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It pays to be careful when choosing a broadband plan 1 September 2005 Bigpond CEO Justine Milne recently
said that around half his broadband customers upgrade to more expensive
plans. This is barely surprising, as the cheaper plans offered by most Internet
providers are not adequate for anybody but the lightest users. Given excess
usage can cause frustration or massive charges, it's important to choose the
right plan. Data Allowances Every time you go on the net, you
transfer data. Every connection, every email and every web page involves data
moving between your computer and the net. A light Internet user can expect to
use around 400Mb a month, a typical user a Gb per month and a heavy user (those
teenage kids again) over 5Gb a month. Most broadband Internet plans include a data allowance.
If you go over that allowance you will either be capped, which means your connection
is slowed or start paying excess fees. Those fees vary dramatically between
0.5 and 20c per Mb. The cheapest plans generally offer a 200Mb allowance.
The Telstra $29.95 plan charges 15c for each additional Mb. The light 400Mb
user that does little more than check email and read a few web pages would end
up with a monthly bill of around sixty dollars. For sixty dollars a month, you
can get a much better plan with Telstra or one of their competitors. Remember these assumptions are based
upon a light user. If you have teenagers, or you like listening or watching
streaming media your usage will be much higher. To help you figure out how much
data you will use, Telstra have a usage calculator,
use this to figure how much data you can expect to use then double the amount
to be safe. Capping One
way to avoid huge bills to choose a plan that caps your usage when you go over
the monthly limit. Most broadband providers offer these plans. One thing to
watch is the speed when you exceed these plans. The speed of a capped Optus
cable connection will make you cry. While
speed caps protect against massive bills, they are frustrating. It's best to
choose a plan with a generous allowance that means you won't get frustrated.
Remember you will use double what you expect. Speeds For
cable users speed isn't an issue, they get whatever the local network supports,
unless they've been capped. For ADSL and satellite customers, you can choose
what upload and download speeds you want. Naturally the faster you choose, the
more you pay.This is another area where the unsuspecting consumer needs to be
careful. Many of the cheap plans are the slowest available. The slowest speed
is 256/64, which means the download speed is around six times faster than a
dial up modem, while the upload speed is only a little faster.When comparing
plans, it's important to make sure plans are of a similar speed. Faster is definately
better. A lot
of the cheap plans are linked to you agreeing to use that company for telephone
calls. This can be a good deal but you need to check the phone and Internet
plans closely as the combined phone and Internet bill may turn out more expensive
than sticking with your existing phone company. Our feeling is that it is all
too complex and we’d tend to steer clear of these plans. Contract
Lengths Many
plans try to lock you into a contract, just like a mobile phone. The longer
you committ to, the cheaper the price so many cheaper plans have long contracts.
With broadband prices are dropping all the time, getting locked into a two year
contract may not be a good deal. Installation A
number of providers are offering free installation. Read the fine print as this
offer may only apply if you sign up to a longer contract or more expensive plan.
For the average user, we’d recommend getting the ISP to send a tech out to install
it for you, even if you have to pay an extra $200. Free
Months Some
providers are offering a number of ‘free" months. Like the "free" installation
offers these may be linked to extended contract lengths or not be available
on the cheaper or more flexible plans. Read the fine print. Free
equipment Another
"freebie" to get you in. All broadband connections require a special modem.
For cable connections this is included as part of your plan. ADSL customers
can supply their own modems. Most
ADSL providers will sell you a modem as an extra. While they tend to be more
expensive than buying your own, we recommend buying their modem as it becomes
more difficult for the ISP to play the traditional blame shifting game if anything
goes wrong. This usually adds around $200 to the setup cost. Like
the other "free offers" a free modem may cost you more over the length of the
contract. Read that fine print. Comparing
providers Telstra
Bigpond is not the only provider. ADSL is a very competitive market and there
are a lot of providers offering good deals. Broadband Choice is the site to visit when you want
to find who can offer the best broadband deals. Broadband
is the best way to connect to the Internet but the plans are complex and are
often designed to catch the unwary. Make sure you understand what you are getting
into before you sign a contract. Shop around to find the best deal for you and
remember that if it is too good to be true, it may well be.
The right plan for you depends upon what you are going to use your broadband
connection for. If you have teenage kids, you can expect to have massive music
and video downloads, if you have have friends and relatives overseas you might
find yourself using Internet phones. The most important deciding factor is how
much data you will send and receive, this determines your plan and it's cost.
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