[Bernard L. Madoff]

Just bought a little notebook that I can download my trading platform and slip into my backpack and take to work in case some stupendous trading opportunity surfaces when I'm on a break. I'll be getting live chart data no big packets.

Based on a max of 30mins a day access 5 days a week, any recommendations on a wireless provider?

[Max Carnage]

Hi Bernie,

I bought the Telstra 3G turbo for $89 outright so I can just buy prepaid data as I need. It may not be the cheapest option ($20/225mb, $40/gb etc) but the coverage is top-notch.
http://www.telstra.c...6&top_category=

[staringclown]

Bernard L. Madoff, on 15 August 2010 - 08:11 AM, said:

Just bought a little notebook that I can download my trading platform and slip into my backpack and take to work in case some stupendous trading opportunity surfaces when I'm on a break. I'll be getting live chart data no big packets.

Based on a max of 30mins a day access 5 days a week, any recommendations on a wireless provider?

I'd recommend telstra but I'm hopelessly conflicted.

whirlpool.net.au is the best site for Australian ISP choice.

They have a forum for wireless here

[Bernard L. Madoff]

Thank you suh! Puts me on the right path.

[savagegoose]

optus will let you cancel your contract within 7 days i think , if your connection speed isnt upto scratch.

[Bernard L. Madoff]

savagegoose, on 15 August 2010 - 09:44 AM, said:

optus will let you cancel your contract within 7 days i think , if your connection speed isnt upto scratch.

Optus sucks in mobile coverage here but improving (mountains). BUT I want to access at the airport which is not bad.

I'll do the Telstra one if no one has any others.

Thanks all you are gentleman and scholars. Well worth your weights in GOLD, GOLD, GOLD.GOLD

[tom]

If you have not already taken the plunge, by far teh best in my opinion for infrequent users assuming you get coverage (not guaranteed by a long stretch) is 3.

For $150.00 you get 12months to use 12Gb.

No monthly paying it off etc, just pay, $150.00 once a year.

IT works for me.

Between the three of us at teh office we each have a 3 mobile card, and we have one telstra card on contract to take away up north.

[Mr Medved]

If you don't go with Telstra you'll end up with crap coverage and an over-subscribed service.

[tor]

tom, on 15 August 2010 - 11:52 AM, said:

If you have not already taken the plunge, by far teh best in my opinion for infrequent users assuming you get coveridge (not guaranteed by a long stretch) is 3.

For $150.00 you get 12months to use 12Gb.

No monthly paying it off etc, just pay, $150.00 once a year.

IT works for me.

Between the three of us at teh office we each have a 3 mobile card, and we have one telstra card on contract to take away up north.

I use 3 for my phone. Coverage has certainly got better but it is not even close to the telstra cards for speed in my experience.

However it is way cheaper and the speeds are usable for basic browsing.

[Max Carnage]

Max Carnage, on 15 August 2010 - 08:55 AM, said:

I bought the Telstra 3G turbo for $89 outright so I can just buy prepaid data as I need. It may not be the cheapest option ($20/225mb, $40/gb etc) but the coverage is top-notch.

I should have mentioned speed. I usually get bang-on 200KB/s - I think that's about 1.6 megabits - but I guess it depends on signal strength.

[dawbs]

If you have an ABN go and have a look at exetel and their business HSPA plans. . .

http://www.exetel.co...spa-pricing.php

If you get the phone based plan you pay $0 monthly access and then a 0.015 C per meg flat rate (yes, the decimals are right. $15/gig)

I have a sim card on this plan sitting in my bag for emergencies and it costs me nothing to keep it hanging around. Just about to port pretty much all our phones onto them as I have been pretty happy with it.

They use the Optus network so expect similar speed and coverage. I have never been a Telstra person so its fine for me as I have no idea what I might be missing out on !

[tor]

dawbs, on 16 August 2010 - 02:12 AM, said:

If you have an ABN go and have a look at exetel and their business HSPA plans. . .

http://www.exetel.co...spa-pricing.php

If you get the phone based plan you pay $0 monthly access and then a 0.015 C per meg flat rate (yes, the decimals are right. $15/gig)

I have a sim card on this plan sitting in my bag for emergencies and it costs me nothing to keep it hanging around. Just about to port pretty much all our phones onto them as I have been pretty happy with it.

