Best and Cheapest Way to Test out a Service Plan Speed before Contract?

[Deactivated] on 17/04/2018 - 14:11
Last edited 17/04/2018 - 14:39 by 1 other user

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone had tried to work out the cheapest or easiest way to test out a type of internet connection before deciding on a certain plan type (or is there even a way to do that?).

Some considerations

1) Cost (new modem, set up cost etc).
2) Time (essentially internet down time).
3) Possible penalties.

At my new place I have the options for the ADSL2+ and the Telstra smart community velocity connection.

I currently have a ADSL2+ modem, the ADSL2+ plans are way cheaper as well. From the exchange map it looks like the property is rather near to the exchange. But there is no way to know the quality of the connection without actually buying and setting this up.

I'd be okay to go with ADSL2+ connection if it suits my purposes. I don't need super fast speeds, I just need a stable decent connection. At the end of the day, I'm also going with telstra considering that it might only be a few hundred more (modem, set up and subscription).

But if someone has done this, perhaps they might enlighten me. I find it a bit weird that in 2018, we cannot test a connection quality before buying a plan.

Thank you!

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  87percent on 17/04/2018 - 14:25

  I think if you're in a Smart Community area, you can ONLY get Velocity. If you have an indoor ONT, it can go up to 100Mb download speeds. When you sign up for a service, they can run some line checks and give you a line speed estimate

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    [Deactivated] on 17/04/2018 - 14:42

    I think you can use ADSL2+ if you have a phone line no? (I'm not sure).

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      87percent on 17/04/2018 - 14:56

      i think you might be better off going for a wireless provider, than getting adsl or velocity fttp.. save money on setup costs

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        [Deactivated] on 17/04/2018 - 18:35

        Is wireless nbn available everywhere yet?

        Regional Australia here.

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        87percent on 17/04/2018 - 19:02

        @lolbbq:

        Wait.. where in Australia are you? First you're taking about adsl and smart communities, then you're taking about a fixed wireless connection

        I was not talking about NBN fixed wireless, I was talking about a mobile broadband service (like one of the ovo or Optus or Telstra plans)

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        [Deactivated] on 17/04/2018 - 20:40

        @supasaiyan: my bad. I misunderstood you.

        I get what you mean now. Unfortunately….for the volume of my usage. Its still more worth it to go to telstra in the end.

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  happychild100 on 17/04/2018 - 16:45

  Sounds like you're possibly in the South Brisbane area? In which case no adsl2+, Telstra velocity fibre only!

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    [Deactivated] on 17/04/2018 - 20:44

    Oh, this this mean that there will be no adsl2+ on the phone line even?

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      happychild100 on 17/04/2018 - 21:01

      Nope. Telstra came in and ripped up all the copper when the new exchange had to be built. It's all fibre now, select buildings have proper nbn though.

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  Hybroid on 17/04/2018 - 16:49

  +2

  Mate Communicate do one month contract with 14 days cancellation policy. Signed up for the 50mbit and getting 40-45 consistently during evenings so decided to stay with them. Still only monthly plan so if it changes, can jump ship easily. Pretty sure they do ADSL2 as well so would recommend.

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    [Deactivated] on 17/04/2018 - 20:43

    Hmm, that is certainly something to consider!

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      Hybroid on 17/04/2018 - 21:46

      Yea, give it a go, stick your address in and see what services they offer you. The modem was a hefty $149 and takes about 3 days to deliver but it's preconfigured to work out of the box and (they say) can be used on any other network. I haven't confirmed that so double check if that's important to you. Otherwise if you already have a modem, they say most will work with their network straight away, again worth checking with them.