AC800S or B525 with 500GB Unrestricted 4G Speed: $80/Month (24mths) @ Optus

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AC800S or B525 with 500GB Unrestricted 4G Speed: $80/Month (24mths) @ Optus

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unco on 06/12/2018 - 07:10 optus.com.au (6868 clicks)
Last edited 26/12/2018 - 22:13 by 2 other users

Looks like Optus are upping their mobile broadband game and giving an option to replace their now discontinued Home Wireless Broadband and Vividwireless products.

Note that the CIS mentions the sim is locked to the provided modem and that data share looks to have been semi removed from it’s usual place in the document so proceed with caution if that’s your selling point.

I for one am interested in this given I won’t have NBN here for a long time and this is speed unrestricted unlike my current 12/1 Vividwireless service.

Edit: you can also get this month-to-month with no purchase of the modem necessary. I went in store and asked for the 500GB month to month with no modem.

Edit 2:

It's been brought to our attention that there's some confusion surrounding the BYO devices that can be used with our new M2M and 24M Optus Wireless Broadband plans.

$80.00 Optus Wireless Broadband
$60.00 Optus Wireless Broadband

List of eligible devices

Huawei E5786 Router
Huawei B315 Modem
Huawei B593v2 Modem
Huawei B593 Modem
Huawei B525 Modem
Huawei E5186 Modem
Optus Netgear AC800S 4G Plus Wi-Fi Modem

Internet Huawei Mobile Broadband Modem Mobile Broadband Plan NetGear Optus

10 May 2019 12:25pm

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- - - - unco on 09/12/2018 - 09:43
        
        @Sunford: In store? I tried on chat and they said I must buy the modem but in an actual Optus store they did it no problems at all.
        A few others on Whirlpool seem to have managed to do the same in store it seems too.
        
        Sunford on 09/12/2018 - 09:44
        
        @unco: @Unco: No, over the phone, Thanks I will try in store
    - ballistykx on 10/12/2018 - 21:24
      
      Is the data shared with other services you have with optus?
      - unco on 10/12/2018 - 21:44
        
        +1
        
        @ballistykx: No it’s not shareable with other data pooling plans.
- ndoan on 26/12/2018 - 18:51
  
  Hi EdrickPerdana,
  Could you tell me the APN you put in your modem?
Gina Rinehart on 09/12/2018 - 23:07

Hmm, I want to get the B525 and put it into bridged mode but looks like they disabled that functionality.. I wonder if I can just use one of the LAN ports on this and plug it into my TP-Link VR400 and put the VR400 into "wireless router mode" (basically expects a WAN link on one of its eth ports).
- futaris on 11/12/2018 - 11:14
  
  That will work, but you will have double NAT.
  - Gina Rinehart on 11/12/2018 - 21:35
    
    Alright, suspected so. Doesn't really matter as their wireless service is using carrier grade NAT as well, so it'd be something like…
    
    Internet -> Public Optus IP -> CGNAT IP (10.x) -> B525 IP -> VR400 IP… No biggie for my use case.
- aldroid on 11/12/2018 - 21:39
  
  If you put the TP-Link router into Access Point mode it should disable NAT as per: https://www.tp-link.com/ae/faq-2066.html
BorisYeltsin on 13/12/2018 - 14:33

+1

I live in inner city Brisbane (New Farm), and NBN is still 18 months away (they postponed it due to the HFC fiasco). They are busy providing fibre to the premises in Upper Kumbukta West.

I have a good line of sight to 4G towers, and as ADSL is woeful in this area (too far from exchange), last year I went for Optus' 200Gb 12mb/1mb plan for $72 per month.

Although I got used to the lack of speed, the service dropped out about twice a day, and the upload speeds and ping times (to brokers) were pretty nasty, and 200Gb of quota runs out quickly.

Last week I changed to the new 500Gb unlimited/unlimited plan for $80 per month. The difference is noticeable - ping times have dropped by a factor of 10. speedtest.net shows anywhere between 12 and 24mbs upload AND download at any given time. Only occasionally during peak, it can drop to 6 or 7, but the upload speed never does.

There are a few other players coming to town, including one from Adelaide offering super fast wireless (Uniti as far as I can recall), so it seems Optus got in early with this plan before anyone else.

