Hi. I’m about to move up to Sawtell (Coffs Harbour area), and I’m looking for a fast internet connection (Is adsl 2 in the area?) + medium to heavy (at least 50GB ish in peak time) usage plan allowance. My favoured option is TPG, as I’ve used them before (Melbourne metro area) and have been satisfied. Are there other ISPs that may be more suitable, as it’s a rural/country area? Any advice would be much appreciated. Cheers

As you haven’t moved into the address at Sawtell yet we can assume you don’t have an active landline telephone number in your name there. We checked the Sawtell area and it looks like the majority of broadband providers will only be able to offer ADSL1. If a company says it has ADSL2+, it will probably not be any faster than an ADSL8000kbps connection.

If you can only get ADSL1, you won’t want to get a speed slower than 1500kbps, as this will be irritatingly slow if you are used to ADSL2+ in Melbourne (ADSL2+ runs at speeds up to 24,000kbps). As the phone probably isn’t connected yet, your best option will be to go for an ADSL1500 bundle of landline and broadband, or ADSL8000 if you can afford to pay a little extra. This will be the fastest speed you can get in that area.

TPG (1300 106 571) has ADSL8000 speed Off-Net plans at the Sawtell phone exchange, but they are renting Telstra’s equipment, as opposed to using their own. This means the price is a little more expensive.

For example, the cheapest TPG plan, with 10GB in peak time (plus 40GB in off-peak), costs $49.99 a month. This will be on top of a $30 Telstra landline. You’ll have to wait until the phone line is active before you apply for the internet. The plan goes for 6 months and then month-to-month once you reach the end of the contract term.

Note: The phone line can be rented through any provider that uses the Telstra infrastructure. This option means you will have separate broadband and telephone bills.

Here are a few more good plans on ADSL1 you can go for at the Sawtell phone exchange:

iPrimus (1300 137 794) has a 1500kbps $39.95 plan with 20GB (split 10GB in peak and 10GB in off-peak). This is bundled with an iPrimus $29.95 landline phone rental and can be purchased on month-to-month, 12-month, or 24-month plans, with the longer plans receiving discounts on set-up and modem fees.

Club Telco (1300 138 155) has a stand-alone ADSL1Max 1500 speed plan with 10GB for $30 a month. Like the TPG plan you would need to bundle this with a different provider’s telephone line. The 10GB of data can be used any time you like, with no off-peak times, and the contract is simply month-to-month.

If you need a lot more download data, iiNet (1300 137 765) has its $49.95 1500kbps Home 2 100GB bundle plan, with 50GB in peak and 50GB in off-peak. This plan is bundled with an iiNet $29.95 landline phone rental, and can be purchased on month-to-month or 24-month contract periods.