Broadband of Choice in Adelaide?

[Edgar]

Hi guys

I am interested to know which broadband providers are you with and how is it like or how is the service/performance like?

I have been with Adam Internet for a year now and with competitions emerging ever more than before, I would like to know what do you guys have, as I might consider churning.

There is nothing wrong with Adam Internet, they were one of the very first providers in SA to introduce the ADSL2+ Broadband service at a highly competitive price more than years ago, but now, their pricing is not quite up there in the competitive market.

TPG having being merged with Soul, is now offering ADSL2+ 50GB (yes 50 bloody GB! 25GB + 25GB peak and off peak) with 500 minutes of VOIP calls per month for the price of only $49.99/month! I am now paying $54.95/month for Adam's ADSL2+ 20GB plan and no free VOIP calls included.

Though you have to sign up for a contract term with TPG while Adam you can stay on a month to month's plan still can do justice to what TPG has been able to offer. Having being with TPG before with their ADSL (not ADSL2+) broadband, it was okay (not the best I must admit) and you get the occasional dropout every now and then, but that was 3 years ago.

If anyone of you here is with TPG ADSL2+ broadband would you mind sharing your experience and how does it perform? Adam Internet by far is the most reliable or one of the most top performing broadband provider in SA in recent years, however lately, their pricing and plan just don't cut it.

So what is your broadband of choice guys?

[Wayno]

I have BigPond Cable Extreme Liberty (12GB) $69.95 monthly with down/up max speed of 17Mbps/256kbps.

The upload speed apparently matters. I work from home and use a VOIP phone for a few hours each day. I used to be on a plan with an 128kbps upload speed and my voice would "pixelate" when sending large emails. Does not happen anymore since moving to the 256kbps upload speed.

Not sure if it's the best plan for me, but it works well!

[rev]

I'm with TPG, on their 70 gig plan, was on the 50 gig plan, but they changed their pricing, lowered it actually, and what I was paying, was now offered with 70 gig. 35+35.

Don't be fooled by the high download quotas though. The trick they have is their off peak and on peak times. Off peak is only a few hours. In my case, 6 hours over night from 1am to 7am. Some other plans have it from 3am to 9am.

It does help, I've only been shaped once since the change to pricing. But still I use most of my peak quota then off peak.

Adam Internet are great, I used to be with them. Only reason I changed was because I would be shaped 2 weeks into each month
When they offer more downloads for similar prices I'll be making the switch back. SA great and all that.

Oh btw might be of relevance for you, if you ever call the TPG call center, and get an Aussie, be sure to post about it, because the five times I've had to call, I've gotten people who are still learning English, and their job, the last time I had modem troubles(needed a new modem, just wanted to double check it wasn't a problem on their end), and the idiot wanted to do a modem reset and what not, which I told him no less then three times, I've already done. He was even reading what to do from the modem(NB5) manual.
I just told him whatever mate its my modem I don't need to sit here re-doing things I've tried and hung up on him. Some of these non-English speakers are extremely rude and arrogant. This is one reason why I miss Adam Internet dearly, you could call them up with any problem, get someone who can communicate, they would listen and do their best to solve the problem you were having, no matter how trivial or complex. Great customer service.

[Edgar]

Thanks Rev for sharing the information. What about their performance and connection? Does it still drop out every now and then, and are they fast? I know this really depends from how far you are from the exchange and also the cabling inside your house but on general what's the performance like?

I think the reason why most smaller carriers/providers be it of mobile or internet are able to come up with such competitive pricings are due to the fact that their most costly expense, the Customer Service Call Centre, are based off-shores which means a hugely reduced cost. The salary cost for an Australian staff usually equates to the salary cost of about 15 staffs off-shores, and hence, the cost saving are passed on to the consumer.

It's true that the cheaper price to be with a carrier/provider are usually at the expense of other factors, such as the Customer Service Helpdesk. But if they are reliable enough, that it wouldn't generate much calls into the call centres, it really does make a lot of difference for the price you would be paying. However, if they are cheap but their service is crap and I need to call their Customer Service all the time, then regardless of whether it is off-shores or local, customer experience would still be affected.

So at the end of the day, reliability and consistency is the most important factor, lower pricing is a huge rewarding bonus though! I do agree with you that Adam Internet has a very good bunch of people working for them.

