Wireless Broardband Recomendations.

[Dave70]

Due to my new location, ADSL is unavailable until telstra bring the exchange up to scratch, which might as well as the the twelfth of never.

My only option is going wireless, and with four weeks and counting of telstra plebs telling me there is a fault with my order they are 'working hard' to repair, I've had a gut full. They can jam it up their arse.

If you've got a provider you're happy with, please share, or if you want to just hate on telstra, cut loose.

 

[raven19]

I think I will be switching from AAPT (who suck - a rip off for a measely download limit), planning on going to iinet with VOIP phone. But I dont think this helps you much with the wireless option. Good luck with it, I did a bit of researching and I will be going with something like this once my current contract expires.

http://www.iinet.net.au/naked-dsl/plans.html

And yeah Tesltra are piss poor.

 

[stl]

Due to my new location, ADSL is unavailable until telstra bring the exchange up to scratch, which might as well as the the twelfth of never.

My only option is going wireless, and with four weeks and counting of telstra plebs telling me there is a fault with my order they are 'working hard' to repair, I've had a gut full. They can jam it up their arse.

If you've got a provider you're happy with, please share, or if you want to just hate on telstra, cut loose.

Your best bet would be to check on Whirlpool. Basically, I think they all suck.

This weekend I'll be putting a 25dBi antenna on my roof to point up the hill at a guy in a similar situation so he can get a piece of my ADSL...

 

[jayse]

I am with 3 prepaid wireless and out of all the other options you get more download limit for your money with them, can't compare service or anything with the others so thats only based on value, overall I am happy enough with the performance.
I think its $29 for 2g and $49 for 4g with 30 days to use it, so yeah its expensive by comparison to standard hard wired etc but cheaper then the other wireless options.

 

[roverfj1200]

Running Crazy Johns wireless and very happy even if the coverage is limited.. Running on a Toughbook with built in gsm modem.. Not on the usb stick one.

 

[earle]

I have Bigpond Nextg but if I wasn't stuck on a contract I would definitely look elsehwhere. Was without the internet for over a month when the router/modem shat itself. From whirlpool forum the modems bigpond/telstra supply are widely known to be a heap of shit that overheat and burn out. Frontline technical support is useless and are not allowed to do anything like order you a replacement modem and it is next to impossible to get to talk to higher level technical support that can. Aaaargh. Problem was eventually sorted. I think telstra's business model is something like - provide shit equipment, support and customer service and just count on sheer volume to make a profit despite unhappy customers.

 

[Banshee]

The worste thing they did when they privatised Telstra was to keep the hardware and services under the same company. Right from the word go they should have divided it into hardware and service and create two different companies. I'm sure that Australia's telecommunications would be better off but maybe not the Telstra share holders.

Oh and take a look at Vivid.

 

[manticle]

Can't help you with best but I can recommend staying away from Virgin.

 

[kocken42]

I use Optus post-paid wireless broadband and it has worked a treat for me so far!

I purchased the pre-paid modem for $80 or so, and then went on a post-paid plan (no contract) which gets me 2gig a month for $20.

It cuts out every now and again in bad weather...but not to the extent that it's a problem.

 

[Hatchy]

Do you know if there's DSL at yr exchange? If it's just that all of the telstra ports are full then you may be able to get DSL with someone else. I'm with Internode basically because I did a whole heap of reading on whirlpool & node customers were the happiest on there. If you can get DSL then don't go with anyone who charges for excess data or who meters uploads. I work for a telco who charges for excess & meters uploads & try to feel sorry for customers who complain about it but it's not my fault they didn't do any research before signing up.

If you have to go wireless then coverage probably isn't an issue. When I was reading up on it a while ago everyone was using the optus network except for telstra. From the OP I'm guessing the big T isn't an option. 3 had the best deals when I was looking but that was before they merged with vodaphone, I'm not sure if that changed their plans or not.

Have a look on whirlpool. If you want advice about which ISP to go with then a computer geek forum may be a better place to ask than a beer geek forum.

 

[redbeard]

Whats your location ?

 

[pk.sax]

If ur in such a location that telstra don't have adsl there yet, then it could be dicey with wireless as well.

Best bet is to have a 3G enabled phone like iPhone that can run a decent speedtest and compare which provider has the strongest signal in your area. Means you will have to have mates on different carriers over for beers and run tests through their iPhones/HTCs etc.

I know that where I used to live was just inside preston exchange and I got shit cuz of that. So much so that my phone on voda clocked 2mbps which was faster. My friend's optus phone really struggled out that far from the cbd. I sed to have great service with telstra but ditchedthem cuz of their stupid overpriced shit plans.

Best advice is to not rely on customer service or the support and do your own on location bandwidth tests before you go for one. Coverage maps on their websites aren't worth talking about, it's the actual bandwidth they distribute in any area that will affect you. A provider shit in one area might be great in another.

 

[Cube]

coomera, oxenford area is crap for wireless. I've used 3 wireless for 2.5 years up in coomera and it only runs in ONE spot in the house on HSDA. Thats in the spare room upstairs on a certain angle with a home made dish pointing at it. So I had to get a 3g wireless router for it to have internet down stairs. All mobile carriers out here are crappy. Rule of thumb is if you can get a great cell ph signal, ditto for a 3g internet mobile broadband. 2 months ago I cancelled 3 ( got go soooo sick if it running anywhere from 120kbs to no signal to super slow to nothing.... repeat ) and went Vodafone mobile. Even worse and in fact I ordered cable today and will crawl on vodafone internet until cable is installed in a week or two. Can't wait.

What area are you?

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I'm with three pre-paid.

I bought 12G for $149 and it doesn't expire for a full 12months. It is very cheap for pre-paid.

You get what you pay for... No service outside of major metro, and even in the middle of the city, I frequently have long periods of good signal, but no service.

6months into my 12months and I am ready to chuck it and pay extra for a more reliable service from either optus or more probably telstra.

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I've found that Optus has superior coverage to Telstra and the also rans. Particularly in my part of the world where there is no adsl (too far from the exchange and too many phone services on too few pairs). Satellite is the devil's communications technology. So, it's Optus for me. $30/month - more data than I need.

I agree that the only real way is to test. However, you will not get as good a service as if you wait for a dsl service to come along.

Failing that, is there a WiFi/Max provider in your area?

 

[Dave70]

I think telstra's business model is something like - provide shit equipment, support and customer service and just count on sheer volume to make a profit despite unhappy customers.

You are 100% correct. If I ran my business the way they do, I' go broke in a month - and rightly so.

Cheer's for the reply's people, some good options among this lot.