More on Telstra Wireless Broadband..

Submitted: Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 10:29
ThreadID: 67631 Views:3734 Replies:7 FollowUps:5
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Doing a bit of sussing over the weekend on something I know nothing about. I'm now led to believe that the ' little stick' supplied for Telstra pre-paid Wireless broadband is inferior to the one supplied on a plan. Is it something like the ' blue tick' and the non=blue tick phones?? Also, apparently the pre-paid rates are exhorbitant compared to the "plans" ???
Any comments.

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Reply By: Member - Boo Boo (NSW) - Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 10:54

Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 10:54
Sigman

If you intend to do a bit of travelling then it might be worth using one of their plans. I vaguely remember looking at plans and prepaid and ended up going with a plan that included wireless broadband and our two mobile phones. We also got rid of our land line at the some time.

If its of any use we have never had a problem with getting internet connection, even at places like cunumulla qld.

Regards Bob
AnswerID: 358551

Reply By: Simon C - Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 11:01

Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 11:01
The blue tick are the phones or devises that are Telstra approved or recomended for country users. The are reported to have better coverage. Other forum users may disagree and some have experiance to back it up.

If you go to the telstra site there will be all the rates for pre paid and plans. The charges can be over the top if you go over your monthly data usage, but there are ways of monitoring that. The charges are better now that they use to be. I get 5 gig of data on a $89.00 plan and speeds equal or better than some ADSL conections at home.
AnswerID: 358553

Follow Up By: Fiona & Paul - Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 12:29

Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 12:29
Can be very costly as I have found out but I am working my way around the cost factor, pay $20 when I want to use it and I can check the mail & do the bank stuffl for 29.896 days after.

The coverage issue is another matter entirely, if I travel outside of Bathurst NSW on the backroads more often than not I don't get a response, then again I've been deep in the bush around fringe areas and have no problems. Now i do all the important stuff around larger towns. I am currently checking the other providers out to see their limitations before I buy another USB stick that is slower but give me more download options for VOIP.

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Follow Up By: stevesub - Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 14:25

Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 14:25
Don't waste your time looking at anything but NextG if you are going to be anywhere but a city.

NextG has by far superior coverage, especially in country areas, Optus, Vodafone and 3 who are the only other service providers really only cover the cities and immediate surrounds (remember that they resell services as well so you will find that Vrigin is one of the resleers for Optus from memory).

The NextG is so good, if you can get away with one broadband account, that is all you need for home and travel.

Our Blue NextG USB stick as provision for an external antenna that we have and it really improves the coverage, my mates new prepay NextG white USB stick does not have an external antenna socket. He has only just got it this week and will know how good the coverage is over the next 3 months.

Stevesub
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Reply By: Member - Graeme W (NSW) - Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 11:05

Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 11:05
Another advantage to going with a plan, is that the modem will support an external antenna, where the prepaid one won't.

I found that the external antenna made a big difference to reception.

Graeme
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Follow Up By: Motherhen - Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 14:17

Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 14:17
Hi Graeme

We have the $89 Next G plan, so i can't say about pre paid, BUT we do need the antenna most times, including at home (on a hill probably 2 - 3 kms from town centre in a straight line).Yulara was one of the few places i got full reception without using the antenna.

Hi Signman

It is our daughter's plan, so she pays. When she was going to the Pilbara for three months, she compared cost of buying modem outright and paying for three months cover, and it worked out about the same as the plan over two years. She chose the latter so we could use it for our travels as well. She had to change plans to get a new modem, as the first one was faulty and over a fifteen month period, she had no joy with Telstra (another 'why i hate Telstra' story). I think she had to increase the download while we were away, as when we stopped for a while in a town with reception, i went over her download limit.

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Follow Up By: stevesub - Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 14:31

Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 14:31
On the post paid plan, you can change plans once a month. We go on the cheapest when we are home and the $90 5GB plan when on the road. Saves a few $$.

Unfortunately we need ADSL at home for times right now when I am home and my wife has a contract in Central QLD so she has the NextG. Easy to use as she can use it with no problems and she is lets say computer challenged for all but the most basic tasks.

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Reply By: Bushed-Tracker - Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 15:53

Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 15:53
The USB 'stick' modems are not nearlly as grunty as the old 240 v Blue 'Toaster' Modem or even better the new wireless hub ones. Add to that an external antenna and you have the best you can get at the moment.

We pulled in a signal sufficient to talk to UK on Skype whilst parked on the beach at Noingaloo Station WA. Nearest transmitters were Coral Bay 86 km south or Exmouth 112 km to the north
AnswerID: 358604

Reply By: Member - Doug T (NT) - Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 16:32

Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 16:32
Signman
I use Bigpond Wireless Broadband, anywhere you can recieve the Next G phone service you will have Internet connection, I purchased my Modem outright, don't go on the special offers and get locked into a contract for 3 years, My 12 month contract expired 6 months ago so if I want I can close it down if other ISP's come along with cheaper rates , which is going to happen shortly,

.
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Reply By: Out and About - Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 16:58

Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 16:58
I have the white prepaid Next G USB stick modem which I got for free from Telstra a few weeks ago (normally $150). I got it for free by getting a casual data plan rather than using prepaid - they had an offer on. My plan has no minimum contract and I can cancel at any time. I opted for the $89.00 5GB plan but you can get them a lot cheaper if you dont need this much.

The coverage is fine using the USB stick while I am in towns. If I cant get coverage with the USB modem (if I am out of town a bit) I can just take the SIM card out of the modem and put it in my blue tick Next G phone (with arial; attached) and get better coverage that way.

I find this system works really well.
AnswerID: 358617

Reply By: Member - Graham H (QLD) - Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 18:24

Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 18:24
Be aware of the following

Bigpond and Telstra are DIFFERENT

The blue stick TELSTRA USB modems do NOT ALLOW FOR AN EXTERNAL AERIAL except for an inductive stick on one.

They are made by ZTE model MF636



The BIGPOND STICK USB modems are different and DO HAVE AN EXTERNAL AERIAL. It comes with it.

They are either a Sierra U880 or maybe a Maxon


However one does not work on the others network.

I have been having reception problems with my TELSTRA USB modem and am taking it in to ZTE in Melbourne tomorrow hopefully to get it replaced.
As an alternative I have bought an unlocked toaster Bigpond modem which is supposed to have better reception than a stick.

will post results tomorrow.



AnswerID: 358632

Follow Up By: Member - Graham H (QLD) - Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 18:27

Tuesday, Apr 07, 2009 at 18:27
Forgot to say the TELSTRA PREPAID white sticks are also ZTE

Model MS 626

They are basically the same as the blue one but run different firmware.





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