phone free wireless internet

who is this with? I have rung Telstra 3 times and every time they tell me that wireless broadband is only available on a 12 month minimum contract. Am I asking the wrong questions??

Telstra is probably assuming you'll go on a contract & thereby pay off the NextG card over the course of the contract. They like to make these assumptions, or at least convince you that it's the only way to access their network.

If you buy the card outright, as with a mobile phone, you should be able to go directly on to a flexible deal.

I haven't done this yet, so I'm working on a bit of guess work.

I forgot to add that this only works if you have wireless capability already.
My laptop has wireless builtin so all I do is connect to the telstra wireless network and when I access the internet it diverts me to the accounts page where I enter my mobile number, I then get a sms from telstra with a authorisation number that I enter into the telstra bigpond webpage and then I have full intrenet access.

When you change over get a plan that includes 'My Hour.' That way you will get some 20 minute slots where you do not pay for time whilst transferring mail - works for me.

PeterD

G'day John, hope you have a great year.

I agree with your thoughts on the question but Telstras answer is Next G doing the same thing. Think the questioner doesn't realise that the network will act as wireless spectrum internet access at the Telstra frequencies. Not using the normal Wi-Fi ones. The other options with Next G is to plug into your phone and use the phone as a modem.

john and john,

the NextG system with Telstra is available as a wi-fi equivalent for laptop that is not through the mobile phone, it uses a wi-fi style pc card. It is also available through a mobile phone, just to make things a little more complicated. So you can have the equivalent to the i-burst wi-fi roaming network but anywhere that Telstra has their broadband enabled mobile towers. It works just like the standard wi-fi local systems (at airports etc) as far as the user is concerned, but uses mobile phone frequencies and can roam beyond the local point where you logged on.

I hope that makes a bit of sense.

I looked into this one a bit myself recently for a friend and seriously considered it for myself except for the fact that the high volume download plans are a little expensive :(

Cheers,

Demented.

Yes, understand that Demented. Just used the same frequency and technology. The cards are throttled back to the speed paid for. I agree on the charging too but I can only get ISDN on my phone lines here so the Telstra monopoly charging may get me in! :-(