Aussies on broadband

[eve]

Seems the number of Australians logging on to internet broadband has more than doubled in the past year to over two million. On a quarterly basis, the number of people converting to broadband jumped by 18.7 per cent in the three months to the end of June. The ACCC found more than 1.5 million broadband customers were connected to ADSL by the end of June.

Am I an old fuddy duddy still being on dial-up? What about others here? Frankly, the cost of broadband is out of my league financially.

[mophoto]

we don't have a phone line- only cells, so the logical choice is broadband. it does cost an arm and a leg but not having a land line saves us a ton of money. i hate talking on the phone anyways.

[abrennan]

I have a landlilne (optus) which I hardly use, only so my Mum can call as she doesn'twant to call my mobile (to expensive)

I use Cable broadband (optus)which is DSL instead of ADSL (Synchronous instead of Asynchronous) at 1.5mb per second. It doesn't use the phone line as has its own cable (the same one optus use for the cable telly)

I used dialup in all its incarnations 43k 28k 36k and 56k since internet became publicly available in Aust in around 1994 (work in IT so you get to do these things.)

The price of broadband has reduced considerably in aust and will continue to do so. In some metro areas you can get it for as little as $25AUD a month and that will come down in the next few years.

There are some companies working on wireless networks that they will continue to expand and one is about to deploy satelite internet that they say will come cheap (what that really means is relative to your situation I guess) so you won't be trapped by the need for Telstra or Optus to have the right facilities in your local exchange.

Antony

[eve]

Well I only pay $5.50/month, and will wait until wireless comes down. When I visited my daughter in the US, all the internet cafes had wireless. While there it cost $US5 per 10 minutes, but might have been cheaper in large cities.

[soylatte_au]

I'm still on dial-up too, Eve. It's frustratingly slow.. Other than dialing up to the net, I hardly ever use my landline, seems like a waste.

[abrennan]

Well I only pay $5.50/month, and will wait until wireless comes down. When I visited my daughter in the US, all the internet cafes had wireless. While there it cost $US5 per 10 minutes, but might have been cheaper in large cities.

Can't beat that price

[Geoff]

I'm with AAPT (dialup 56k but only get around 40) and pay $9.95 p/m unlimited. I also pay $15 p/m for unlimited local calls so I can log on as often as I like.
I discovered that I could get broadband for only an extra $5 p/m but have just been told that it's not available on my line. And I'm in the bleedin' state capital. I don't suppose that it would be anything to do with the govt. pulling all the profits out of Telstra?

[eve]

Have you tried Tad? It's subsidised by the govt, and the charge to anyone on an aged pension, or disability pension, or a vets pension is only $5.50/month unlimited time and download. I still have Optus for my landline, local and long distance. Tad doesn't do broadband, but they are pretty good compared to Optusnet, better than BigPond, and more efficient than Dodo, though that may have changed over the last couple of years.

[adam antichrist]

Both my parents have gone with broadband recently, despite me telling them not to... they don't need it... etc...

[abrennan]

it makes the internet much more fun.