Broadband: Which plan is for you?



It's common knowledge that Australia's broadband services lag behind a good proportion of the developed world, but with the current pricing available why would you bother sticking with dial-up?

This month we invited the Internet service providers generally considered to be the top 10 in Australia to submit a plan for this review. Interestingly, both Optus and Telstra declined to submit, as did Exetel.

Telstra's response was that they were simply too busy to participate as this extract from their e-mail shows: "Telstra Business and Government have declined your invitation and the BigPond production team has been flat out and indicated it's not able to assist at this time."

Optus states that it does not have DSL available in the area of the Test Labs, and were clearly not willing to use Telstra's.

Telstra is not the be-all and end-all when it comes to broadband networks in Australia, however it does have a critical mass when it comes to end-users with BigPond, as well as a healthy stranglehold on wholesale broadband technologies. Several other providers such as Internode, Veridas, and iPrimus are building their own networks -- in fact iPrimus recently rolled out its 100th DSLAM with 200 promised by the year's end.

We also invited iiNet which actually submitted a plan for this review and went through the testing rigors. The results it returned were terrible, and after urging iiNet to check its setup -- as Steve Turvey discusses in his commentary -- it discovered a bit of a problem with the modem setup and duplex settings, severely curbing its performance. iiNet did fix the problem and in the limited time remaining it performed well. Unfortunately, with invalid test results we were unable to include them in the review.

Plans
You can find plans in Melbourne and Sydney that start from just AU$13.95 a month, and an ADSL modem can be bought for less than AU$100 -- only slightly more expensive than dial up (ignoring the one-off connection costs). Thankfully these days, once you are connected to an ADSL service provider there is the option to "churn" to another (unless locked into a contract period/plan) for about AU$30.

Admittedly the low-cost plans are tepid with speeds of 256/64Kb/s and download limits of around the 200MB mark. Bear in mind that this is still a good deal faster than a dial-up connection with the added benefit that it's on all the time, network permitting of course. It does not prevent you from making and receiving regular telephone phone calls, however it isn't suitable for business purposes.

Step up to a AU$20-per-month plan and the speed warms up to a brisk 512/128Kb/s, while AU$25 a month will just lift you to a balmy 1500/256Kb/s. Not long ago, unless you had cable, that was about as fast as you could go. But not anymore -- ADSL2 and ADSL2+ are available in selected metro areas and speeds of 8192/1024Kb/s and 12288/1024Kb/s are also up for grabs, and from around AU$30 to AU$40 a month they are good value.

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Talkback 11 comments

    Broadband review WOW ! Anonymous -- 14/11/05

    Wow what an excellent review, keep up the great work. This is what we love to see

    Legends Anonymous -- 14/11/05

    You guys really know your stuff great test and informative review. Pity there were not a whole lot more broadband providers included.

    Great Review... NOT Anonymous -- 14/11/05

    Love that fact that when I went to that page there was an AAPT ad at the top!!!

    I can't really see how this review is measured nor does it seem to be discussed.

    Why is the static IP options mentioned for Netspace and AAPT but not internode?

    Don't AAPT buy their international bandwidth though someone else?

    What the hell is future proofing? and how the heel can it be measured?

    I'll review the review..... poor very poor.... Some of the lines don't even have similar information.... and there not categories as to what they are there for...

    I think someone needs a kick in the arse for this review.... I'm now dumb from reading it!

    Read the How we Tested Anonymous -- 15/11/05 (in reply to #120123270)

    If you read the review you would see the How we Tested section.

    http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/software/internet/0,39023437,39221708-7,00.htm

    Pretty much covers it all.

    Wow, you really got this one correct... NOT. Anonymous -- 15/11/05

    How about you get a clue. Then have another crack at it.

    Why no mention of VOIP Anonymous -- 15/11/05

    Surely, a big component of any broadband review must focus on wireless and the elimination of line rental. All DSL does is give unearned revenue to Telstra.

    VOIP and Wireless present a big saving without the $30 dead money each month.

    Yes I have dumped the home phone..

    Very informative Martin Hamil -- 15/11/05

    Seems not all services are created equal despite purporting to be so!

    Very interesting to see the critics of this report don't publish their details or whom they are affiliated with.

    This is a bias article Anonymous -- 18/11/05

    This is a bias article for a number of reasons:

    1. It forgot to include Telstra and Optus
    2. It recommended AAPT and their website/banners have AAPT ads everywhere.

    I would not believe everything you read in this article.

    Did you even read the review before commenting? Mark Jacobs -- 24/11/05 (in reply to #120123486)

    It seems you did not even read the first few paragraphs! before commenting my friend. Both companies you mentioned are described and the reasons they gave for failing to participate.

    START QUOTE >>> "This month we invited the Internet service providers generally considered to be the top 10 in Australia to submit a plan for this review. Interestingly, both Optus and Telstra declined to submit, as did Exetel.

    Telstra's response was that they were simply too busy to participate as this extract from their e-mail shows: "Telstra Business and Government have declined your invitation and the BigPond production team has been flat out and indicated it's not able to assist at this time."

    Optus states that it does not have DSL available in the area of the Test Labs, and were clearly not willing to use Telstra's." >>> END QUOTE

    Seems to me that this review was very well put together and each provider thoroughly tested over time by an independent organisation Test Labs it seems. To wit an excellent and thoroughly scientific test methodology has been described, provided and used by them, and the resulting facts are supplied in a easy to understand format.

    Seems to me that AAPT have won fairly and squarely and have advertised complementarily.

    By the way what organization do you represent your post was marked anonymous, perhaps this Telstra or Optus hmm?

    WiMax Anonymous -- 24/11/05

    I am on a Hibis airspan Wimax service. It generally seems really good and the speeds are not bad - according to ZDs tester it is generally around 450Mbs. However I use alot of Voip and I am not sure that it isn't abit lumpy/has some lag problems..(I have tried pinging my Voip server and it generally comes in at 400-500ms)...any thoughts from anyone..any similar experiences

    What a review! I Anonymous -- 26/10/09

    Thanks so much for such thorough insight. I was a bit iffy in considering AAPT as a provider, but they're serious contenders now. Thanks!

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