device and called Optus, they told me that they would escalate and investigate, saying they would have to look into my history, which I was fine with. After multiple identical calls there was no resolution. I kept the device off for a month, logged into the device and blocked my phone's mac address, switched it back on (note that I have a Netgear R8000 that tracks data usage) and lo and behold, excess data overnight with no devices connected.
Optus were again a joke. It took escalation to the TIO before they wiped the excess data bill, unlocked the modem from their network, and cancelled my account.
I hate ISP's with all my heart.
ha ha….I know what you mean but optus are immeasurably worse than anyone else.
I had similar problems myself…stupid stupid errors on their behalf. But worse is that the errors repeat themselves despite going through with them over and over.
I really feel sorry for the staff who are not trained adequately and all they do is cop abuse. They couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery
streaming music, tv, Fetc Tv etc that is free on a phone plan don't seem to be mentioned as free here. If that's the case, kiss NetFlix or your bank balance goodbye.
Awesome deal. Will be getting. Thanks!
Not really $58.50 per month. You only get free $70x3 = $210. The modem is extra $8 per month.
So it will be about $60.5 per month for one year.
The 24 month contract will be more expensive $61.25 per month for 2 years.
Good point. I have updated description.
Chatted with a rep online and from what he said first 3 mths are completely free. So $78 x 3 off the 12 mth plan will mean $58.5 p/m on the 12 mth plan. That one appears to be the better deal.
Your Rep seems to be reading off script, found this at the bottom of the webpage:
3 month free promotional offer: excludes hardware repayments or other excluded charges (e.g. excess data charges). Credit equal to your monthly access fee applied to your first three bills when you sign up to a 12 mth or 24 mth Optus Home Wireless Broadband Plan. Offer ends 30/09/2017. Not to be used in conjunction with any other offer. New services only.
Good for those whose NBN is not yet available and ADSL is not usable. I am one of them and am loving this Optus Home Wireless Broadband. I am on a 12 month contract, bundled with $30 BYO device mobile plan, and i pay $99.98/month for both services.
Hints: move the modem around the house to find the best spot to get the best signal (3 bars), the closer to the windows, the better.
If you have spotty phone reception you can probably get a LTE antenna for the modem.
With these speeds wouldn't it be cheaper to get cheapest Telstra service for using Telstra AIR hotspot if you have coverage.
Coverage is the key word there. It's still not great.
what's the cheapest telstra service that offers telstra air ?
is telstra air good enough as normal landline internet ?
is telstra air secure enough to do internet banking ?
is telstra air good enough for BT downloading ?
Meandering is pointless. Post a deal.
Is it the device or the SIM/plan which does the throttling? i.e. could I put sim in a different router or device and get round it? Assuming Optus have thought of this :(
Pretty sure it's not that simple
SIM is locked to the hardware is my understanding
From what I could find
https://cdn.optusdigital.com/opfiles/Shop/All/cis/Cis%20Docu…
Equipment Needs
You need a compatible modem fitted with a 4G SIM to use this service. Optus will supply the modem and SIM. You can pay for the modem upfront in the first month on a month to month plan, in 12 monthly repayments on a 12 month contract or at no additional cost on a 24 month contract. The SIM supplied with the modem must not be removed from the modem and will not work in any other device.
HUAWEI E5186 seems to be the 4G Modem/Router
http://www.optus.com.au/shop/broadband/mobilebroadband/e5186…
http://support.huawei.com/huaweiconnect/enterprise/thread-35…
Not bad looks like a decent unit plus going for around $100+ on eBay as well. So I guess that would essentially make it 4 free months or just over $50 p/m over the 12 mths ;)
Does this modem connect wirelessly to a number of devices simultaneously?
According to specs supports 64 simultaneous connections. If you have 65 one will unfortunately have to sit out.
Very tempting!
Just moved into an area with no NBN until mid-2018 and my newly connected ADSL is <2Mbps down. An unlimited data plan is of no use if you can't actually download anything….
Anyone currently using this?
Is there an easy way to check if you're in a "2300MHz spectrum" area?
Same circumstances but also in a mobile blackspot with every phone company :(
Thinking of getting this plan as can't get nbn or adsl in current street I live. Would it be suitable for streaming to 2 TVs? Previously had vivid wireless and was getting up to 8mbps but streaming to tv was awful. Forever freezing whilst buffering, annoyed the he'll out the kids.
