Internet Ripoff

Or even better Doug, I believe a certain fast food chain now offers free internet conection.

Or just get a Telstra data pack. Order when you want - cancel when you don't want it - no contract. $89 for 5 GB (lots of other alternatives for lower and higher usage).

Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware).

Yes, the 'pay as you go' deal is a rip off. But Telstra would argue it is there for the very occasional user and is fair value for them. For regular users, there are much better deals available. Although you have to look to find them, they are readily available.

Norm C

I just checked that site Doug and it seems the same deal that I've got with the $149 modem. I've been using it now for six weeks, five or six logon per week to check mail and the bank balance, it's cost me $30 and I've got $6 left with five days to go before my unused credit balance reverts to zero. If I add another $20 in the next coupla days the balance will go to $26 and the monthly cycle restarts so I am led to believe.

I do very few google searches as they eat up your download quota pretty quick, so I don't do any browsing apart from spending an hour ot two here in ExplorOZ. I still have some controlled testing to do so I can work out my limits, but as someone else pointed out earlier you can latch onto a wi-fi at a large number of McDonalds food outlets for any serious downloads of anti-virus stuff and/or emails with attachments, etc.

Recharge $20-40 13.3c per MB allows for an effective 150MB to 300MB DL allowance. Going one further$50 is 8c per MB DL with a 625MB limit so I am assuming at this point that if I maintained a balance of $50 from day one it should only cost me between $10 - $20 a month while we are on the road.

I won't be doing any casual browsing with wireless unless it is urgent, I'll leave that for the occasional excursion to Maccas or the caravan park that has that wi-fi facility. They are pretty slick the way they work this all out and I am trying to be slick also, but it's a tough battle. As soon as I know my limitations I'll be doing some controlled tests (spending a few bucks) so I can report back to everyone interested as to what I find. Say g'day to Dusty.
Fiona & Paul

some people are totally clueless when it comes to internet and download usage - these types of plans are aimed at these people ... Tel$tra likes to rip people off where ever and when ever possible by any means possible and if it involves exploiting people with little knowledge of how it works ... there first to jump in and try ....

Boc

Don't forget to use Adblock Plus (for Firefox) or similar so you don't have to pay to download someones else's ads.

Wazza

We just bite the bullet and go for the NextG 5GB plan at around $90 per month when we want use it and back to the around $35 per month when we are not using it. You can change a plan once a month.

We never have been bitten by the exorbitant expensive excess data charges that Telstra is a specialist in.

It is expensive but we need it for business when on the road and it does work well. I use it to connect to a corporate VPN and use VOIP over the VPN, Skype, etc and it all works as planned which gives me untold flexibility of where I work ie any where NextG works, I can work.

Stevesub