My Internet, which is fast, quite cheap and not NBN
The rental apartment is quite new. It has a phone port. The previous tenant, also the owner, had ADSL but didn’t opt for NBN when offered. It had nothing when I moved in, so I thought it would be easy to get NBN on.
It was a nightmare. My old RSP – Aussie Broadband – tried but I had to eventually deal with NBNCo, who were arrogant and unhelpful. They said – for some reason – my phone port (which I can see) and line didn’t exist on their system – and the only way to get NBN was to ‘pretend to be a developer and submit a new-site-access (or whatever) form’. They were adamant it would ‘take 6 months and there’s nothing you can do about it’. WTF. Cs.
The upshot was I discovered Optus and their Home 4G Broadband. The Optus box looks like a standard NBN modem/router/wifi one. But no phone-line in; just their internal SIM doing that role.
Still have it, after a year. I’m on a 500 GB PM plan, no contract (now…see below) and it’s usually at least as fast as my old house’s 50 Mbps NBN plan! And, for my usage, it’s cheaper than even Aussie Broadband NBN. I should add: I can see the 4G tower, about 800 m away. Uploads seem a bit slower than NBN, but I don’t upload much.
Aussie Broadband 🙂 and Updating Optus
To their credit, Aussie Broadband, who had still been trying to help me, called to say they found a way for me to get NBN on without the big wait. Alas, I’d just signed the 2 year contract with Optus. I’d done it with my eyes open: the contract was quite cheap to escape from, $8 PM fee for each month left…but Aussie NBN was also more expensive.
My Optus quota was originally 200 GB PM for $60 including modem purchase; not quite enough data. In Feb this year, I went to the Optus shop nearby. They offered me a great deal: “pay out the $8 PM fee – 1 years worth – and we’ll give you a big discount on our 500 GB PM plan, with no contract.” So I happen to also pay $8 PM more to get 300 GB PM more 🙂