If I plugged the modem into the Asus ac88 I assume would help get improved signal strength to the tvs.
12mbps is the limit, ie. Max. I'm not sure if anyone has experienced decreased performance during peak hours/high congestion, but I'd expect it.
Btw how is the speed like with Optus ADSL 2+ for anyone who has used it. They have an unlimited plan with home phone for $60 p/m over 24 mths with no upfront costs as well. Thinking of switching from TPG apart from Netflix/Stan the speeds are terrible. NBN not available in the area till late next year.
http://www.optus.com.au/shop/broadband/home-broadband/plans#…
ADSL 2+ speed depends on the copper line running from your home to the exchange and not entirely on Optus. If the line is bad, your speed can be really slow even below 1mbps. I gave up on ADSL because of this problem and switch to 4G.
For an extra $11 a month you can get unlimited internet from vivid wireless using optus network.
How is the service and do you get 12Mbps?
Service is excellent never had any problems. I normally get between 10-12 mbps. I was previously with telstra on adsl2 and my speed was so slow could not stream video.
Cheers mate same thing adsl2+ or whatever it is garbage for me. Went with this one. Let's see how things go :)
Just checked comes up as $89 p/m over 24 mths for unlimited for me + delivery fee of $10.
A mate has this.
Working well for him.
Vivid wireless modem is much smaller in size about half and lighter so easier if you need to carry around.
Carry around? Doesn't it need to be plugged in? Or is it batteries?
It is plugged in with a Huawei modem. SIM cant be used in a phone as far as I've tested. 12/1 speeds are good in my area without NBN.
Reading through this thread this was what I was thinking and then saw your post !!
We've been with Vivid Wireless since they changed to the "new" version, we've had absolutely no issues with it (OK, once a month or so it seems to need a router re-boot) and the Mrs loves it for her Netflix !!
The area we're in is one of those "No NBN for you on the horizon so stick with your 1.5 Mbps, peaking at 3.0M bps ADSL connection" so I figured as it was a month-to-month contract all I had to lose was the up-front price of the modem.
Rock solid at (around) 10Mbps and unlimited data !
Only caveat is that as it's capped at around 10 Mbps I've changed my (large) downloading habits.
Say, for example, I was after the latest Linux ISO, whereas previously I would make other arrangements and other people on the NBN would expect it almost immediately, I just set up uTorrent and come back in a day or so.
TL;DR.. Pay the extra and go with Vivid Wireless unlimited.
Not spruking, but if you ask any user for a code you'll both get a month free too.
Last I had looked their previous models didn’t have a pass through mode so you could stick a router in front.
Btw cheers OP. Our internet has been playing up last couple of days so had enough of TPG. Only ever got around 3Mbps max with them anyways. The contract is finished so was looking around for a good deal. This is a great find by the looks of it :)
Better off with 140GB $70/mo with higher speeds imo, 12/1mbps is pretty slow.
Yep that’s what I discovered after working through the Optus site today. Thats a great deal
Link to higher speed deal? What's the limit on those?
http://www.optus.com.au/shop/broadband/mobile-broadband/data…
It's 4G mobile broadband - full 4G speeds. Depends on location, device, etc.
Personally I get ~40mbps on Optus 4G locally, but speeds will differ. Might be worth finding a friend who's on Optus and seeing what speeds they get or buy a prepaid sim to try things first.
For those interested in signing up, better to check if there is any 2300 mHz tower near your home:
https://oztowers.com.au/
That's how you can get 12mpbs otherwise you get 5 mbps
Thanks for that…how close does it need to be?
Mine is 8km away
I have this exact service. Inconsistent speeds and frequent drop outs about 50% of the time. Will not be renewing the service after my contract runs out
Nope if you can avoid this deal i would, i was on it because they lied about ADSL being available on my previous house. The Device is really unreliable, had mine replaced twice, the wi-fi stopped working at first then the modem overheated 2nd device. And if you have more then 2 devices connected, well good-luck getting decent speeds. 4G with optus is shit.
Btw - Premier League football on Fetch Mini cannot stream off a mobile device. Also, Netflix 4K stream requires minimum of 25mpbs I think.
