Optus is now taking online orders for its 5G home wireless broadband plan. You can check if its available at your address via deal link.
Details:
Unlimited data $70 per month (50Mbps guaranteed speed)
Available in 24-month contract (No start-up fee) or month-month ($200 Start-up fee). 1st month free applies to both terms.
Both plans have a network satisfaction guarantee which will let you cancel the service if you're not getting speeds of at least 50Mbps. More info here
You must have misread, I said I'm not going with the Optus 5G option…
All of the NBN hating online is pretty tiring, to be honest. It's not edgy to hate the NBN anymore.
Err you said you don’t have NBN?
Plenty of people have plenty of reasons to hate the NBN. Hopefully for you, it’ll be good. Mine has been fairly stable.
@[Deactivated]: nbn on hfc …..i get 10m up and 40m down most of the time unlimited data for $70 pm on ……ok but nothing exciting …no point paying for 100m as the local population density wouldn’t deliver it during busy times.
@[Deactivated]: I don't have it but nearly everyone I know does. They're all happy enough. Btw not being charged premium prices for NBN - Belong 50mbps is only $55 per month which is less than I pay for ADSL (granted I get 16Mbps on my ADSL so I'm actually pretty content with that).
Those of us in Bill Shortens electorate getting punished for some reason with delayed NBN rollout. Oh, I should've mentioned, I'm in the Optus 5G zone too.
You haven't used NBN before nor Optus 5G. It's opinions from people without any experience that's tiring.
May not be edgy, but it doesn't make it any less appropriate to hate the NBN if you have poor service at premium prices.
Hate nbn, they stuck my area with fttn which couldn't achieve better than 17mbps, so switched to 4G Optus at a cheaper rate and 5x the speed.
I give the bird to NBN any chance I get now.
@garage sale: Haha, down. Would be no reason to complain if that was up.
Up peaked at maybe about 3.5?
I detest the NBN. More specifically the fact it exists in its current form. And it's not because I'm trying to be 'edgy'.
First it was "definitely" going to be cheaper. Then it wasn't. Then it was going to be more expensive. Then for less service. We going to get to keep copper and it would be our choice if to switch. Then they mandated copper would be ripped out. Then they backpedaled after a public backlash. But then they backpedaled on their backpedaling and ripped it out anyway…
Then I received a letter saying I had two months to get it installed, that it was required even just to make phone calls. Forcing me off ADSL2+ which was working perfectly fine, which I had not long purchased an excellent modem to use. ADSL2+ was cheaper, faster, didn't need some butt-ugly box mounted to a wall, and plenty of ISPs had huge or UNLIMITED downloads.
I remember many Dodo customers complaining when their unlimited ADSL2+ increased to $60 for regional areas, but dropped to only $40 for Sydney/Melbourne. Then it was revealed the crippled NBN pricing would BEGIN at $70/m - BEFORE any downloads! It changed again from there, lots of back-and-forth - but too late as I stopped listening in disgust… It was obviously a big fat con to get all of our data flowing through government computers, and destined to be a dog's breakfast.
So I cut my download needs drastically and went to 4G/LTE…
Then 4G price dropped, downloads went up. I'm no longer tied to the house to use internet. SO much freedom. USA radio in the car. Free sport, movies, radio for those that go with someone like Optus…
All that needs happen now is more R&D into phone networks/frequencies/coverage/etc. and the NBN will die a slow death due to losing customers - and receive the inevitable burial it deserves.
Seriously Xyron, unless you're one of the lucky ones with have a stable and fast NBN connection (which you don't even have yet), just keep it shushed until you do.
The "hating" for myself is simply I'm paying for NBN50. Most I can get is about 35Mbps at 5:30 in the morning, then during the day it slips down to just under 25Mbps, with Fri, Sat, Sun evening speeds as low as 2Mbps.
And no, it's not ABB congestion, my wireless tower has been oversubscribed by a very large factor by NBNCo. All users on that tower no matter what RSP have the same issue.
