Bigpond Broadband

[Caged Panther]

Optus Cable

Your connection speed:

kbps: 15212.4
KB/s:1901.55
Mbps: 14.855859375

 

[Briza]

Your Results

Test run on 24/1/2006 @ 12:36 P.M.

Mirror: Bigpond
Test type: ADSL

Your connection speed:

kbps: 1153.5
KB/s: 144.1875
Mbps: 1.12646484375

 

[Timmah]

One year later with a new plan and unthrottled broadband ...

Test run on 26/11/2006 @ 4:59 PM

Mirror: Bigpond
Test type: ADSL

Your connection speed:

kbps: 1128.93
KB/s: 141.12
Mbps: 1.13

 

[madunit]

Hello all,

Last week my little town got connected to broadband, and my starter kit arrived unannounced in the mail yesterday (apparently months ago I said I was interested, but I wasn't aware I said yes!).

Flicking through the manual, everything looked pretty good, until I found the bit about 'paying for what you use'.

Currently I'm on a $30/month dial-up plan with Bigpond, which to me means that that is how much I'm charged each month, regardless of whether I leave the computer switched off or if I'm up until the wee hours downloading entire albums.

However, I have absolutely no idea of how much I could potentially be charged for switching over to broadband. I understand it is connected to how much I'm using the service, but don't have the foggiest of how the scheme is structured.

I usually spend an average of two hours on the internet each day, and am on pretty much every day of the week. I'm just scared of blowing the phone bill into astronomical proportions....five years ago I connected to my local ISP from 300km away and was charged at STD rates and had to pay a $600 phone bill.....obviously the scenario wouldn't repeat itself but there are still too many questions left unanswered for me to confidently make the switch.

Those of you who use broadband, specifically with Bigpond, can you give me a general idea of how much you use and how much you end up paying? Obviously broadband is much quicker, but is it really that much of an advantage to give up my pokey little $30 bill?

Cheers
Bomber

OK mate, I sold a lot of BigPond, so I'll tell you everything I know.

Plans:

There are a two types of plans, there is the capped plan (whereby, when you exceed your capped amount, you pay for the extra usage) and there is the unlimited plan (where you have 10GB of downloads per month, if you exceed 10GB, you are not charged extra, instead your speed is cut back to dial up speed)

Now with that in mind, the next decision is the speed you want. The most popular is 256kbps, which has the cheapest plans, then the next speed is 512kbps and then the next speed is 1024kbps which is most expensive.

256kbps is all you need, unless you're doing hardcore downloading.

Now, to make things more interesting.

If you have your home phone or mobile is with Telstra, contact Telstra and tell them you want to have single billing, as this gives you 9 months of half price broadband, and 50 free local calls from your home phone per month.

If your home phone and mobile is with Telstra, then you are eligible for 12 months half price broadband and up 125 free local calls from your home phone per month.

That unlimited plan on the 256kbps is $59.95 per month, if you are eligible for the half price internet then that comes back to $29.98 per month.

Hope this helps mate. Any other questions feel free to let me know.

 

[Timmah]

That speed structure has changed npw maddy ;-)

 

[[furrycat]]

He is talking about standard connections- not extreme or +2 plans.

 

[Timmah]

And when I picked up the brochure recently, it showed they've dropped the 512 plans. Hence why I just said what I said :roll:

And FTR the fastest speed available on standard connection ADSL lines is 1500kbps.

 

[El Diablo]

not for long

http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/1685

 

[[furrycat]]

And when I picked up the brochure recently, it showed they've dropped the 512 plans. Hence why I just said what I said :roll:

And FTR the fastest speed available on standard connection ADSL lines is 1500kbps.

It is 8mbps on a standard line

And you can still get the 512 plans.

 

[Timmah]

It is 8mbps on a standard line

And you can still get the 512 plans.

Assuming we're still talking about broadband, I'm pretty sure it's no longer the case:

http://my.bigpond.com/internetplans/broadband/adsl/plans/

 

[[furrycat]]

Only with Telstra

Everyone else offers 512k plans as they are the most popular. 8mbps is the limit of a standard phone line that hasn't got a DSLAM ADSL+2 exchange.

 

[jed]

I'm with TPG, they have just increased the speed of my home connection from 1.5 to 8Mbps - I always thought 1.5 was fast (compared to my old dial-up and my work connection), but this is amazing now.

 

[madunit]

telstra still offer them, i'm currently on the 512 myself.

just because they don't advertise something, doesn't mean they don't sell it.

vodafone are good at hiding stuff like that. When they first brought in the $49 Cap (250 Credit) and $79 Cap ($500 Credit) for mobiles, they never advertised their $149 Cap (then $1500 Credit) because it was, as I was told by the senior sales executive for Vodafone in Australia, "Too good for consumers for know about, because we don't make much money on that plan at all."

After working for a few phone companies briefly, you quickly learn that their are heaps of great products that they provide, some are too great, so they don't get advertised, rather they advertise the products that they want people to purchase, irrespective of value to the customer.

 

[Timmah]

unit, they continue discontinued plans as long as people don't bother to change them. You can't actually request to be on 512 from what I can see, if you're a new customer or changing plans.

furry, excellent quick response there, and thanks for proving my point ;-)

 

[madunit]

I signed up to Broadband on the 256 plan in October, I changed to the 512 last month.

My partners father just signed up to the 512 plan after being on dial up for 6 years with another provider.

 

[Timmah]

So how is the public supposed to know about a 512 plan if it's not on their website or advertised anywhere? When I proceed to my change plan screen I don't have any 512/128 plans to choose from.

 

[El Diablo]

So how is the public supposed to know about a 512 plan if it's not on their website or advertised anywhere?

thats Telstra for you

 

[madunit]

So how is the public supposed to know about a 512 plan if it's not on their website or advertised anywhere? When I proceed to my change plan screen I don't have any 512/128 plans to choose from.

because, as I've been telling you, they don't want you to be on that plan, they want their bigpond customers on faster speeds.

Why?

Because you pay more

and if your plan is capped, even better, because your internet will be faster, you will use your download allocation quicker, thus you stand a greater chance of exceeding your limit, thus giving them even more money.

Telstra did a survey of bigpond users a while ago, it found that people use the internet for a set amount of time, not for a set amount of Mb's.

I worked for the bastards for 7 months, we had marketing guys telling us this sh*t all the time.

Are you listening to me yet?

Even if you ring up and request it, they will proceed to inform you of whats better and faster and they will ALWAYS prevail. Thats the way they operate.

 

[TooheysNew]

LOL. I can't even get broadband...

 

[Timmah]

My plan is 25GB. Never reached the allocation ;-)