And Wayno, thanks for sharing your experience with Telstra's Bigpond, although they are highly reliable, but their plans are highly priced as well. I just cannot accommodate another Telstra account, one Telstra fixed line account is more than enough to do damage, let alone having multiple services. Their pricing are so ridiculously priced for a market that dated around the 90s, or more towards small to medium or even big businesses customer base, sadly there is nothing beneficial to consumers at all.

[rev]

Well, the line drop out issue, funny, frustrating, long, angry stories. Were to start.

To start with, if you have a Netcomm NB5 modem, ditch it and get a new one, NB9 for example.
I was getting lots of periodical drop outs every few weeks. Then it got really bad, and every day/night it would drop out, until one day I couldn't get a connection at all.
Thankfully I had done some research the following nights, and found that many were having problems with the NB5 on TPG. That day when I couldn't connect, is when I had a frustrating experience with TPG call center.

I bought the NB9W about a week and half or two ago, and have not had a drop out since.


Now performance besides drop outs. They are not bad, not worse not better then Adam, if that's what your wondering.
Although I have noticed, that when I get close to reaching my quota, there is a tiny but noticeable speed reduction. Its noticeable when browsing the web, not when downloading.(eg torrents) I have never enquired about this, but I assume they wouldn't admit to such a thing anyway. It doesn't affect my online experience in any way so it's not a big deal, and it could just be my imagination.

But other then their crap call center, and silly off peak times, I'm happy with TPG, performance wise they are just as good as Adam. I would recommend them to my own family(I have in fact), of course with the above mentioned issues.

[darksidelemm]

I'm on Internode, and heavily reccomend them over any other ISP. Their prices may be a little bit higher than Adam, but they make up for it with their exceptional service. They offer a heap of free content, and even free premium usenet access (note - free premium access, not free downloads on that one). I really like how Internode is active in the online community - the main example being the Managing Director, Simon Hackett, who posts regularly on the Australian Broadband forum Whirlpool, and answers customers questions.

Now i've had my rant, onto your questions...

Internode is *extremely* reliable, I have never had any problems with my ADSL2+ connection (except of course, when Internode have scheduled maintenance, and prior warning is always given about that). Note that ADSL2+ reliability does depend on your phone line length, among many other factors. I have never had any problems maxing out my ADSL2+ connection (~14Mbit/s sync), though of course you will only ever be able to download as fast as the server at the other end of the line can upload. Internodes national and international IP network is extremely fast, second only to Telstra & Optus I believe, and they currently own about 5.6Gbit/s of dedicated international fibre links. More info at http://www.internode.on.net/about/our_network/

The level of service on the helpdesk is extremely good, though waiting times can sometimes be a bit long. Internode are currently hiring more staff to fix this, and there is always the free callback feature there if needed. Note that the Internode helpdesk, along with basically all the rest of Internode, is based in Adelaide. I'm sure you've seen their big neon sign on Hindmarsh Square
Edit: From reading Whirlpool, I've found that Internode recently topped an independent customer satisfaction survey: http://www.roymorgan.com/news/press-releases/2008/818/. They've also been topping the Whirlpool ISP surveys for a few years now.

In regards to the whole on/offpeak bull, there is none of that at Internode - you use your quota when you want to. There are a number of different price-points available, on ADSL1 and ADSL2+, and even Naked ADSL2+, if you want to go down that path. Take a look around the Internode website http://internode.on.net for more information.

Disclaimer: I do NOT work for Internode. I have, however, had them as an ISP for about 3 years, and have found them to be absolutely BRILLIANT.

[Xaragmata]

Well, the line drop out issue, funny, frustrating, long, angry stories. Were to start.

To start with, if you have a Netcomm NB5 modem, ditch it and get a new one, NB9 for example.

Interesting. I have had a NB5+4 for 12 months, & find it to be beautifully reliable, & rarely need to touch it,
except when diagnosing a rare adsl issue. Previous (rhymes with million) modem was a dog, "freezing" on
intensive web sites like news.com.au, & requiring frequent reboots. NB5+4 serves my LAN needs very well.
As with everything, YMMV.