So, I'm so sorry I'm trying to be one of the cool ones thinking it's "edgy" to hate on the NBN, but if you were in my position let's see you keep quiet about how crappy NBN is when you're paying for speed you cannot attain.
The "Hating" is simply people getting ripped off.
I for one think the Optus 5G, if they can really achieve 50Mbps minimum is going to be a 25x improvement weekend nights. How is that hating?
Yeah I’ve got NBN and only getting 16mbps max….unfortunately, this service isn’t available in my area yet but I’ve registered my interest.
What nbn do you have, FW?
I've been very happy with my Optus NBN over the last five years. Even happier after bumping up from 25 Mbps to 50 Mbps a few months back. Just did a speed test and got 47.7/18.56. FTTP in my area. I think it also helps to be with a major retailer because I don't think the smaller ones buy enough bandwidth off NBN Co.
Must suck not having FTTP NBN.
Not a drama in 5 years since it launched here.
Imagine if the whole country got it!
Coverage is very limited
Had NBN for a year and a bit now, was getting 60mbps initially with Aussie Broadband, then 50, then 30, now about 25mbps is my max.
The second this is available in my area I will make the switch.
Be interesting to see what the ping for gaming is like. I am guessing no modem provided either.
In that case, cheeky having a $200 start up fee.
Friend, nokia modem is included (no cost but mut be returned). $200 is only on mtm and seeing as they have a 50Mb#s guarantee it shouldn't be too hard to get out of the contract if the connEction is bad. What I'm curious to know is the upload speed. For my area 4G gets a massive 120Mb down but only 10-15Mb up. Like you said latency could also be an issue.
Also from my limited research it doesn't seem like there's many 5G modems available and I'm not too sure how well this one would interface with other routers. I know Telstra ones tradionally sucked at working as a bridge (for ADSL).
I get over 200 down and 60 up on 4G (cat11 phone). I can see the tower from my house.
That's great! But unrealistic for alot of us in suburbia when it comes to celluar broadband.. What's your latency (ping time)? And how much does it fluctuate when you do multiple tests? I get similar speeds often on telstra on my phone near the city and good speeds at home but Yeh just not as consistent as my 50/20 nbn with speed and latency at home… Also more expensive for the higher download limits. I deal with NBN issues daily at work, so Yeh it's a mess but I went from 4mb dsl to 50 nbn so at home I can't complain loll
@scud70: Ping is 15ms. It's at home of course, and fluctuates a lot elsewhere
I'm coming from a country where I had gigabit fiber 750 up and down and ping 4ms or less, not that I needed such insane speeds at that time
Can't find much about the specs of the Nokia modem itself but the brochure says it supports up to 3 LTE band carrier aggregation plus 1 5g band at the same time. Should be quite decent.
Wow got big negs from Aussie Broadband fanboys when I said all NBN the same and dependent on upstream NBNCo. I use cheap Exetel over 12 months still get the same speed from the start @37 Mbps.
That's pretty decent but it's fkn sad that that speed is what is considered decent in a country as developed as ours. We should have gigabit by now.
Lol speed is one thing imagine us who need to transition 500 sites to nbn… The pain n stories… Ooof… Well better get ready for work n more pain hahaha
I assume a big part of my bad connection is due to the wiring here, but I do find it odd that the first 6 months were average of about 55-60mbps, then that became 40, then 25.
Might be time to shop around. Am paying $69 for unlimited data.
Speed is dependent on TWO factors - The current NBN infrastructure you're on and whether THAT is congested. And, if not, yes the provider DOES matter as the CVC they purchase can directly influence your speed during congested times.
One thing I like about ABB is their transparency:
https://www.aussiebroadband.com.au/cvc-graphs/
Generally they tell you exactly how much bandwidth they've purchased and you can see whether your node is hitting peak or not.
