internet on the road

If you are using a browsing pack, then be aware that you don't get much download for your money. If you are only using it for email, then be careful when downloading attachments.

If you use the browsing pack to surf the web, then you will use a load of download. I had a 5MB pack last year while in WA. One hit on the BOM site to check the radar in Albany used up 4MB.

However, email was good as it used up little of my download.

You buy a data pack $69? for 1Gig.
When you finish the trip you cancel .
works well for me.
Do a search on the topic.
Regards Philip A

I was thinking of using the mobile as a modem but it does tie up your phone a bit. The data card/modem is not cheap though, at around $399 I think.
A questionI have in relation to all this is, how much do you use when you are looking at sites like this...?? I read and contribute on a total of 3 forums and read 3 other (rugby) sites daily, as well as email a couple of times a day. Do you really use much download to do that...??

If you have a Bigpond email account then use a Telstra next G mobile, all access to the bigpond website is free, including email, weather, whereis, etc etc.
Might be a bit slow occasionally but for free it's great.
On a recent trip out through southern western NSW, SA and back home through Qld we were impressed with the Next G coverage, basically had coverage all the way from Sydney to Roxby Downs and out towards the Oodna track and then it came back on at Quilpie and had it all the way home.

GH

interesting you should ask the question. I used a Mobile as a Modem Data Pack during our trip to Innamincka. Hope you've got a few moments because this is going to be a Telstra rant.

When I was setting my laptop up I rang 125111 and, after getting past the Robot Slut Whore Bitch (sorry ladies but she is !!) A nice lady told me that, yes I buy the pack as a one off purchase. I don't lose what I don't use and that's virtually all that's involved.

Well that was my first mistake: believing those nameless, faceless individuals who work for an organisation where arrogance is systemic. Because of their nameless, faceless nature they have no accountability whatsoever, particularly towards we customers.

I bought the $59, 200Mb pack. After a week of low usage I rang to see how much I had used. After getting past the Robot SWB I was told 63% !! I was also told that I would keep getting a $59 data pack placed on my account FOREVER unless I rang and said I don't want it anymore.

From that moment on I asked for the operator's name and D number (staff ID) and for my call to be recorded.

A few days after that I rang again. The way to get around the Robot SWB is to say Operator, Operator, Operater repeatedly, or just swear at her. She's programmed to switch to a real live person if she's sworn at.

Now I was told by an operator, who gave me her direct number because she was the only one able to find out exactly how much of my pack I had used and really knew her product. The data pack is applied to your account according to your billing cycle, ie, the date your phone bill comes due. In my case it's the 23rd of each month. Because I bought the pack before the 23rd, I was using a pro-rata amount of the 200mb up to the 23rd, then a whole new pack was applied to my account.

Sounds a bit different to the info on which I made my purchase doesn't it?

This lady was able to tell me exactly how much I had used and answered all my other questions too.

But wait, there's more !!

On our way home I rang 125111 again, swore at the poor Robot SWB and got thru to a live one. I had received a text message saying that I had used 91% of my pack. Then I got another SMS saying I had used 100% (All this while out of Next G coverage. The SMS's were sent to my Satphone. So there is obviously a delay between me using, and their computer calculating the usage so be aware).

I was told that I had used 110% of my pack !!?? OK, so I've only got a week to go, so I asked for a $29 data pack to be put onto my account. I had about 10 days of my billing cycle to go and figured that was all I needed.

NO CAN DO !!

I was told that I could not have a new pack until my billing cycle started again and that any usage now would be charged at $2 PER MEGABYTE !! It was just too bad that I had used up my initial data pack and for that I was paying the consequences.

OK, so I asked if he could ensure that no more data packs were added to my account after my billing cycle re-news. No, you have to ring up and do that. Well, Einstein, what do you think I am doing now !!?? Un-bloody-believable !!

I am in the middle of composing a letter to Sol Trujillo since he is the ONLY person in Telstra, in the WHOLE OF AUSTRALIA, who has a name and a face and, presumably, some degree of accountability.

T E L S T R A: Australian for S H I T !!

The Bigpond Wireless G Fast Plan is $49.95. For that you get 1 GB of data. That is with the Bigpond Wireless Modem (Maxtor). Modem Plans are much cheaper than data plans on phones for some inexplicable reason. I got the modem for $145 from Hardly Normal. The advantage of the modem is the external antenna which dramatically increases range.