Will we get free Netflix streaming with this plan?
nope
May be interested to know, optus is still doing their mobile broadband data sims for 70 a month for 100gb, no contract or 140gb for 12 months. The speeds are not capped. Additionally, I have signed up and my Netflix and spotify is data free.
do you use the sim in a 4g wifi modem? Or just hot spot?
In a 4g modem :) works a treat, also have an optus sim for my phone so It all gets combined.
Is that 200gig a month or a year? If that isn't a month, most people will burn through it pretty quick if they use streaming video outside of Netflix.
200 gigs is the monthly allowance.
I was looking into this but then decided on their mobile broadband instead.
Their mobile broadband is currently $70 for 140gb,no speed cap compared to home wireless but the speed is deprioritised in favour of mobiles. If you pick the ac800s modem, there is 3 carrier aggregation so speeds beyond fibre are expected, and you get data pooling with your mobile plans.
Just wondering how you went about getting the AC800S modem, as optus told me that the $70/momth with 140gb is a data sim only whereas if you want the ac800s modem you need to go on a device & sim plan which is $70/month with 100gb for 24month.
You can buy the modem outright for $240 in store. 100gb is too little for me so I decided to buy the modem. I do still have a vivid wireless modem which is compatible but it has no carrier aggregation and only 2300mhz.
Originally I considered getting the m1 nighthawk but it doesn't support the 2300mhz band, which is the frequency that optus uses for its 4g+.
Whilst it does cost more to buy the modem in store, you do end up with an extra 480gb per year. However if you don't need the data, it does end up cheaper in a plan but 24 months is a long commitment.
Other option is the tp link M7300 LTE. It doesn't support carrier aggregation but the v2 model supports the 2300mhz band.
So essentially $90 p/mth for that one on a 12 mth 140 gigs/mth contract?
Yeah signed up to the 200 gig HWBB deal with 3 free mths already before seeing this 140 gig MBB deal. Anyways not sure if 140 gigs would be enough for our place. Hope the speeds are good tho. A stable 12Mbps connection should be fine given last few years under 2Mbps is all we could manage with TPG ADSL 2+. I checked and there are a couple of Optus 4G 2300mhz towers around a km away on either side and another Optus 4G 1800mhz tower a km behind as well.
@dins: if it's anything like my experience with vivid wireless, you should be fine once you find a good position for the modem.
"Whilst it does cost more to buy the modem in store, you do end up with an extra 480gb per year. "
May I ask, so if i buy the modem outright, i will receive 480gb extra per year?
On another matter, is this deal only available online? can i just go to the store and do it?
Regards
@inusure: yeah, if you try to sign up on the plan to get the free modem, you only get 100gb per month for $70. Whereas if you go for the sim only plan and buy the modem outright, $70 gets you 140gb per month.
It says online only on the website, but when I went into the optus store they said it shows up in store as 70+70gb as well. I would recommend talking to them about it, and worst case, you can just buy the modem in store and sign up online.
Received everything yesterday and set it up. Did involve moving it around the house to find a good spot next to a window but thus far have got around 12Mbps or a bit over it for the most part. In saying that tho when one or two start using Netflix or Stan then the speeds drop big time. Normal browsing is still ok but speed tests show somewhere around the 1 or 2Mbps mark. That's a bit of a bummer. Plus it seems to eat up data. After playing around with Netflix and different devices around the house for a couple of hours looks like it has chewed through over 6gb of the 200gb already yikes! I wonder if the mobile broadband plan counts Netflix and Stan.
Also anyone know an easier way of keeping track of HWB usage. The Optus site is super glitchy for me. Doesn't seem to work properly on the phone no matter the browser or Safari on MacBook. Downloaded the App that doesn't seem to work with HWB either. Only got it to work on Chrome.
@dins: if the modem is similar to the vivid wireless modem, then one of the limitations is the modem itself, in that it only has around 300mbps of wifi bandwidth and not a lot of processing power. Plus, 12mbps is not too much nowadays. 1080p video at a reasonable bit rate would chew all that speed up, so running Netflix and Stan at the same time will kill your speed.
This would be where the mobile broadband would be better. On a single carrier connection on a phone I can get 50-150mbps on optus. The ac800s modem can handle 3 simultaneous connections for a theoretical max speed of 450mbps, which would be enough for more than a dozen devices to stream 4k at the same time. I'll be getting mine this weekend assuming no delays so I should be able to post back with speeds.
