Internet for home and on the road

jbrinks · Senior Member

Internet for home and on the road

RustyD · Guru

Wife and I just have a $50 / month mobile plan each with Telstra. We have a combined total of 20GB shared allowance. We use Telstra because of the coverage. Haven't used any of the free connections (Telstra Air?). Have basic NBN at home but have no physical landline phone (comes free with NBN). The mobile plan gives us plenty of capacity on the road. However our recent access to Netflix via our iPad (via our iPhone) has not been tested.

Woody n Sue · Guru

I just have the two iPhones with data which shares with a data chip in the iPads and a couple of data only chips that seem to be free of cost ( dont ask I dont know have had them for ages and told to keep them as the dont do them anymore ) and I use RVWifi both at home and when traveling , but will need another so I can check the security cameras at home while away all this is with 80 GB of data ,plenty , oh and Im with Optus .
Works for me

Woody

SouthernComfort · Guru

We dumped our landline and went totally mobile a couple of years back. Now with Aldi (Telstra network) on both our Samsung androids. Plan is $35 each per mth, 9GB data each (rolls over any unused) and unlimited calls. No dongles needed, no contracts. Much cheaper overall and completely flexible. We don't download movies etc. so the data is heaps for us. Have used free wifi in CP's etc.

The Belmont Bear · Guru

RustyD wrote:
Wife and I just have a $50 / month mobile plan each with Telstra. We have a combined total of 20GB shared allowance. We use Telstra because of the coverage. Haven't used any of the free connections (Telstra Air?). Have basic NBN at home but have no physical landline phone (comes free with NBN). The mobile plan gives us plenty of capacity on the road. However our recent access to Netflix via our iPad (via our iPhone) has not been tested.

Rusty I use Netflix over here with my ipad and a chromecast unit to send it wirelessly to a big screen smart tv aparently in standard definition Netflix will use around .75 gigs/hr and a lot more if its sent in higher definition. 20 gig of data would probably mean along with your other internet usage you would get around 18 to 20 hours of viewing if you kept it on standard definition (I believe that is an option that you can select on Netflix).I,m only going off what I read on mr google as we were all running out of the 100gig data allowance that they give us before the end of each month and we were wondering why. We also have to use video messenging services like facebook messenger to avoid the ridiculous cost of making international calls from Oman ($3.80/min) so that is also consuming our data.

cheers

BB

-- Edited by The Belmont Bear on Thursday 15th of March 2018 02:49:24 PM

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

SouthernComfort wrote:
We dumped our landline and went totally mobile a couple of years back. Now with Aldi (Telstra network) on both our Samsung androids. Plan is $35 each per mth, 9GB data each (rolls over any unused) and unlimited calls. No dongles needed, no contracts. Much cheaper overall and completely flexible. We don't download movies etc. so the data is heaps for us. Have used free wifi in CP's etc.

Just be aware that Telstra resellers (including Boost which is part of Telstra) do not typically have access to the WHOLE of the Telstra network coverage.

We do something similar using a Boost plan that includes internet via a wireless hot spot.

Cheers,

Peter

SouthernComfort · Guru

Peter_n_Margaret wrote:
SouthernComfort wrote:
We dumped our landline and went totally mobile a couple of years back. Now with Aldi (Telstra network) on both our Samsung androids. Plan is $35 each per mth, 9GB data each (rolls over any unused) and unlimited calls. No dongles needed, no contracts. Much cheaper overall and completely flexible. We don't download movies etc. so the data is heaps for us. Have used free wifi in CP's etc.
Just be aware that Telstra resellers (including Boost which is part of Telstra) do not typically have access to the WHOLE of the Telstra network coverage.
We do something similar using a Boost plan that includes internet via a wireless hot spot.

Cheers,
Peter

I read a number of reports to that effect before we took it up, and saw the same comments about Optus via Amaysim which was our previous provider. I've also read reports claiming that network is not limited on reseller plans (some? all? heck who knows!!). Technically it's not my field so the only thing I can say is we get 4G coverage (where avail) and have never had an issue with reception anywhere. We always thought the Optus network was serving us well generally, except at home where reception was "sticky" being in a hilly area. Experience has since shown that Aldi/Telstra is infinitely better at home and in some areas we visit regularly which are (or at least were) Optus dead spots. For us it's definitely proving better value in every way.

ColinEast · Veteran Member

My partner and I have been on the road for a few months now. We are with Telstra and have a shared data plan. I been streaming my entertainment - all legitimately using Netflix and on demand free to air channels - prior to leaving because ADSL at my house was sadly unreliable and at times downloading at 0.5 Mbps and the phone data was way superior.

The first month of living in the van I was working and tested how much data I could use in this time. I streamed YouTube, the cricket, music, etc everyday going to and from work on the bus. Of an evening, I watched lots of Netflix (set to standard definition) and free-to-air TV Chromecast from my phone to a big screen as well as download/upload work related material, which was a fair bit. I really hammered the data usage and I would not use anywhere near that amount of data on the road. I used 26GB of data in 31 days.