They use the Optus network so expect similar speed and coverage. I have never been a Telstra person so its fine for me as I have no idea what I might be missing out on !

We use exetel for our office net connection. They do have some damn fine pricing and, despite "you get what you pay for" reservations, have not had a major outage in the year or so I have used them (unlike someone else *cough* iinet *cough* who made me actually go into the office end of last week, bastards).

They have also had good tech support when a power surge blew the router config and a junior techy had to go through it with them.

Haven't used their mobile stuff but the fixed line has been a great company so far.

[ponder]

tor, on 15 August 2010 - 06:25 PM, said:

I use 3 for my phone. Coverage has certainly got better but it is not even close to the telstra cards for speed in my experience.

However it is way cheaper and the speeds are usable for basic browsing.

I've used 3 prepaid for the past couple of years, but it has recently become rubbish - dropping out intermittently, ludicrously slow, etc. Mrs Ponder demanded I replace it (if the Gymboree site is inaccessible, Mrs Ponder has been known to become dangerously unstable), so I picked up a Telstra prepaid yesterday ... and OMFG it is good. Average speeds at home (we live in a valley with uniformly crap mobile reception) is around 1800 kbps, which is off the chart compared to 3. Stupendously expensive compared to 3 ($40 for 1GB with 30 day expiry, vs. $149 for 12GB with 365 day expiry) but worth every cent so far.

[RumpledElf]

ponder, on 16 August 2010 - 10:45 PM, said:

I picked up a Telstra prepaid yesterday ... and OMFG it is good. Average speeds at home (we live in a valley with uniformly crap mobile reception) is around 1800 kbps, which is off the chart compared to 3. Stupendously expensive compared to 3 ($40 for 1GB with 30 day expiry, vs. $149 for 12GB with 365 day expiry) but worth every cent so far.

We were paying for 12G a month I think, $120ish for Telstra wireless, but that's wireless internet not wireless on your phone. The phone internet is much more expensive. Telstra's coverage/speeds out this way is extremely good, we were getting 3 or 4 megabit.

We tried to get a $10 data block for the phone a few weeks ago (my partner bought it for my phone) but it bounced and they ended up refunding it and charging us $2 a meg instead, fortunately it straddled a month (despite using it all on one day just to check the power outage status during a long power failure) and kept within our $20 cap. We're actually still paying $30 a month (their cheapest plan) on a 36 month contract for wireless internet with Telstra we are simply not using. Annoying, but its a small price to pay for moving to a larger town with ADSL which opens up every other provider as an option.

[tom]

RumpledElf, on 17 August 2010 - 02:51 AM, said:

We were paying for 12G a month I think, $120ish for Telstra wireless, but that's wireless internet not wireless on your phone. The phone internet is much more expensive. Telstra's coverage/speeds out this way is extremely good, we were getting 3 or 4 megabit.

I am a bit of a luddite with such matters but do you mean telstra ADSL with a wireless router? Cause that sounds expensive for that service? I have same (assuming wireless router) for nearly half that.

If you meant wireless internet, go anywhere, the way 3 has it set up when you buy the sim card you buy your 12Gb and it can be for a phone or for a wireless card for a computer. You can plug it into either for the same price for the same downloads. Once you choose however, I dont think you can swap the sim between computers and phones? I don't think it makes any difference to them what is downloading the data, computer or phone as far as their network goes (I am purely speculating here). Knowing Telstra however it would not surprise me if they gouge certain markets where they can!

[zaph]

tom, on 17 August 2010 - 03:07 AM, said:

I am a bit of a luddite with such matters but do you mean telstra ADSL with a wireless router? Cause that sounds expensive for that service? I have same (assuming wireless router) for nearly half that.