Thanks for the link! My POI is Nerang. It shows it hitting the CVC limit last night around 9pm. Just wondering. When it hits the CVC limit does the connection on my end drop to crap, like time outs and unresponsive pages or does it just slow down to like 20mbps (say I buy a 100mbps plan).
I'm on cable.
@Name: Not necessarily drop to crap, no. But instead of getting full speed, you will SHARE the available bandwidth ABB have purchased on that POI with all users trying to use that service at that time. RSPs ALWAYS purchase CVC bandwidth at a ratio less than their total number of users x their NBN plan.
It's called contention ratio
https://www.canstarblue.com.au/internet/internet-contention-…
I was going to type up an abridged version but the above link explains it quite well.
@Ramrunner: Thanks for explaining and the link.
I can put up with slow download during peak. Just didn't want to have unresponsive pages and time outs!
Thinking I'll sign up to Aussie BB. Currently on telstra hfc and it's been working no probs but I'm now approaching cut-off date and want to be organised.
Anyone know what their torrent shaping policy is? I need to download a lot of Linux distros…
if you've seen one distro you've seen them all
I havent been to a distro since 1981
distro stu doesn't advertise
Use a VPN and you can bypass their torrent shaping.
This is the correct answer.
But what is their VPN shaping policy?
I wonder if these sort of plans are sustainable, or if NBN is really…whatever word I’m searching for.
Probably not sustainable, so it's worth jumping on early and locking the price down.
NBN pricing is not.
Optus 5G pricing probably is.
However, if NBN retail pricing starts to rise*, expect Optus to raise its 5G pricing accordingly.
*- there's a general land grab / stand off ATM. All of the big ISPs are hurting bad from having to pay NBN $45/mo for something that used to cost them <$20/mo at the wholesale level. Once the NBN build finishes and the prospect of winning new customers during the current ADSL->NBN churn has passed it's likely retail prices will increase across the board. Current retail pricing is unsustainable.
Pretty much when skynet goes live / end of humanity.
Hell why not skip them all and go for 10G.
You ask why? Well, why not?
Andriod 10, iPhone 10, Galaxy s10, Note 10…
Why the hell do they offer unlimited 5G but the 4G plans still have data caps?!?
Pretty sure this is more of a bandwidth test for them.
Nope, 5g can support much more devices, has lower latency, is obviously faster and offers much higher bandwidth.
If 4g was unlimited it would become congested much easier.
And you don't think 5g could ever get congested? Bit naive to think that.
@ChillBro: the frequency 5g operates at means you need closer towers, so more towers and smaller cells than 4g, so would need more users in same area to get congested.
@ChillBro: Never said that, but if you read up on 5g it seems far less likely.
1 millions devices (5G) vs 4,000 devices supported per 1 square km.
@TEER3X: This is a good review of 5G by Marques Brownlee who went out into the street and played with it.
The hype is so severely overrated at this stage of development/construction.
I thought the same thing. Maybe now there is 5g the 4g plans may get better.
what if you put your address as your friends address and use it for the unlimited 4G?
This is very clever!
Loophole? I wanna know.
hmmmmmm……..
most likely lock to 5G network only
Surely they'd switch you down to 4G, even 3G, when 5G falls over - plus the fact it's just being rolled out. They already do this now with 4G. i.e. When I had Optus mine was mind-numbingly slow, then I noticed the 4G symbol on my phone was now 3G. I'd never seen it before, nor since.
This is a home broadband product (not a mobile plan) comes with 50mbs guaranteed speed and unlimited data I don't. Think 4g have that bandwidth. . As I said before most likely they will lock to 5g network only and pair the SIM & device. I have seen this on overseas 4G home broadband products .
@mohan76: it says it uses 4G as a backup
" In the event of an interruption to the Optus 5G Network service, your service may continue to operate on the Optus 4G Plus Network (if available) depending on the nature of the interruption."
