The Free Alternative
All the ISPs that were fromally tested for this article were "fee for service", by far the most common at this point in time. We are however starting to see more of the "free" ISPs popping up and without digging too far our quick list would include FreeOnline (www.freeonline.com.au), GoConnect (www.goconnect.com.au), Free.Net (www.free.net.au), GlobalFreeway (www.globalfreeway. com.au), and FreeISP (www.freeisp.com.au). Lets take a quick look at the types of "free" services; FreeOnline and GoConnect are two good examples.
One of our staff members has been using GoConnect for a few months now and it is truly free ISP. You can surf anywhere you want at any time of the day with no time or download restrictions. There is a "price to pay" for this freedom and that is the occasional small advertisment in the top right corner of your PC (much the same as Pay TV) but your Web surfing continues--albeit a little slower-- while the advert plays in the background.
At the other end of the "free" scale is FreeOnline. Yes, you do get free access to the Internet but, and there are a couple, the service is only free to somewhere around 4000 selected sites on the Internet, and there are time limitations. The 4000+ "free" sites, called the FreeZone, have arrangements with FreeOnline; for example, a site may pay FreeOnline for every subscriber that visits them through the ISP. In addition the subscriber also has free access to the rest of the Internet for 30 minutes between 8am - 4pm and 4pm - 11pm, and for two hours between 11pm - 8am-- a total of three hours per day. If you want to surf sites outside the FreeZone outside of the restrictive hours then FreeOnline has $19.95 plans for unlimited Internet access out side this zone. They also have a pretty neat SmartZone which also costs $19.95/month but it provides your kids with access to 20,000 "safe" internet sites specifically selected to aid in their educational requirements.
7%
3%
Do not use Dodo ADSL- They have really bad customer service. And technical support.
On their unlimited plan. You start downloading until it get to 1G and then the service starts to have ‘problems’ and you can’t connect no more.
When you call technical support, they give you a phone number to call only to find that a machine answers and ask you to leave your phone number. And then no one call back.
When you call customer service, you speak to a person, they redirects you to a blank line and then you hear a dial tone. Which means the line hung up.
I spoke to a customer sales representative called Steve to pay the bill using credit card. When I asked him to select a plan for the next month, instead of having to call back, his reply was : “ You have to call back next month to select.” And then he hung up on me. This is the kind of service Dodo provides.
I have never spoke to any customer service person who hangs up on the customer.
And then later I find that my service was suspended. Even though I had just spoke to Steve 5 minutes earlier to pay for that month using my credit card.
I am on a 3 months contract with DoDo. I still have 2 months left to go. After this kind of customer service I get I will not be using them after the 3 months period.
Note: If you disconnect before 3 months they charge you a disconnection fee $100.
Don’t sign any long term contracts with any ADSL Provider unless you are sure that you trust the service.