If you meant wireless internet, go anywhere, the way 3 has it set up when you buy the sim card you buy your 12Gb and it can be for a phone or for a wireless card for a computer. You can plug it into either for the same price for the same downloads. Once you choose however, I dont think you can swap the sim between computers and phones? I don't think it makes any difference to them what is downloading the data, computer or phone as far as their network goes (I am purely speculating here). Knowing Telstra however it would not surprise me if they gouge certain markets where they can!

ok since it's turned into a fixed line net conversation....

we have 30g midday to midnight and 60g midnight to midday, optus cable with a home router, $60 per month. speed is around 9mps.

the optus installation guy told me that with minimal tweaking the optus cable network will be able to achieve 100mps and that if nbn didn't buy the optus cable network they would upgrade the network to make it super fast and out price nbn, and do it before nbn did. there doesn't seem to be any discourse about the optus network, it's all about telstra. why's that?

[tor]

zaph, on 18 August 2010 - 08:42 AM, said:

ok since it's turned into a fixed line net conversation....

we have 30g midday to midnight and 60g midnight to midday, optus cable with a home router, $60 per month. speed is around 9mps.

the optus installation guy told me that with minimal tweaking the optus cable network will be able to achieve 100mps and that if nbn didn't buy the optus cable network they would upgrade the network to make it super fast and out price nbn, and do it before nbn did. there doesn't seem to be any discourse about the optus network, it's all about telstra. why's that?

Because before the NBN telstra didn't have to compete and kept optus in court until they ran out of cash

Remember how optus needed to get access to council power poles and somehow no one let them?

Telstra has been told that the game is over and they have fired so many of the engineers over the past 5 years they are screwed whoever gets in.

[RumpledElf]

tom, on 17 August 2010 - 03:07 AM, said:

I am a bit of a luddite with such matters but do you mean telstra ADSL with a wireless router? Cause that sounds expensive for that service? I have same (assuming wireless router) for nearly half that.

Wireless internet, although we had it attached to an antenna on the chimney so not really 'go anywhere'. The external antenna was essential in a big stone house that blocks signals.

The choice for internet when Telstra booted us off ISDN was Telstra, Telstra, or anyone but with DIALUP. So we went Telstra, 36 month contract, half price for the first 12 months and free setup because they'd booted us off ISDN. Their plans were unbelievably expensive (excess charges over 3G could push you into $100s if not $1000s per month) initially but all the other ISDN people got so vocal they introduced the 12G plan with shaping. Whirlpool was running hot in the ISDN subforum (now closed) in the months running up to ISDN being pulled.

We still have our landline and mobile with Telstra. Do any other providers resell NextG yet or is it just Telstra? NextG is a brilliant network, best coverage ever, but as far as I know its a Telstra only thing. I like my mobile working *everywhere* not just in towns. We drive around a lot, one of the things we do is a mobile service to fix computers and set up TVs so we are often out on farms and tiny towns away from phone towers.

We have Internode ADSL now, on a SOHO plan because we run a D&D server from home, although I haven't paid any attention to the server for ages. People complain when we have a power failure though so its obviously still in use

[tor]

Got an email from iiNet this morning. "Oh hi, umm have some free bandwidth. You used to have 85GB peak and another 85 off peak. we are upgrading you to 300GB for each. Oh and if you overdo it you will be shaped at 256kbps"

It is not wireless but it is an example of why I like iiNet and their practices. Haven't had that kind of thing from anyone before. iiNet have upped me from 60 -> 75 -> 85 in the past.

[tom]

tor, on 23 August 2010 - 08:47 PM, said:

Got an email from iiNet this morning. "Oh hi, umm have some free bandwidth. You used to have 85GB peak and another 85 off peak. we are upgrading you to 300GB for each. Oh and if you overdo it you will be shaped at 256kbps"

It is not wireless but it is an example of why I like iiNet and their practices. Haven't had that kind of thing from anyone before. iiNet have upped me from 60 -> 75 -> 85 in the past.

Yes quite different to Telstra!

Found out about 3 months ago that a friend gets exactly the same as we do on Telstra for $20.00 cheaper per month. Went on Telstra home page and found that if I signed up for 24months I too can get the $20.00 discount p.m.

You would think they would tell their existing customers about such deals?

I didnt sign up in stead rang them and said, I have had enough of them and woudl only take th deal if their was no plan attached as I had been a customer for ages. Anyway they knocked it back and I am still with them but when I gt some time will investigate alternatives in my area...