"Nokia’s FastMile 5G Gateway is easy to set-up and connects wirelessly to the 5G mobile network, with 4G/LTE backup. "
When they come do the install at your friends house it might be a little awkward? The linked article said something about 'professional setup' so not sure if they have to mount antenna points or something to work well with the modem. If its just the router that you can shuffle around it should work fine. They might cotton on if they are trying to work out user volumes and there isn't any other uptake in your friends area.
Edit: Read like 2 more lines in the whistlesout article and it says its mostly plug and play. I just figured with smaller base tower spacing/5G travel distance you might need a fixed antenna to guarantee the 50mb+ speed. Looks like I was wrong though
I wonder if any other existing customers could comment on their experience.
I have been on this plan for 5 weeks now and the experience has been horrible so far.
Cons:
* Service has been unreliable after week 1. In the past 4 weeks, I have not got past a day without any drop out and the service has been unusable for the bulk of past 4 weeks - poorer than my ADSL connection.
* Horrible call centre - The call centre is poorly set up, support hours are not stated anywhere. You hear the hold music as soon as you dial the number and there's no option to request a dial back. I have been on hold for 30 minutes (suspect that the call centre is unmanned) before eventually I hung up. It took me a week to be able to get to talk to someone since the issue rose initially.
* Unhelpful tech support - It has been 3 weeks since I opened this case and there's still no resolution.
* Provided modem is pretty locked down and basic
* Service did not work out of the box as promised - I need to ring them up after getting the modem so that they activate the service initially (took a while before the call actually went through)
Pro:
Fast speed when it worked. I have obtained 200Mbps download and 20Mbps upload at best. Speed range is generally 30-200Mbps download and <1 - 30Mbps upload when working.
Overall, it feels like a half baked product that is rushed for sale. Proceed with caution.
Really interested to know what your line of site is to the tower and what bands are available.
This modem has carrier aggregation with 4g so it should relatively still work on purely the 4g network.
4g I average 70/40 peak and can hit 150 down.
I would expect a lot more from 5g.
I don't think it works on 4g as I definitely get good results with 4g on my phone.
According to rfnsa, the tower should be under 200m from my house. Not directly in line of sight. 3.5GHz
Average SNR 19 and RSRP -90 according to the modem.
Sounds like a locked modem 😆 looks like they dont want to give unlimited 4g
line of
sitesight.
How was your ping and what postcode?
Right now it's too slow to even complete a ping test. Under normal working condition ping is between 15 - 60ms.
Another locked modem. They've lost the plot. Don't get this people - and tell them why, so they stop this nonsense of locking modems to certain SIMs, etc. The main reason is because their support staff are hopeless and have to read from idiot sheets. So TRAIN THEM Optus, instead of crippling devices.
Even the ISPs that have unlocked modems can't support anything outside the ones that they provide. I guess Optus is a much larger scale so I get why they might do it (don't agree with it).
Having many many moons ago worked in a ISP tech support role, you'd be surprised at the amount of people that call up and pretend that they have a supported modem to try and get support. Then after 20 minutes of stuffing around and finding out that they don't have a supported modem (or they didn't tell you about that 3rd party router/switch they have in the mix which is actually causing the problem) you kind of understand why tech support lines are clogged all the time.
5G Home Broadband isn't available in your area yet, but there are other great options
My address keeps getting pushed back (it's like over 2 years now) and only FTTN. I should've gone back to Optus cable 2 years when they were offering it for like $50 or $60 per month :(
Just so people know, this isn't the impressive super-fast, low latency 5g you've probably seen videos of with thousands of IOTs communicating with each other. Beyond the backend work in progress, the super high frequency (mmWave) spectrum won't roll out in Australia for a few years yet (the range is so short there'll be a heck of a lot of boxes/cells needed anyway, and country towns will still need lower 5g frequencies to meet range requirements). This is 3.5 GHz and there was a lot of hoo ha over the rights to even the initial release of 5g spectrum in this range.
Yes - and dropouts will be prolific. More (poorly-implemented) change for the sake of change.
