Internet providers and phone companies

[Rosy]

I'm not sure about the protocol or legality in regard to naming providers so I shall refer to them as the Big O and the Big T.

At the moment our phones are all with T and our internet provider is australiaonline.

I can get the net much cheaper as well as a $50 rebate and 3 months 3 net usage per year by having our internet and phone both with the Big O.

When we had the net with T it continually disconnected and cost a fortune in dial up calls and I was wondering if that's a problem with O.

Would be interested to hear about satisfaction levels, or lack thereof, from people who've had experience with dial up internet with The Big O.

If anyone other than me still uses dial up that is. :-[

 

[smoo]

Hey Rosy,

To the best of my knowledge there are no protocol or legality issues with regard to naming providers if you are speaking from personal, truthful experience.

My bent on Telstra and Optus is thus:

I have about 6 years experience with telecommunications and such products. Telstra are (should read were) great in that they have the infrastructure, resources, and technical know how to make them a world class Telco company. However, with the advent of competition, they have seemed to stagnate. That is, they have had the opportunity to be proactive, but instead have been reactive. You would no doubt have read my previous posts re broadband internet. To give you an example, I pay $49.95 per month with my ISP for broadband with a 1.5 MBPS download and 256kb upload speed. Now, to get the same with Telstra would cost me well in excess (at last comparison) of $80.00 per month. Can't say for sure with Optus. Enough said, but from memory, Optus are definitely cheaper than Telstra.

With phone lines, and in many cases ADSL or dial up internet, other providers are using Telstra infrastructure. They buy the "airtime" off Telstra at wholesale prices, and resell it to you and I.

With regard to other equipment, such as internet and mail servers, it is generally owned by the ISP (eg: Optus, Australia Online, Dodo, TPG, Froggy, etc etc etc). What may often determine disconnection is dependent on the Hardware and Software Resources that your ISP has, amongst other factors.

I can't speak from recent experience with Telstra, but can tell you that prior to signing on with my current ISP, my dial up was with Optus till January this year. I generally found them to be reliable. No matter which ISP you are with on dial up, you WILL have disconnections (you occasionally get them with DSL, but rarely). I was pretty happy with Optus. I still have my home phone with them and find them to be SIFNIFICANTLY cheaper than Telstra.

Certainly Optus, like any company, have their faults, but in the main, I have found their service and reliability to be (at a rough estimate) about 30 to 40% better than Telstra.

Overall, it's a bit of an indictment on Telstra, considering their resources, infrastructure, and the fact that they have a significant amount of competition out there. Maybe there is a case for full privatisation of Telstra after all!?!

My opinion in short: Optus should be OK. If they could match my current ISP, I'd still be with them.

Hope this helps,
Smoo.

 

[palmyscum]

I just brought a new ZYXEL PRESTIGE 630 C1 ADSL/USB MODEM and netcomm microfilter for just $63.40 from www.ecomcomputers.com.au including next day delivery. Combine that with Curl's *www.curl.com.au $39.95 Unlimited 512k plan and it works out to be approx $232 for modem, line-filter, line activation, 1 months unlimited downloads....with no contract after the 1 month....

This sh!ts on any other plan....no excess download charges

all you need know is a mate with BIGWAND to give up their user login for AFL site purposes only.....

the afl site is recommended at speeds of 216 and this is double that speed and of the big T's plans and half the price....

 

[smoo]

Um, sorry to rain on your parade impact, but my plan with TPG is $10 per month more, unlimited downloads at 1.5 MBPS, uploads at 256 KBPS, free modem or 4 port router and free inline filter. No excess download charges, 6 month contract (care - not), $129.00 set up fee (line activation). Your plan is great, so are plenty others. The important thing for me was the speed of download & 1.5 MBPS is rather swift in anyone's language. So, $178.95 including filter, modem and 1 months access, plus $25.00 for a central filter for my cordless phone = $203.95.

Importantly, both deals are significantly better than Smelstra's Bog Pond, which is ridiculously overpriced

 

[palmyscum]

Um, sorry to rain on your parade impact, but my plan with TPG is $10 per month more, unlimited downloads at 1.5 MBPS, uploads at 256 KBPS, free modem or 4 port router and free inline filter. No excess download charges, 6 month contract (care - not), $129.00 set up fee (line activation). Your plan is great, so are plenty others. The important thing for me was the speed of download & 1.5 MBPS is rather swift in anyone's language. So, $178.95 including filter, modem and 1 months access, plus $25.00 for a central filter for my cordless phone = $203.95.