Overall so far so good.
Hamish125 on 21/12/2018 - 19:13

Is it possible to set up a VPN with one of these modems?
ndoan on 26/12/2018 - 17:19

Just signed up for 500G $80 month-to-month plan, but when I place the sim in Huawei 4G Wifi device and set the APN to 'LTEBROADBAND'. The Internet doesn't work, it redirect to the page "Hmm…looks like you're tried to use your Home Wireless Broadband SIM in another device." What the APN are you using?
- unco on 26/12/2018 - 21:33
  
  This was posted on Optus forum about a week after these plans went live.
  https://yescrowd.optus.com.au/t5/Mobile/Optus-Wireless-Broad…
  
  I can't figure out how to edit this deal post again.
  
  It's been brought to our attention that there's some confusion surrounding the BYO devices that can be used with our new M2M and 24M Optus Wireless Broadband plans.
  
  $80.00 Optus Wireless Broadband
  $60.00 Optus Wireless Broadband
  
  List of eligible devices
  
  Huawei E5786 Router
  Huawei B315 Modem
  Huawei B593v2 Modem
  Huawei B593 Modem
  Huawei B525 Modem
  Huawei E5186 Modem
  Optus Netgear AC800S 4G Plus Wi-Fi Modem
- scoopo16 on 07/05/2019 - 08:14
  
  I recently signed up to the $60 200GB plan and brought my own device - D-Link DWR-922.
  
  I had the same error, I spoke to tech support and they fixed it, he stated that he reset the APN's, although he didn't actually do anything to my modem settings, they remained the same, setting are on Automatic APN.
DarkOz on 29/12/2018 - 18:46

+2

Thanks OP and a few ozbargainers in here. I was going to grab the ac800s w the 200gb home wifi plan but ended up cancelling it. Instead I got the Galaxy tab s4 and the 100gb+100gb mobile broadband plan for the same price! All i had to do was buying the B525 outright for $192! Unbelievable! Thats literally $800 free!

Dodged a bullet in the ac800s disconnection issues and tried the b525 and worked with the sim. Speed is around 50/4 about 4 times faster than my adsl2+
- branners on 31/12/2018 - 11:32
  
  I was just about to head to the local Optus shop and sort out the 200gb 4G deal when I saw your post.
  Please pardon my peanut-sized brain but…
  To me, it looks like for $60pm, it's 200gb per month, no speed limit. Par.
  They toss in a Netflix account free for 12 months (worth what, $167?)
  None of the Netflix streaming counts on your data allocation.
  Same with Spotify.
  And Optus provides a new S4 tablet. All I need to do is buy a B525 modem, or similar, for about $190. And it works fine in that modem.
  So, for the same amount, you gain about $1060 worth on the deal, or approx $44pm.
  Is this about right?
  - DarkOz on 31/12/2018 - 21:33
    
    +1
    
    That's mostly correct.
    
    You get samsung galaxy tab s4 black 64gb and the mobile SIM with 100gb+100gb per month. $60 × 24 months. This mobile SIM can be used in a wireless modem. The reverse won't work as a wireless modem SIM can't be used in a mobile phone. I believe it's also data shareable meaning if you have another Optus mobile plan you can combine the total data.
    
    What that means is you are getting the tab s4 rrp around $1000 for free instead of a wireless modem worth $194 or $240. So just buy one of the two modems outright from Optus. I bought Huawei b525 instead of ac800s because of many reported disconnection issues with the ac800s. I would have preferred ac800s. It's been 2 days and the modem is working well. Worked for the family iPad's with and now tab s4. Been watching online videos and played fortnite without any issues. The speed during off peak at 12am was 50/3 and today during peak at 3:30pm was 18/10.
    
    You get free netflix 12 months free. Optus sports 12 months free. Music streaming free too. But data might not be free depending on if you got the mobile tv streaming. Mobile TV streaming costs $5/month but I read somewhere there is an online offer if you sign up online you get this free as well. I signed up at the Optus store so it will cost me $5 if I want to add it.
    
    This is literally a $600 - $800 free giveaway if you were going to get the home wireless plan. It's so good I might get another same plan and combine the data's as I think we might need 300gb and another new tab.
    
    If you have any more questions let me know.
    
    Enjoy. Love typing in ozb right now on the tab s4 w its pen.
    - branners on 01/01/2019 - 10:57
      
      Thanks for that. It looks like an offer too good to refuse, and I am seeing more and more nightmare comments surrounding NBN, so 4G looks like a genuine alternative.
      And sometime in the next couple of years, 5G…
      - DarkOz on 01/01/2019 - 13:31
        
        +1
        
        @branners: Oh I forgot one of the most important things about this plan is the excess data to be automatically increased by 1GB for $10. It’s clearly stated but coming from capped adsl2+ this will be a big and expensive trap if you don’t pay attention to your usage. They will email you plenty of warnings but we could be too occupied to check or notice.
        