[Edgar]

When I first signed up with Adam, I had constant drop out, even though I am using Billion modem (considered as one of the more reliable ADSL2+ modem in the market). After multiple phone calls to Adam and running isolation tests, still would not resolve the issue. I was virtually out of broadband service for about 2 weeks, because it would connect and then drops out in 1 minutes whole day every day.

It reached the point where even our fixed line were so distorted we could not even make a phone calls at all. So we requested for Telstra to send their contractors to check our line and found out that the pile of cablings hidden inside the Telstra potholes (those outside your house) were wrapped in dodgy bags and was the main cause.

After that was fixed, everything is back to normal as it is, and the performance is back to normal. It just goes to show that the reason why the overall broadband service in Australia is less than satisfactory is due to the fact that re-sellers are constrained by the performance of Telstra/Optus owned fixed services.

I have a few mates who are now churning most of their services to TPG, mobile and broadband because TPG is so aggressive in its marketing at the moment. Everything they offer right now is half the price for what you get with any other providers and I am loving the competition.

[rev]

Before anyone goes ahead and changes to TPG, something you may want to know.

They have been having what seems to be widespread outages and issues.
Personally I can't get through to their site, nor access emails.
I also can not get in touch with their office in Adelaide nor their national 1300 number. It simply does not ring.

You probably should have a read of the following
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-threads.cfm?f=90

They had maintenance last night from midnight till about 6am. But for me at least, all was back up at 2am.

Just then, about 10-15 minutes ago, I could not load any page. Then suddenly a couple minutes ago all is working again.


You may want to wait a bit before swapping to TPG, at least until we see what the problem is, if it will continue, or if it is temporary and related to maintenance.

-tpg site is now working again.

[Edgar]

As the surge in customer's churning to TPG, I expect loading issues across their services, not only in Broadband, but also for mobile services. I'll just see how they are performing, as far as I know just from words of mouth, a lot of people are churning towards TPG for both mobile and broadband as they get an additional discount on their mobile plans.

[rev]

That could be what is causing these random outages, and possibly why they are conducting maintenance - they had more maintenance last night at midnight.

[monotonehell]

As the surge in customer's churning to TPG, I expect loading issues across their services, not only in Broadband, but also for mobile services. I'll just see how they are performing, as far as I know just from words of mouth, a lot of people are churning towards TPG for both mobile and broadband as they get an additional discount on their mobile plans.

I really dislike this kind of marketing. The discount that you get for having all your services with most carriers is usually more than individual services if you shop around. I was with a certain carrier a couple of years ago, they put up all their prices by 10% and then offered a discount if I bundled. I went elsewhere.

Now I'm with Internode for ADSL2+. VERY happy with them. They provide me with a service, that's up 99.9% of the time, they treat me well when I call their support lines. The guy even Googled a temporary fix for my Linux distro when I couldn't get my modem to work. They mat cost marginally more, but after ringing ALL the big telcos and getting knocked back for ADSL, I called Internode, mostly as a joke, and they said "SURE no problem." That was after all the others told me it was impossible to get any broadband on my line.

Internode will give you the service you want, instead of trapping you into buying a bundle of services that you didn't want at a price that works out dearer.

[rev]

I'm sure Internode are great, I've heard nothing but good things.
However, I currently pay 59 a month for 70gig with TPG.
I can't justify paying 89 a month for 55 gig, or 119 for 80 gig, offered by Internode.
For 59 Internode can only offer 25 gig. Almost 1/3 the download quota of TPG for the same price.

Internode rely on their reputation to allow them to be able to over charge people for their plans. They are way over priced. 49.95 for 10 gigs? You've GOT to be joking!
Prices should be coming down, with more competitive plans being made available, with higher data allowances.

[Edgar]

More from TPG



UNLIMITED BROADBAND!
Even though it's only 256k, but it just go to show the competition we should be getting here in Australia! Sooner or later, there would be unlimited broadband for ADSL2+ plan (hopefully!)

[darksidelemm]

256k isn't broadband, it's fraudband.
Also, with the current situation regarding international data traffic providers and the lack of competition in that area, true unlimited broadband will not become a reality for a *long* time. If the PIPE PPC-1 cable gets finished it should lower prices a decent amount, but we still wouldn't get unlimited broadband - Australia is much too isolated.