Cheers bud might ring them up to see if I can change over to MBB instead and pick up an ac800. According to some here Netflix doesn't count towards the 140 gig allowance so looks like that would be a better option. Netflix seems to chew through the 200 gig data allowance as well as bringing everything to a halt.
@dins: I've just got set up. Here is my speed.
Check out my @Speedtest result! How fast is your internet? http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/3244913894
90.26mbps down 17.68mbps up
If you choose the 100gb bundle with the ac800s included in the plan, I think Netflix is free. But if you buy the device outright and choose the 140gb plan, they said Netflix is metered.
Dayum you win lol
Thanks for the info champ will have a chat to them tomorrow to see what my options are.
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/3245637437
This is my speed later at night. 126mbps down speed, up speed seems to be lower though.
These results are better than planned though. For reasons unbeknownst to me, the new place I'm renting happens to be in a deadspot for uniti wireless, nuskope wireless, no nbn until 2019, heck the exchange doesn't even have a phone line port for me.
So all things considered, I would've been happy with 12mbps, but this speed is definitely worth it. I'm tempted to just stick with mobile broadband if optus bump up the data limits in the future. Why bother with nbn when the average speed on nbn is still lower than the lowest speed offered?
Although on a random note, the ps4 pro doesn't seem to like the ac800s 5ghz signal. Can't connect, but no issues with the 2.4ghz wifi signal.
Other thing to note is that for unknown reasons, there is a dock available for the telstra aircard modems, but not for optus. So don't buy the aircard dock yet, save your $250.
Although an interesting comparison is optus charges $70 for 140gb, telstra charges $150 for 80gb, and that's a limited time bonus data plan from telstra.
I'm thinking of getting the mobile broadband as a second service to this Optus wireless broadband as the 200GB is not enough for the family. Would the multiple carrier aggregation modem help with this situation? I.e. put the 2 sim into the modem?
Can't put the two sims in one modem. Not sure if optus share data with home wireless broadband and mobile broadband, but if they do then you can just use the one sim. Otherwise, vivid wireless offer unlimited downloads for around 90 per month using the same network as the optus home wireless.
The multiple carrier aggregation modem is more for speed. Ie. A standard modem would just connect to the 2300mhz band and you would be limited by whatever speed you get with that, whereas the 3 carrier aggregation modem will connect to 2300mhz and two other frequencies you can connect to like 700mhz and 2100mhz to boost speed, or at least that's my understanding of it.
NBN biggest waste of money ever.
Don't worry, 12Mbits is all you could ever need.
Source: Malcom Turnbull, Telstra employee former Communications Minister and current Prime Minister.
Are you going to vote this self serving corporate lackey into power next time because he is the reason the NBN is such a disaster (except for Telstra).
unity, and nuskope both offer 30mbit and 50mbit wirless/
Uniti and nuskope wireless are great. Great speeds great reliability.
Well, I’ll predict that in 5-10 the FTTN NBN will be eclipsed by wireless broadband. Hey, I could be wrong but seeing as I’m close to 50-60 practical speeds maxed out now, well I think I might just be proved right; not to mention how much money has been wasted on FTTN.
with 4.5G coming, which can get to 1Gbps, you probably are right. Even if you only got 80 Mbps, still better than most NBN connections. Comes down to the amount of data and any throttling. For me now, 200GB is now the min. I would need per month. But I would love an option where you pay say $20 more and double the speed. I am sure many would. Be a good money earner for Optus and provide an ADSL grade connection for the most part.
I still think fixed connections will be required for streaming though as this is a massive drain on a mobile network…
Yeah I didn’t think about the mobile network strain, but could satellites be implemented to take up some of the slack?
Not for Metro - more bandwidth is needed but it is scarce and very expensive. TPG bought up a bunch robbing the others of it so let's see what they offer…
Well poop, there goes my bright idea. I really wish they’d stuck with fibre, ah well, still it’s better than nothing.
This doens't seem like 4G speeds… Is it 3G?
Worth mentioning the excess chargers here
Capped at 12Mbps in metro-ish areas and 5Mbps for you country folk.
Decent service and generous (depressing that 200GB is generous this day and age) data, but don't expect 50Mbps.I was on the 4G when it first came out (got SEVERELY burned by Optus on that) so YMMV.