internet access in Oz

[MarkSalter]

My friends moved to Canberra recently and prepaid 3G is insanely expensive. ADSL is not much better and most placed can't get ADSL2 or FTTH yet. I assume these problem are more national as well.

Is anyone using a WISP service - Wireless Service Provider?

I am curious as to why these are not more prevalent.

[Guest May]

Not that this answers your question, I ordered an ADSL2 in Brisbane and because of the floods it takes up to 3 weeks!!! Cable is the fastest as hubby may work from home however we are not in that grid considering the area I stay in is at least 30 years old. So I either plod off to the library which is plenty and get free WiFi or 1 hour Internet on their PCs per day or I bought a 3G USB that was on special AU$29 with AU$30 prepaid, all with Telstra. It seems Optus is not prevalant in some areas and thre may give better rates but they rent lines from Telstra any way so if you have problems its a second tier that you need to work through. Just some background on what I was told.

[sianvz]

Hey Mark

When we lived in rural WA in 2010 and we had adsl and it was super fantastic!!

Never had connection issues, I think it was roughly $50 a month for the phone line and adsl with a 40GB cap.

They normally say don't convert because it will make Oz look really expensive, but if you compare it to the percentage of your salary and I relate that to my current peanut salary in SA, it works out to R166 a month - have you heard of any service provider here with an offer like that?

I am not sure about the 3G though, never needed to use it, so sorry can't answer much about that.

[MarkSalter]

Canberra says they will have FTTH - fiber to the home in the next few months so that should sort out at least Canberra.

Friends in Perth say, now that they managed to get ADSL2 it is much better.

It just seems that even compared to SA (main cities) there seems less options and coverage in Oz than in SA

[zamunda]

They are installing a nation wide fibre optic connection network to every home. I think there is a web site that tells you the status of this and which areas are to be connected when. Google it.

Connections are not that expensive when looking at the cost from the Aus earning perspective.

In Melbourne (where my in-laws live) they have ADSL2 and it is amazingly fast. On a speedtest, I once got 7mbps (up) and 5mbps (down). This was during working hours. Excellent band width. Pays $100. This includes the connection along with phone and a few other things in the bundle.

I have found the connections to be far better in the cities than in SA. Not so sure about rural areas in Aus though.

[MarkSalter]

Yes, I read a while back about a national FTTH roll-out.

I am part of an ISP in Durban so a bit spoilt by having 24/7 access to Fiber, high speed wireless, gigabit peering links etc..

I consider anything under 5Mbps up and down, slow, however to be honest a good 2mbps link is all that is really required unless you are a downloader.

[zamunda]

Yes, I read a while back about a national FTTH roll-out.

I am part of an ISP in Durban so a bit spoilt by having 24/7 access to Fiber, high speed wireless, gigabit peering links etc..

I consider anything under 5Mbps up and down, slow, however to be honest a good 2mbps link is all that is really required unless you are a downloader.

Yes, I read a while back about a national FTTH roll-out.

I am part of an ISP in Durban so a bit spoilt by having 24/7 access to Fiber, high speed wireless, gigabit peering links etc..

I consider anything under 5Mbps up and down, slow, however to be honest a good 2mbps link is all that is really required unless you are a downloader.

Damn you are spoilt!!!

I guess for general public use, anything upto 3 or 4 mbps is pretty awesome. In some areas even 1 mbps i found to be really good considering the bandwidth quality.

I have heard that South Korea and some major cities in China has very very fast internet speeds (for general public use). Even better than the U.S.

[21yearsoutofrsa]

I just did a speed test. I got 9.43 Mbps up and .58Mbps down on an ADSL 2+ connection..

I live in the outer suburbs of Brisbane. I pay $49.90 for 50GB per month (no restriction when) in a bundle of 2 other phone products. I'm with Telstra, which I know is not the cheapest.

My 3G (not 4G) mobile connection got 17Mbps down.

the issue in Australia is that there has been so much government intervention in the last 5 years. The government is rolling out an uneconomic FTTH network which has made it so uncertain for Telcos that they are capping investment.

If you work for anyone where you ar able to access product at cost you are always going to be disappointed when you have to pay full retail.

Edited February 13, 2013 by 16yearsoutofrsa

[MarkSalter]

nice. 20mbps and 40mbps ADSL2 which is also being called VDSL is only on trial here.

Fiber if you have the money can go to any speed but way out of the budget of a home user or small or medium sized business.

3G/HSDPA/HSUPA is being limited and the stability of the service seems to be on the decline.

Peering is still an issue and local ISP bandwidth over fiber now costs the same as international. Overall the high cost of laying fiber (mostly the labour) and Telkom still monopolizing national infrastructure has kept prices up.

This is why WISPs are becoming more popular here however there are far to many unlicensed wireless providers causing interference and a bad name for the industry as their services are generally unstable.

Any, what was shocking was my friend was paying AUD80 per 4GB of 3G prepaid data which only lasts a few days. Fortunately she managed to get DSL which is super fast down but less than 1mbps up so things like Skype video and uploading files to google drive are an issue.

[21yearsoutofrsa]

Pre-paid Mobile is always going to be the most expensive way of purchasing internet access!

http://www.telstra.com.au/internet/home-broadband-bigpond-elite-plans/

http://www.telstra.com.au/internet/mobile-broadband/

for an idea of functionality vs price. Telstra is the biggest provider with the best coverage, but the most expnsive.

I have seen a 4G wireless speedtest at 35 Mbps, but that was when it was first launched.

[GideonVD]

Basically ADSL2+ is 20mbps average, cable is 100/200mbps (depending on location) and the next gen fibre promises 1gbps line speeds. 4G LTE is available via Optus and Telstra in most major cities.

Overall I'd say they are a hell of a lot more jacked up than SA

Edited February 14, 2013 by GideonVD

[MarkSalter]

Looks like I was wrong about Oz, maybe it is just Amaroo (fairly new suburb) in Canberra that is lacking or we have not found the right provider.

Here is something else of interest. We have our own VoIP gateway in SA as we provide IP VoIP PBX services and minutes here.

Now it is cheaper for us to call people in Oz on their mobiles (About 25% less based against our VoIP to cellular cost prices) than to call someone here in the same country on their mobile. Landline calls to Oz is roughly the same as calling a local area landline in SA. The Cell Phone companies here are still ripping the ass out of the market,