        I just did another speed test and got 50/20 at 1pm. Got 34/5 at 1:30pm w 2 ipads and 2 iphones running at the same time. It’s new year day but the speed is still unbelievable compared to adsl2+. Also we could take the modem along when we go on a weekend trips.
        
        Happy new year to you and your family!
        
        branners on 01/01/2019 - 18:47
        
        @DarkOz: Thanks again.
        I will take a look at signing up online to get that streaming offer chucked in.
        One more thing, how much does it matter where the modem is in the house? I could put it near a window to try to get better line of sight to a tower, but if it does not matter much.
        Thanks, and you have a great 2019 as well.
        
        DarkOz on 01/01/2019 - 19:19
        
        @branners: There are 2 things to consider. Getting the best signal from Optus tower and giving the best wifi to your equipment.
        
        I played around with it today and decided to place the modem in the middle of the house. It gives me 3 to 5 bars from Optus so it averages 4 bars. But it gives the best average wifi to the 3 rooms.
        
        I found that if i move it 5 meters to the East it will give me 4 to 5 bars as that’s closer to the train station and thus the optus tower. However this gives much weaker wifi to the rooms even on 2.4ghz. 5ghz was almost dropping out
        
        Lastly, there are options to add 1 or 2 antennas at the back of the b525 so you could look into that if you want the best of both worlds.
    - edwink on 26/04/2019 - 18:04
      
      How did you get the free netflix/Spotify thrown in? Can't see this deal online and person in store said it was not available…
      - DarkOz on 02/05/2019 - 13:46
        
        @edwink: Spotifly is free almost as standard. Netflix 1 year free was a special promotion around Christmas time.
- bluebluebird on 31/12/2018 - 12:59
  
  I am looking to do this as well - since my internet is paid for by company.
  
  Will Netgear Nighthawk (Unlocked) work better than B525?
  - DarkOz on 31/12/2018 - 21:36
    
    Nighthawk is definitely better than b525 but I can't say it will definitely work. There is no reason why it shouldn't work but telcos are being telcos. Don't know what they will lock next.
    - bluebluebird on 01/01/2019 - 21:14
      
      Signed up to the TabS but have not bought the modem yet
      - DarkOz on 01/01/2019 - 22:03
        
        @bluebluebird: Nice! :)
        
        You will have a good day or two setting up and fine tuning everything.
- jayko on 04/01/2019 - 12:48
  
  +1
  
  bit late to the party i know but i am looking at doing the same thing, my telstra adsl2 speed is so bad i am going to give it up along with the home phone.
  a few questions please if i may, hope not too off topic:
  1. how did you buy the b525 from optus for $192? did you do it online? online i can only see the buying offer of $252 ($60+$192) under month to month? can we choose that and not have the $60 included?
  2. have a tp link archer d9 at home, can i plug that into the b525 lan port, make it into access point mode and improve the wifi range at home? upstairs bedroom is usually pretty bad for us
  3. i am going to get an amaysim prepaid sim to plug into an old iphone to test out the optus 4g reception at home, will i get good idea of the speed achievable?
  
  Thanks a lot, bit of a newbie to all this
  - bauser99 on 04/01/2019 - 14:19
    
    I bought the B525 from an Optus store for $192 outright - not sure if you can buy it outright online, definitely possible in store!
    - jayko on 05/01/2019 - 09:47
      
      Thanks bauser99
  - DarkOz on 05/01/2019 - 06:48
    
    They have plenty in the Optus stores. In fact the Optus store I went to had it on display at the front. Just tell them you want to buy the Huawei B525 outright and confirm the price to be $192 and it's done. If you don't want to waste your time just give them a call to confirm price and stock before your visit.
    
    I am pretty sure you can do that or as a matter of fact any router. at worse just buy a range extender. They are dirt cheap.
    
    That would be a great idea. Having good Optus reception is the most important. At worst, if you are too far from the tower, just buy an external antenna and wire it up the external wall or roof. If you do this, just remember to change the software settings to external antenna because it doesn't auto detect.
    
    I am a newbie to this too. I only found out by accident as I have moved recently and I wanted to move my ADSL2+ with me. Only to be told that they don't do ADSL2+ anymore and that I need to connect to NBN. I am not a fan of NBN and I couldn't get it connected anyway as the Strata weren't interested in making it happen yet. The rest is history. Got something 5 times better than ADSL2+ for the same price and a free $800 - $1000 tablet. So far the whole family is enjoying it.
    
