Internet in Australia

[Rajeev]

One of the admins on a different website couldn't help himself but compalin about the awful internet service in Australia

He has lived in US and Dubai, and is in Brisbane ( I think ) on an assigment and he mentioned that there are not many places where you can access internet, speed sucks and he still sees commercials on TV where they are talking about broadband internet as if it was something new. In summary, really backward compared to other countries

Is it really that bad or he was just exaggerating

 

[James]

Tell your friend that he should never come to New Zealand then. Speeds are slow, it's expensive, and we're one of the worst countries in the developed world technology wise.

It's just lucky your friend chose Australia

 

[benchmark00]

One of the admins on a different website couldn't help himself but compalin about the awful internet service in Australia

He has lived in US and Dubai, and is in Brisbane ( I think ) on an assigment and he mentioned that there are not many places where you can access internet, speed sucks and he still sees commercials on TV where they are talking about broadband internet as if it was something new. In summary, really backward compared to other countries

Is it really that bad or he was just exaggerating

What's the internet?

 

[Mr Casson]

It is pretty bad in some aspects when you compare it with other countries. In general, our telecommunications service is pretty bad across the board unless you are prepared to pay for it. I think we are one of the only highly-developed countries still sticking download limits on its customers. More than 90% of plans have a download limit, often less than 1GB per month. From an outsider's point of view it looks like gouging by ISPs, but I'm sure if that were the case the ACCC would be watching them very closely.

On that note, SMS is also very expensive. Without a plan that offers a discount on SMS services, standard is about 25c a message I think(...?) That's what it was two years ago when I last paid for credit. It is pretty disgusting behaviour when you consider that an SMS costs next to nothing to send for the service provider once they have the infrastructure.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Broadband is seen as a luxury item and is at least double the price of dial-up with the provider that I use at home.

And internet cafe's are often reasonably sparse, especially away from tourist type towns. Those that are around can often be very hard to find, very small shopfronts for example.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Doesn't Australia have the highest internet access percentage for its population of any country in the world?

 

[Mr Casson]

I dont think it does actually, simply because some other commodity-rich country with a small population has more. It still wouldn't say anything about the level of service in Australia.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Doesn't Australia have the highest internet access percentage for its population of any country in the world?

We probably spend the most hours on it...because our internet is so damn slow

 

[Mr Casson]

Having just looked it up, of the top 20 countries in terms of total users Australia is second to the US with 68.4% to their 68.6%

It actually surprises me that South Korea isn't much higher when you consider that the whole country spends all day on the Internet.

 

[GotSpin]

Makes us sound like Neanderthals

 

[GotSpin]

Having just looked it up, of the top 20 countries in terms of total users Australia is second to the US with 68.4% to their 68.6%

It actually surprises me that South Korea isn't much higher when you consider that the whole country spends all day on the Internet.

Had a nice image there

streets are empty at 12 o clock in the middle of day - with hay balls rolling around and dogs kicking over bins while everyone is inside talking to eachother through the computer!

 

[Mr Casson]

Had a nice image there

streets are empty at 12 o clock in the middle of day - with hay balls rolling around and dogs kicking over bins while everyone is inside talking to eachother through the computer!

No they're not inside their homes... they go to Internet cafes.

 

[Rajeev]

I thought NZ was pretty good, one of my good freinds is there and he used to broadcast stuff from home PC

________

Did you say 1 GB download limit, its 30 GB in Vancouver but the DSL company doesnt really care if you double and in Ontario is 60 GB officially but again, u can stretch it
..and this is after *******s etc, else there was no restriction at all

Speaking of internet, how about Television? You have easy access to Home Satellite Dishes, FTA Recievers, HD Programming etc

 

[Mr Casson]

I thought NZ was pretty good, one of my good freinds is there and he used to broadcast stuff from home PC

________

Did you say 1 GB download limit, its 30 GB in Vancouver but the DSL company doesnt really care if you double and in Ontario is 60 GB officially but again, u can stretch it
..and this is after *******s etc, else there was no restriction at all

Speaking of internet, how about Television? You have easy access to Home Satellite Dishes, FTA Recievers, HD Programming etc

I remember we had a 200MB download limit a few years back, and we went over it near Christmas time and it cost between $150-$200

 

[Sir Redman]

I'm sure broadband in Australia would be better than in NZ. Off the top off my head, we've got the second worst broadband takeup in the OECD. It's also far slower than other countries, and we've got ridiculously low caps (gee Telecom, you don't think that's a reason for the low uptake?). I think its $45 a month for my connection, and that has a cap of only 1 GB, and after that you're back onto dial-up speeds (which are incredibly low in my area).

Things may be improving shortly though; the Government's forcing Telecom to unbundle the local loops which gives competitors full, unrestricted access to the lines, but needless to say Telecom are doing their best to swindle their way out of it.

 

[Rajeev]

I remember we had a 200MB download limit a few years back, and we went over it near Christmas time and it cost between $150-$200

Vow, any incentives?

I signed up for a new account (3 year commitment)

Free 19" LCD Monitor
3 Months free
$29.95 thereafter...

1.5/MB sec download speed

This was old

Now, if you get heir enhanced speed version they give a full fleged Dell PC

http://www.mytelus.com/internet/highspeed/prices.do

 

[vic_orthdox]

I remember we had a 200MB download limit a few years back, and we went over it near Christmas time and it cost between $150-$200

We've only got a 400MB limit at home. We used to be on Unlimited with Dial-Up, and have to pay $10 extra for less downloads now.

Speaking of internet, how about Television? You have easy access to Home Satellite Dishes, FTA Recievers, HD Programming etc

I think 25% of homes have Pay TV now. Digital Programming is really slow on the take-up, due to the Free To Air TV's reluctance for change as they see any sort of progress as a threat to it's advertising revenue. I think this also has a lot to do with the slow progress of broadband.

 

[Rajeev]

Thats so true, speaking of slow connections etc

Is VOIP introducted there already?

 

[alternative]

I think we all say internet is very slow is cause we expect a lot more out of it, rite now i am on 1.5 Mbps it does the job for me, well i do have to fork out 70 bucks every month for it, but i get 25 GB download limit which is quite useful for me, as i tend to download quite a fair bit..

 

[alternative]

Thats so true, speaking of slow connections etc

Is VOIP introducted there already?

Yep we have it here in aus, but not with all ISP's only a handful of them.. to be precise i can think of Ozemail, Optus and TPG that actually offers it rite now..