We've now been on the road for a couple of months and the burning question would be coverage, right? It has been quite good, actually. We do a combination of free camping and parks. We've only been with no coverage a couple of times (road side camps in the boonies) but have dodgy coverage a few times. Admittedly, when the signal is weak (dodgy) I've had to resort to putting my phone on the roof of the van so we can watch Netflix and luckily the phone is water proof. aww Once we had really good reception (all 4 bars) and poor speed (1.0 Mbps download and 0.3 upload) but generally the speed has been really good. For example, I'm sitting in the Denmark Big4 Caravan Park (out of town) and I'm getting 16 Mbps Download and 3.5 Mbps upload! I could stream high definition with that sort of speed. I've even had speeds faster than the NBN (4gx tower) and is very rare however, this is important in my opinion. I personally think that 4gx will make the NBN redundant! So, my thoughts are that I will continue to use my phone as a hotspot even if I'm in a house with NBN is available.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Ozzie_Traveller · Senior Member

G'day all

We're like many others here .... on the wallaby for over half of each year too

We're inundated with NBN offers at home, all offering $50 to $80 per month schemes with a 24 month contract ~ useless to us as we're not home anyway, and we do not stream movies

So we keep to our dongles, 1x Optus and 1x Telstra [hers & his] and when on the wallaby use both daily to get coverage
Hope this helps, Phil

Cuppa · Guru

We have a $55 per month fixed wireless NBN 100Gb, paid monthly, but we can (& have) 'put it on hold' when we are away for more than a month or two. No payment whilst away & a phone call before we get home to have it back up & running when we get home.

Whilst away we have been using Boost. Just today we switched to their latest plan ... unlimited Aussie calls/texts plus 100 minutes overseas calls included & 15Gb(anytime) per month (unused data rolls over to the following month & gets used first) for $40. We changed from unlimited calls and unlimted international calls & 5gb per month, plus an 'extra' 1Gb per weekend for the same price.

We continue to use the phone during the short periods we are home & happy to 'waste' the data during those periods as the cost of keeping our number.

Our experience of Boost is that everywhere we have been where there is a Telstra signal (All around Tasmania, +western NSW, western Qld & northern SA) that we have had equal service to that of folk on Telstra deals.

-- Edited by Cuppa on Friday 16th of March 2018 07:31:31 PM

PeterX · Senior Member

Requirements for Telstra AIR, Its not free........ note you are using your own quota ......

The backbone of Telstra Air, though, is equally reliant on the company's home broadband customers themselves -- especially for that "neighbourhood" coverage where existing Wi-Fi-enabled payphones and infrastructure Air Wi-Fi hotspots don't already exist.
>>>>> To access the Air network for free, Telstra home broadband customers will be restricted to download quotas drawn from their home account's allowance, and will also be required to share their own home broadband as a Telstra Air hotspot<<<< -- the same concept as Fon in Europe, the world's largest Wi-Fi sharing network and Telstra's partner in creating Air -- using one of Telstra's Gateway Max home broadband modem routers.

laurieoz · Senior Member

That may be one requirement but if you have " prepaid extra" for your telephone plus other plans for your telephone than Telsta is FREE

oldbloke · Guru

SouthernComfort wrote:
We dumped our landline and went totally mobile a couple of years back. Now with Aldi (Telstra network) on both our Samsung androids. Plan is $35 each per mth, 9GB data each (rolls over any unused) and unlimited calls. No dongles needed, no contracts. Much cheaper overall and completely flexible. We don't download movies etc. so the data is heaps for us. Have used free wifi in CP's etc.

Same here. No land line at home. Aldi coverage is great. Might not be 100% of telstra coverage but is dam close.

Dickodownunder · Guru

jbrinks wrote:
NBN is coming to our area shortly and we have to decide on what to do. We travel for around 6 months of the year in our van which I use a dongle for and still paying our monthly fee for home internet and still have a home phone . My thoughts are to drop the home connection and just use a dongle at home and on the road but when at home I do use it quite often and it's so easy to just pick up the iPad and you are connected. Does anyone just have a dongle with Telstra for both and how does it work.

Hi jbrinks,

I currently have a Telstra dongle and like you we are constantly offered home NBN.

We travel about 9 months of the year and the dongle works just fine.

Until changing our phone service provider we were using the Telstra dongle at home as well as travelling and it works well, all be it expensive.

I am currently assessing wether we actually cancel the Telstra dongle service and just use the data that is available on our phones.

We have dropped Telstra billing on our phone services and are now using Boost.

Boosts data is very attractive for each plan that they offer and their service operates on the Telstra network.

Now we can cue Rockylizard and his comparison service maps for the available services. biggrin biggrin

Since accessing the Boost network we are hardly using the Telstra Dongle wifi. We just "blue tooth" the phones to our ipad and laptop.

Telstra offer a good service but do your sums on the cost for what you get.

Since signing onto Boost some months ago we have travelled three states...SA, Vic and currently in NSW and have not had any difference in service in any of the country areas we have visited. We stay away from capital cities where possible.

On current trends with the service we get from Boost I will probably drop the Telstra dongle in November when our current contract expires.

Good luck with your decision but with your information in your above post the Telstra service on your dongle will be fine.

Westywesty · Newbie

Hi First time on here. We will be in our caravan on the wallaby for a year come July. Thinking about our internet. I do use Netflix and tube. We have telstra on phones. NBN coming here around sep. thinking of the mobile broadband nighthawk. Has anyone used this?