Hey you Aussies! How can I get broadband internet for my family?

Probably should look into Adam, iinet or dodo. I believe it’s called naked dsl.

I have phone lines but I travel a lot so I also have a USB thing with 3 and a plug in Wi-Fi thing with Telstra. Most of the telecommunications companies have some form of portable broadband internet. The 3 one doesn’t work well at home but has always been good in cities. I have only used the Telstra one once so far, but that was at home, where phone reception is terrible, and it worked fine. It cost $100 to get two months broadband (can’t remember how much you can download) but then you can top it up quite cheaply from then on.

Be careful which provider you go with in terms of reception. As your neighbours who they are with to find out who has the best coverage where you are.

My kids only have mobiles, and they all have these types of devices for internet access in their rented homes.

Welcome home!

@Bellatrix they live in the hills! I looked at the telstra thingo and it looks like it’s going to be like dial-up slow. 3g what! The provider we have has a thing where they install ’ on a vacant copper pair’ uh, what’s that!! I remember this sort of thing was crazy making oh no. Thanks all

Pair gain it is… it relates to land lines though and it means you can’t get ADSL. If you have copper lines, you can. It means “In telephony, pair gain is a method of transmitting multiple POTS signals over the twisted pairs traditionally used for a single traditional subscriber line in telephone systems. Pair gain has the effect of creating additional subscriber lines. This is typically used as an expedient way to solve subscriber line shortage problems by using existing wiring, instead of installing new wires from the central office to the customer premises.” (Wikipedia).

I will ask my husband about the thing we got. It wasn’t SUPER fast, but it was okay. I work on-line and I found it was okay. I will find out more about this thing we bought recently though (we were transferring from one provider to the other and I was without internet days and the 3 thing was a dud at home. I can’t be in that situation.)

I would go and talk to your neighbours too. They will have internet. What are they using? Who are they with? That’s the safest way to find out who has the best reception in the area. The providers will lie to you. Will get back to you on the Telstra thing.

@Bellatrix thankyou sooo much. Thats a thing I’m gonna miss about here. Super fast and you can grab a signal anywhere. Thanks, and let me know- I trade forex and have to have a lightning fast service, when I get there, but I won’t be in the hills. They had internode but they had a land line. I had that put in back in 2007 and it was a big pain in the rear as I remember.

As soon as you leave the major cities, Telstra has the best coverage without a doubt. Others work great in town but die within meters of the city line. I have a mobile usb dongle and it works anywhere you have mobile phone reception and is okay speed wise but not broadband speed by any means. You can get them on a plan or prepaid, but the prepaid is much higher in cost. Julia’s very expensive broadband plan has yet to come to fruition. Where I live, one suburb has it and that is all. I have other friends who can’t get broadband at all and they are in the heart of the capital of NQ. Julia is trying to make sure that isolated communities of 6 or 8 people who don’t have computers to start with are getting high speed adsl but many cities and towns full of tax payers can’t get it. So good luck and wb!!!

Check this out:
http://broadbandguide.com.au/satellite/providers

@trailsillustrated. I checked into the Telstra thing we bought. The Telstra Elite Mobile Wi-Fi device costs $99 for two months and then you can recharge it after that and I believe you can recharge it for up to a year.

The Elite thing allows you to have five wireless devices running off it. Typical customer download speeds are 550kbs to 8mg per second (in capitals, metro and selected regional areas).

You basically just turn it on and connect in. There is now also the Telstra 4G network which is a lot faster and you can buy USB dongle to connect into that. It’s supposed to be super fast but it costs a lot more.

Apparently you can get ADSL with pair gain but the speed is degraded. If you have a copper line, you will get a much faster speed.

A really good site to check out is Whirlpool This site tells you heaps about broadband in Australia. There is a forum there too so you will be able to ask people who have far more knowledge than I do.

Hope this helps. Slow internet is a horrible thing to deal with.

@Bellatrix thank you soo much.

We are traveling from NQ to Vic and using a usb modem from Telstra and vodaphone. Voda has some intermittent service when in the center of the larger towns but that is about it. Telstra is not complete coverage, many dead spots, but ever so much better than voda. So if you are planning on doing any traveling, it is something to keep in mind. It is interesting that they advertise that they have coverage for I think 90% of Australians (not Australia mind you) but they neglect to mention that 80% of Australians live within 200km of the coast. That lets a lot of dead space in the middle!

@rooeytoo it’s a real bummer and I’m scared about how much it’s gonna cost. I went with the copper pairs thing into my exes’ home (weird I don’t understand it) and then I’m gonna need a superfast service too. It’s one of the things that’s gonna be shocking expensive to me when I move.

We have the Elite from Telstra, we are now about 100k from Melbourne and it is so slow, took forever for this page to load. When we get settled we hope we are in an area where the ADSL is reasonably fast, but time will tell. The Elite is on a plan for 59.95 per month gives us 8 gig of data up or down. Sounds like a lot but it goes pretty fast if you play on youtube or any of the photo sites. You can also get this on a prepaid basis. The broadband into the house was less expensive but did have to be aligned with a land line. Australia is generally so much more expensive in just about all things. If you wear Levis buy them there and bring them with you, I can’t believe how much they cost here! But I love it so whatcha gonna do!

@rooeytoo I’ll just pay alot for internet I guess. I have a tea chest filled with levis and nikes for my son. I’ll buy stuff on the internet even though the shipping will be alot. Thanks and slow internet just annoys the hell out of me.