Importantly, both deals are significantly better than Smelstra's Bog Pond, which is ridiculously overpriced

your in metro...regional 1 sucks with TPG...

http://www.comcen.net.au are good as well

12 month plan free modem, conection and filter with unlimited downloads shapped at 10G for $49.95 = $600 for 12 months not bad....

 

[smoo]

your in metro...regional 1 sucks with TPG...

http://www.comcen.net.au are good as well

12 month plan free modem, conection and filter with unlimited downloads shapped at 10G for $49.95 = $600 for 12 months not bad....

Agree there impact, Regional 1 with TPG is on the exy side at $79.95 p/m, but probably still significantly cheaper than Telstra, and they don't shape or throttle you back till you hit 50 GB, which is extremely generous.
I s'pose what I was getting at is that plenty of people blindly accept Telstra as being good just because they are the supposedly all Aussie company. IMHO, many of their products and services are very overpriced and for an all Aussie company, they source an awful lot of overseas products.

The main thing at the end of the day is that people are happy with what they have. However, many Bog Pond customers would freak if they looked closer at the alternatives out there.

Cheers,

Smoo.

 

[palmyscum]

your in metro...regional 1 sucks with TPG...

http://www.comcen.net.au are good as well

12 month plan free modem, conection and filter with unlimited downloads shapped at 10G for $49.95 = $600 for 12 months not bad....

Agree there impact, Regional 1 with TPG is on the exy side at $79.95 p/m, but probably still significantly cheaper than Telstra, and they don't shape or throttle you back till you hit 50 GB, which is extremely generous.
I s'pose what I was getting at is that plenty of people blindly accept Telstra as being good just because they are the supposedly all Aussie company. IMHO, many of their products and services are very overpriced and for an all Aussie company, they source an awful lot of overseas products.

The main thing at the end of the day is that people are happy with what they have. However, many Bog Pond customers would freak if they looked closer at the alternatives out there.

Cheers,

Smoo.

true about telstra and true about final paragraph

 

[Gazza68]

Rosy, have a look at iprimus. I have it & its not too bad, it costs $70 a month, which includes line rental, local calls free, std $2.50 for 2 hours, cheap international calls to your favorite overseas destination. The actual adsl speed is 256 upload & 200 mb per month download, once you exceed this it slows down rather than being charged for excess downloads. It's not to bad if you only download bits & pieces, its also not to bad when your not having to worry about connection fees.

 

[Richmond]

I am with Netcall, I have had no problems so far. I am paying $26 per month for 512K download speed with a 2gb limit. I didn't take up the phone package, mainly because it involves dialling extra numbers before the phone number, which was all too hard for me!

An excellent resource is located here: (http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc-plan.cfm). just enter your details and it will let you know the various costs/speeds for all broadband connections.

 

[TIGEREXTRA]

I am with Netcall, I have had no problems so far. I am paying $26 per month for 512K download speed with a 2gb limit. I didn't take up the phone package, mainly because it involves dialling extra numbers before the phone number, which was all too hard for me!

An excellent resource is located here: (http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc-plan.cfm). just enter your details and it will let you know the various costs/speeds for all broadband connections.

Do you know of a similar site to help find the cheapest phone home company to use?

 

[smoo]

Hey Tiger Extra,

try http://www.phonechoice.com.au

I've only just brought it up via a Google search, but it seems really good, and provides info about Broadband and Mobile as well. Seems to be an all in one site. I have added it to my Favourites and will give it more of a go later on.

Happy Surfing and hope this is of help.
Cheers,
Smoo.

 

[palmyscum]

i just got adsl put on today there is no way i would go back to dial up...mums happy, im happy and we are all happy!!!

 

[TIGEREXTRA]

Hey Tiger Extra,

try http://www.phonechoice.com.au

I've only just brought it up via a Google search, but it seems really good, and provides info about Broadband and Mobile as well. Seems to be an all in one site. I have added it to my Favourites and will give it more of a go later on.

Happy Surfing and hope this is of help.
Cheers,
Smoo.

Thanks smoo.

 

[cassady]

iprimus tech support is ok if u can be bothered waiting on hold until xmas. absolute disgrace and they wont respond when u tell them