Every time they go up in frequency they lose range. And how likely is it we'll ever have (or want) ugly phone towers every few hundred meters literally everywhere across the country. They should be going DOWN in frequency, not UP. Amateur radio operators talk way down in the 10 meter band and lower - but transmit WORLDWIDE - while we can't even maintain a steady signal driving across a populated city.
(Btw… Obviously the antennas would be too large at frequencies that low. It was just an illustration to show longer ranges are possible by lowering frequency. There's no reason a digital signal can't be transmitted on lower frequencies, while simultaneously gaining huge distance improvement.)
Additionally, while people like Charlie Teo have been loudly warning of the link between brain cancers and mobile phone frequencies for years - in addition to multiple evidence sources in the USA 5G is even worse - they're pushing ahead anyway.
This isn't about phone service. It's about future-proofing tech/network sites/etc. in order to track everyone for profit and control - and the health of us and our kids be damned.
Wow.
You just have absolutely no idea.
You think they’re moving to higher frequencies with much less range for fun? Or some kind of conspiracy to control our minds?
Low frequency = low bandwidth.
Won’t even get started on your cancer crap.
Wowsers! You need to put the pipe down.
link between brain cancers and mobile phone frequencies for years - in addition to multiple evidence sources in the USA
Go back to your hole! Where are the sources? Name them and not some crackpot blog post made by some random nutcase.
Stop spreading your misinformation.
This was one of the largest Studies done:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3226506/
Conclusions: Although there remains some uncertainty, the trend in the accumulating evidence is increasingly against the hypothesis that mobile phone use can cause brain tumors in adults.
Nope. I'm not doing your research for you. People that respond as you have, argue, criticise, and discount ALL sources that contradict your personal bias - while simultaneously holding none of your own biases or sources to the same standard of proof.
Also of note is that everything 'most of' the medical community rejects - is always 'nonsense' until until of course, it's later proven the complete opposite. It's been that way longer than blood-letting and vomiting were their treatments of choice, and little has changed.
Btw… As Dr Teo has performed brain surgery for what, a couple of decades now, then going by your own standard, YOU are "the crackpot blog post".
“I am not an expert on electromagnetic radiation. Nor am I an expert on the molecular effects of non-ionising radiation on cellular biology. However, I am an expert on brain cancer and witness every day the devastating effects this disease has on families and society,” Dr Teo’s article in The Punch said.
You're full of it.
People that respond as you have, argue, criticise, and discount ALL sources that contradict your personal bias
Pot calling the kettle black.
Yes cause I check the sources from the people with PhDs spouting this BS who are not in the medical field or relevant in the industry they are contradicting. Barring your Teo but he himself stated above.
And still you don't list a single source.
So you're saying even the Cancer Council of Australia is lying to you.
$200 setup fee can gtfo, $200 for a 5g plan is just garbage and stupid
The setup fee is for the modem. If you lock it down in a contract the modem is free and hence the setup is free. It's decent considering some 4g modems still cost over $300
From Optus page - The cost of the modem is included in your 5G home broadband plan, so you won’t pay any extra, but you’ll need to return it when your contract is over.
The plan is $70 not $200. Seems pretty reasonable considering its unlimited with 50mbps gaurenteed. Speeds could and should be much quicker. $200 is a bit steep for setup but not that bad considering its for a 5g modem. And free if you contract.
Another 5 years we should be seeing royal commission look into huawei 5G ban by MR Turnbull. To cover up the failed NBN and play a lapdog for US daddy.
China never spies on anyone…
Well, Chinese Snowden/ Wikileaks hasn't showed up yet. Let me know when you see it.
No thanks. Don't want to be assassinated.
at at least they don't give data to Big Cooperation to charge us more :P
This is a joke right? 5G is 20 Gbps. 50 Mbps is like 3G speed.
Uh, you might want to do more research on 5G. Mmwave is a long way off.
Would have been keen on this but NBN just brought forward their rollout to my area to November…so sorry Optus, too late.