    Let us know how you went once you have done it
    - jayko on 05/01/2019 - 09:48
      
      Great I shall try all this and let you all know, thank you
  - bauser99 on 05/01/2019 - 09:57
    
    Re: your point 2 (Archer D9) this is exactly the way my B525 is setup, using a separate router (in my case Asus RT-AC86U).
    
    All you need to do is to disable WiFi and DHCP on the B525, connect the RT-AC86U via Ethernet to the B525, assign a fixed IP address to the D9 (eg 192.168.8.102) and off you go :)
    - jayko on 06/01/2019 - 19:28
      
      Stuck on bit of a dilemma guys, I have been tracking my data usage with Telstra and it looks like I would need 300gb a month, 200gb isn’t going to be enough, not really sure the tab 4 deal is enough now, bummer
      - unco on 06/01/2019 - 23:08
        
        +1
        
        @jayko: Get two to data pool 400GB total, sell one tablet to offset a bit of the cost.
        Or get the $80 500GB deal with one of the approved modems and forego the tablet.
        
        jayko on 07/01/2019 - 00:04
        
        @unco: Great advice thank you unco, do you know if I get 2 tablets does that mean I have to swap the sim in the b525 when I use up the 200gb data in the 1st one or can I just leave the 1st sim in there and optus will know to eat up my 2nd plan’s data from the pool? Is data pooling automatically done or do I have to tell them to do that?
        
        unco on 07/01/2019 - 09:12
        
        +1
        
        @jayko: The tablets will be on the Mobile Broadband plans (you can confirm this by checking the name of the plan on the CIS document).
        
        Mobile Broadband sims can data pool with other mobile data/mobile sims as long as they're on the same account (share the same account number).
        When you're purchasing, you need to ensure they will be billed on the same account. I think the purchase page will let you know if it will be on a new bill or existing bill.
        
        You can always get them combined by customer service later however that might be more frustrating, so might pay to go in to an Optus store and speak to someone and watch them do it on the same bill on their screen.
        
        Once you have set up the data pool, you will have a sim for each tablet but they will both be taking from the total 400GB.
        That way you can have one in a modem at home and one in a tablet and just worry about not exceeding 400GB.
        
        If the CIS says Wireless Broadband for some reason, not that it should if you're buying it with the tablet, then that won't data pool.
        
        Edit: Probably a quicker way to understand data pooling
        https://www.optus.com.au/shop/mobile/phone-plans/data-sharin…
        
        DarkOz on 07/01/2019 - 14:45
        
        @jayko: Inco is correct. Go for 2 of the same mobile broadband plans under the same account numbet and data pool. Sell one or even both tablets to recoup the costs. If you can make use of both tabs that’s good too. My family uses about 170 to 230Gb so we think we could squeeze it under 200Gb by not using it a day here and there. But for 300Gb you definite need 2 of these plans.
        
        jayko on 10/01/2019 - 11:14
        
        @DarkOz: Thank you all for your help so far. A bit of an update, my amaysim arrived yesterday and last night I speedtested like crazy
        Reception is my main issue, only getting 1 bar of 4g sometimes even dropping to 3g. I am 1km from the closest tower. Peak hours I am only pulling btw 6-10 mpbs. If I manage to get 2 bars I can get upto 20mpbs. My problem is to get 2 bars that’s not where I want the b525 to sit. (Upstairs bedroom by the window)
        Offpeak with 2 bars is quite good btw 25-30mpbs, I think I will do one more night of speedtesting before I pull the trigger.
        Just wondering what are people’s experiences with the b525 reception?
        
        DarkOz on 10/01/2019 - 11:51
        
        @jayko: Yeah 1km away is going to be an issue for you. I am 0.5km out and I consistently get 4 bars. Sometimes it drops down to 3 or goes up to 5. It rately gives me 2 bars and never 1. The b525 reception is actually better than I anticipated.
        
        I guess your option for better rrception would be an external antenna up on the roof. There was an youtube video showing you the improvements. But this coud become a bit too much work for you and might not be worth it in the end.
        
        jayko on 10/01/2019 - 13:48
        
        @DarkOz: What's strange is that my mobile is on vodafone 4g and from the same tower, also only 1-2 bars at home but much faster. 30-40 peak, 50-70 off peak! Maybe just not as many customers on voda in my area and lot of optus customers making it congested?
        I guess voda 4g giving me the high speeds put my hopes up too high…
        
        DarkOz on 10/01/2019 - 17:19
        
        @jayko: Voda is actually faster than Optus in many places. Maybe your place is one of them. I just did another speed test at 5pm and got 54/11. That’s impressive. I hope it worked out for you.
Justin Powell on 03/01/2019 - 12:25

Tried and tried with live chat and on the phone. Spoke to probably 6 people.

