Vodaphone or Bigpond Mobile Data card

If you want it to work in the bush, look at the cdma coverage maps. Then look at the Vodaphone coverage.
Then decide.
Cheers

Peter,

I have the bigpond card and as stated above can get access where ever there is CDMA coverage. CDMA zones run about 56k, really only useful for email & basic internet. 256/512 speed available in metro areas and have found the system to be very reliable.

Peter,
If you have any intensions of using it outside of metro then the choice is Next G or Next G.
Also the system that is by far the fastest is Next G. For example it will give faster speed on Thursday Island than any of its competitors will in Metro Sydney.
Marty.

Don't bother with the Bigpond $299 option if you are going on the24 month $49 data plan.

Go to Telstra Shop and get the Telstra Mobile USB Data modem. It is the same bit of Kit as the Bigpond one and is free on the 24 month $49 per month plan that gives you 20 hours a month. The Bigpond one is Blue and the Telstra Mobile one is Orange. Bigpond and Telstra Mobile are different sales channels within Telstra.

The other difference is that the software drivers for the orange one are wriiten by Maxon (the manufactirer of the device) and the drivers for the Bigpond blue one are written by Telstra Bigpond and have had stalling problems for some users.

I have the orange Telstra Mobile one and it works a treat. It was a free upgrade from my previous green Mini-Max CDMA data modem.

Cheers
Muddy

I just have my Samsung SGH-A701 connect up to my laptop with the supplied cable and software and I get 230Kbps anywhere I get NextG coverage pretty much - which is a lot of places these days, including most country towns.

The $29/months data pack gives me some huge number of gigabytes ... I forget exactly, but it works for me.

The phone came free in the switch from CDMA. Goodness knows what the $999 buys you ;-)

Cheers
Andrew.

The other thing to think about is if you are going for the Next G 1 gig plan....then get the relocatable modem rather than the card or usb. Yes you need a powerpoint (inverter) but the 1 gig plan with either card or usb is $79. 1gig relocatable is $49.
I asked telstra why and the answer was priceless...."because thats the way Telstra want it". Great answer hey lol

Peter

Thanks for all the helpful info.

Checked with bigpond and they are firm on their price for a card of $299.50, even though i said Vodaphone would give me one for free.
Took Muddy's advice and checked with Telstra Shop and the Mobile USB Data Modem is free and for $49pm gives 200mb or 20 hours.
Each mb over cost 15cents.
The Next G mentioned by Peter and Marty, according to the Telsta shop has had much fewer problems than the card, so that was worth knowing.

Now to check out the HP compaq 6310 (C M 430 -1.73ghz) to see if it has a USB port.

Andrew the $999 I mentioned is the price of the HP compaq above and included a free Vodaphone card.
Vodaphone cost is $30pm for 100m,$49.95 for 300m

However, it looks like the USB might be preferable anyway.
Thanks again for all the responses.
Pedro