At present I use an AAPT capped Dial Up bundle.
I would like advice on Broadband services. I surf, make minimal downloads - no movies or music, but am on 4-5 hours per day. Preferably a month-to-month plan so I may check service etc. before locking myself into a long contract. Kind Regards
10/03/2011
We checked your landline telephone number and it looks like your nearest phone exchange is at Chinchilla, Queensland. First of all, the fact you are on dial-up means your internet has been very slow, and you haven’t been able to use your telephone when you are online. ADSL broadband will fix both of those problems.
As your location is in a regional area, most probably you’ll only be able to get ADSL1 and not ADSL2+, except for possibly with BigPond, but its prices are higher than the competition.
Ask providers if they do have ADSL2+ at Chinchilla, but if not you should go for a minimum of a 1500kbps speed, and 8000kbps if you want to have the fastest experience possible while surfing the web. Connection speeds of 256kbps or 512kbps are faster than dial-up, but they won’t give you the full experience broadband now has to offer. The faster the ADSL speed, usually the more the connection will cost.
As you are only interested in month-to-month plans, your options are fairly limited. iPrimus (1300 137 794) and iiNet (1300 106 571) both have ADSL plans with month-to-month contracts, but our advice would be to ask each provider if there are any cancellation fees involved if you leave in the first 6 months. Strangely some monthly ADSL plans on the market have this stipulation in their contracts.
If you can get ADSL2+ at Chinchilla exchange, Engin (1300 121 064) has good month-to-month plans, as well as Internode. Optus (1800 780 182) has ADSL2+ plans on what it calls ‘1-month’ contracts, which are essentially no-contract terms as well.
Taking into account your current style of usage, but also being aware with much faster speeds and capabilities your internet usage habits may evolve further, here are a few suitable ADSL plans:
The iPrimus ADSL1500 $39.95 Lite 20GB plan plus $29.95 landline rental gives you 10GB in peak time, and 10GB in off-peak on a month-to-month contract.
If you just want the broadband with iPrimus and your phone to stay with your current provider (it has to be using the Telstra network), the iPrimus ADSL1500 Lite $49.95 stand-alone plan offers 20GB, split 10GB in peak and 10GB in off-peak.
iiNet has similar options with its iiNet $39.95 ADSL1500 Home1 month-to-month plan with 10GB, split 5GB in peak and 5GB in off-peak. You can also pay an extra $9.95 on this plan to receive iiNet’s Netphone VoIP service, where you can make very cheap phone calls over the internet.
If you really want to save money, a smaller ISP called Club Telco (1300 138 155) has a simple $30-a-month ADSL1500 speed stand-alone connection with 10GB you can use anytime you like. You’ll need to already have an active landline phone number. Club Telco does require a yearly membership fee of $50 in order to access its cheap plans.