They wont upgrade me from my 4g Data SIM plan I am currently on. Which is a 200gb/month 12 month contract. The reason being that my sim plan is consider a "data sim" and not "mobile broadband". *sigh. Basically the same thing.

I also couldnt get a discount or waived cancellation fees for jumping on the month to month deal without the modem.

Worth a trip into the store?
- unco on 03/01/2019 - 13:09
  
  I would've expected that, the mobile data sim is a different family to the wireless broadband plans.
  
  It would be similar to wanting to change your sim in your mobile phone to a data only sim, they'd need you to sign up a new sim and cancel the old one instead.
- bauser99 on 05/01/2019 - 09:54
  
  Do you also have one or more mobiles post-pay with Optus?
  
  If yes you should be able to share data allowances from your mobile(s) with the 200GB data SIM allowance, as long as they are all under the same account number
kehuehue on 01/03/2019 - 20:47

Switched over from Spintel to the 500GB Optus plan. U/D is 5/10 Mbps.

On Spintel I was getting 12/1Mbps easily throughout the day….

what gives…
- kickmiass on 02/04/2019 - 17:13
  
  You can cancel i think, tell them that the coverage there is very poor.
  - kehuehue on 02/04/2019 - 18:11
    
    Managed to hit 4MB/s after midnight
    
    But evenings it’s was pretty bad like 140kb/s
    
    Back to spintel now
    - unco on 11/04/2019 - 22:05
      
      Spintel uses Optus 2300mhz?
      I assume the modem you’re using is connecting to a band that’s congested.
      If you lock your modem to B40 and use the Optus 500GB sim you probably will get better speeds.
Harriet1968 on 13/04/2019 - 15:55

Hello,

I am a little late to the party with this thread, but would welcome any updates from anyone - as I am thinking of using wireless broadband after moving to a new place in a month. I am in Sydney.

I am looking for plan where download speed is not capped. In store at Optus today, they told me their plans are not capped. OVO also says thier speed is uncapped. Spintel, Yomojo and Exetel are capped at 12mbs.

I read the interesting idea from @DarkOz on this thread - of going for a tablet plan and using that SIM in the wireless broadband modem. The guy at Optus told me today that won't work???

Anyway, if anyone actually reads this, I'd love to hear any updates.

Cheers,

Harriet
- unco on 13/04/2019 - 16:50
  
  I read the interesting idea from @DarkOz on this thread - of going for a tablet plan and using that SIM in the wireless broadband modem. The guy at Optus told me today that won't work???
  
  This will work.
  - Harriet1968 on 13/04/2019 - 16:54
    
    Thanks Unco. Yes, I was a bit skeptical, as I had read here that it does work. But given he was telling porkies about this, I wondered if he was also telling porkies about there being no speed cap. Though I suppose that wouldn't matter if using this method (tablet SIM in router).
    - unco on 13/04/2019 - 17:52
      
      +1
      
      As far as I'm aware Optus doesn't have any products that are speed capped anymore.
      
      They replaced the Home Wireless Broadband (which was speed capped) with Wireless Broadband which isn't speed capped anymore.
      The mobile broadband range which comes with the tablets are also not speed capped.
HeWhoKnows on 15/04/2019 - 18:15

Depends how many GBs you need.

This one from SPINTEL is HALF the price if you only need 250GB and is supplied via the Optus network

https://www.spintel.net.au/home/wireless-broadband
[Deactivated] on 20/04/2019 - 10:55

How fast can they deliver this product?

I'm still looking into some options where either I have it setup and paid monthly as a backup and ready to go, or if some other prepaid structure is better.

I'm sure I can expense it as part of my home office deductions.
- energyconsciousness on 04/05/2019 - 12:01
  
  Mine arrived within 3 days of signing up online.
energyconsciousness on 04/05/2019 - 11:57

I have been using this for months now. Really happy with the speed and it is so much better than the nbn i had for the years before this.
kickmiass on 06/05/2019 - 22:19

Would changing modems improve the speed?
i'm still hitting around 12 mbps from the Vivid Modem (swapped with the new optus sim)

This was posted 5 years 11 months 16 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

AC800S or B525 with 500GB Unrestricted 4G Speed: $80/Month (24mths) @ Optus

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