I’ve been reading through recent BYO plan including comments and some have been commenting to use it as alternative to NBN.
I don’t wanna use mobile phone as hotspot and would prefer plugging a usb modem in my old router. Is it worth it? If yes, which model do i need?
I have a JB Telstra 5G Broadband deal. $69 or so for 400GB of data over 12 months, and it came with a $400 gift card on sign up. I used the gift card to buy the Telstra 5G Hotspot which put me out of pocket $150 or so still for the modem. You could try find a second hand one or buy in combination with discount gift cards etc.
I have never had an issue in terms of reliability. Strong signal throughout the house, streams 4K netflix etc, use it for online gaming and get around 50 ping which isn't as good as NBN but it's perfectly acceptable for me. I have it plugged into my PC with an ethernet cable for maximum speed there, and the TV, mobile and home devices are all using the wifi off it, which can be configured as both 2.4 and 5Ghz. PC keeps it charged as well through USB-C.
Best part is, I can take it with me when I go away if I so wish. If you are interested I would first make sure you can get 5G in your house and it is a strong decent signal.
Current JB deal is $69/Mo plus a $500 gift card on a 24 month plan for 400gb. If you go over the 400gb, it will slow the speed but in my experience it is still fast enough to watch regular Netflix and Youtube on.
USB tethering to a router is definitely possible, if a bit limited in options.
I've used Asus routers (an RT-AC68U a few years back) for this but it was rather unreliable for failover and failback to NBN. The Telstra Smart Modems also do this with an inbuilt SIM slot, and I presume would also work with an external device as well.
I wouldn't do it myself anymore - it's not just the download capacity, but also the latency and consistency that make it an issue. (I did also download like 3Tb last month!)
I was bit worried on its reliability as well. I’m trying to reduce monthly cost by using cheap mobile plan and just getting mobile broadband use when going out and as substitute to nbn. But I don’t think it would work flawlessly.
Forget all that an install Starlink.