Pre Paid Wireless Broadband

It all depends on where you travel to each night. If you are limited to larger towns/cities then i'm sure that in most cases dodo should be ok as the coverage is as per Optus. I'm sure many postings will mention Telstra NextG as having the best coverage though whilst being the dearer of the lot. Check out dodo's coverage maps here: http://www.dodo.com.au/wireless/coverage.aspx

As you mentioned the 60 day expiry period as a selling point, it probably should be pointed out that the Telstra NextG prepaid options include the following:

$130 3GB 90 DAYS
$150 4GB 180 DAYS

This may be a good option depending on your circumstances at it allows flexibity in your usage rather than being concerned about monthly cutoffs. It would also give you the best coverage in most cases.

Hope that helps,
Andrew

If you have home phone and internet with Telstra then prepaid wireless broadband can be economical too due to bundling discounts.

Have a look at Pennytel. Like Dodo and many others, they too use the Optus network. heir plans are post paid but there is no contract so you can discontinue after 60 or 90 days.
http://www.pennytel.com.au/Mobile-Broadband-Service/Data-Plans.aspx
3GB/month @ $13.88/month.

Alternatively there is Exetel who also use the Optus network.
http://www.exetel.com.au/residential-hspa-pricing.php
They have one plan with no monthly fee and 50MB/month. Excess data is charged at 2c/MB ($20.00/GB).

Both are cheaper than Tel$tra.

Depends on your usage, - If you use prepaid and just need one or 2 hundred MB per month to get your email a few times per week, Telstra's pre-paid data packs are good. Have a lookhere to see what's on offer. $10 for 150 MB may be all you need. The catches - these expire after a month so you lose anything not consumed during that 30 days, and the other catch - If your usage exceeds the data you've bought, your prepaid phone credit goes down at the rate of $2 per MB. That's seriously expensive!

Cheers

John

I ended up using Virgin Prepaid when I visit from the USA.

12GB for $150 and lasts for 12 months. Unused bandwidth rolls over with a topup within the 12 months.

They use the Optus network which is dicey outback but it suits my needs.

Bruce

Puttingdave, about six months ago I changed from Telstra adsl to Telstra Next G for use at home. I now take this with me wherever or whenever I go away on hols, even weekends just in case i want to log on. It saves paying for two ISP's & coverage is excellent.

Cheers

TDB

Puttingdave

I would check the covarage first and choose based on coverage rather than price! My wife has an Optus phone and I have Telstra 3G and the difference in coverage out of the cities is huge. Many many times I would have cover and she not. When we went up to Cape York she lost coverage around the Tablelands ye I had coveerage further north, Coen, Bamage and Seisha. I have the Telstra dongle and could connect to the internet at Seisha - many visitors came to me asking advice as they could not connect due to coverage - they were with other carriers.

Same when heading West

CJ

Since we seem to have a few experts here, any ideas about this scenario?

Got given a Telstra Next G dongle with a un-used $40 voucher. Installed it and it said $0 so activated the voucher and it said $40. All good so far. Played around for an hour which involved 21.7MB downloads and it stopped due to no credit left!!!! Looking at what $40 gets I thought it should manage 1GB of downloads.

At that rate it's going in the bin. What did I do wrong?

I use a 30hr credit with Dodo in conjuction with Skype. Suits me.

I have been using Exetel ( Optus network ) but but for some reason the sim card died

As I away greynomading I need something quick

my dongle was optus 1762 with external aerial port

also got an external aerial for $24 from optus , helps a lot

got a $30 prepaid for 1 gig and was going same day

only minus was the 30 day expirey

I have travelled all over Victoria and have had service at ALL times

Major towns and some small places , Wilson's prom national park

maybe just lucky

I think you have to be remote to miss on Optus and get Telstra

will check with Exetel when I get home about the sim card

Advantages with Exetel

no contract
$5 per month
then .15 cents per MB , ie $ 15 for 1 gig or as much as you want

when you get home and do not use it , $5