21 June 2010

Telstra vs Transact

| clp
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We are about to move house and have been with Telstra for home phone, internet and mobile. Much as Telstra sucks we have stayed with them because I get free calls to my husband’s work mobile. We have been frustrated with the ADSL because even though its meant to be as fast as cable we’ve had lots of times when it hasn’t worked and our home phone has been dodgy as well. I’m not sure if its just a problem at our current place or not.

Coming from Sydney where we had cable broadband with Telstra we were frustrated that only Transact offered it as we’re not at all interested in pay TV and all their packages seem geared towards including pay TV.

I’ve been trying to compare provider packages online (with Optus thrown in for good measure) but its very hard to make accurate comparisons so want to get opinions from here.

Basically I have a very low use mobile (as phone is paid off I pay $15 a month) we make very few local phone calls but a few interstate calls a month. To be honest I can’t remember what our download for internet is but we want a fast speed connection but don’t download movies etc.

I’m aware we can bundle with ACTEWAGL and would be interested if people think bundling is worthwhile (we will have gas as well as electricity).

Thanks for your help

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I know its been a few months but we moved again and hadn’t changed our ISP and it was a disaster – we were without a phone for 2 weeks and even longer without internet. Lets hope we can get out of our contract. Have heard good things about Westnet. MrCLP doesn’t want to do VOIP even though its cheaper as he’s suspicious about mobile broadband.

troll-sniffer2:26 pm 22 Jun 10

Deano said :

clp said :

There are so many better options out there but trying to work out what it all means is a bloody nightmare – no wonder people end up staying with the big providers.

That’s the problem with competition. Broadband Choice is your friend.

troll-sniffer said :

iinet VOIP phone on ADSL 2+ line 10G + 10G plan $59.95 per month, average phone bill $60.50 to $65.00 per month for internet and home phone.

I’ll see your iinet and raise you an Exetel – ADSL2+, 30Gb+60Gb, 2 x VoIP (100 calls per month avg), 2 x mobiles ($0 min spend), email to fax and web SMS for average $60 per month. Exetel also offer non-Telstra infrastructure where it is available.

Well I did put in an application to Exetel and they made me disconnect my Transact line so they could action my application and then proceeded to inform me I couldn’t get their service because they didn’t have the equipment installed despite telling me three times beforehand that they did. Took three weeks of wrangling just to get my line back so that a competent firm, iinet, could provide me with a service.

So, you’re welcome to your Exetel if you can get it, but they will never see my business ever.

troll-sniffer2:23 pm 22 Jun 10

Jungle Jim said :

I know this is completely off topic, but troll – why on earth would you choose to use “wuz” instead of “was”? W A & S are in a neat little triangle formation on the left of your keyboard.

Because my keyboard has a Cornish accent and it would have said “I were in the same boat, see” so I thought I would put it in an accent that the Riot-ACT readers would understand, but to no avail, someone just had to whinge.

Cant say i’ve ever had a problem with transact services (either speed or service) and i’ve been on them for 4 or 5 4 years now.

That I also get a bundled discount on my gas & electricity with actewagl makes the cost very reasonable in comparison to their competitors even if the speed is not as quick as what i might get with another provider.

For the overwhelming majority of home internet users in Canberra the difference between 1.5mbps and 2.8mbps is inconsequential as they’re using it to read and send email, read the news, do internet banking or check the weather (according to a study done by google economist Hal Varian). All activities that are not bandwidth or speed intensive.

Up The Duffy10:26 pm 21 Jun 10

6th Internode, have my land line with them too. Would of gone Naked VOIP but have “back to base alarm”. You need one of them here too. Burgled within 3days of moving here from Sydney, Was living on the north side then.

South side ADSL2 8Mbps average tested with iView, OK enough for most things.

iView is un-metered with Internode

I sixth Internode, haven’t had many problems with them for the last three years. Was with Transact about six years ago but ditched them as they weren’t as good value for money as getting separate services, they might be better now. Currently have basic phone line with Telstra, fast ADSL2+ connection with Internode and voice over IP telephone services with MyNetFone (10c calls flat rate around Australia). Although I’m looking to ditch Internode because I want to drop the Telstra phone line and go naked ADSL. Internode have relatively poor deals for this.

Broadband Choice and Whirlpool sites are both great sources of info. Transact is OK but not as quick as it should be for cable. Customer service is usually good. However from my experience if you need to access a VPN/WAN connection through Transact forget it – for reasons that escape me I’ve had no end of troubles with cutouts, slow speeds and freezes.

Well hang on now, are we talking about the suburbs where Transact has optical fibre? Nobody can accuse them of being slow in those places. In fact, it is for sure the fastest option.

I’m with you 54-11. We ditched Telstra in 2005 when we moved from Tuggeranong to Inner South and went with Transact. Haven’t looked back since we got the Telstra monkey off our back. We bundled the lot – phone, electricity, gas and Grapevine and have no complaints. We’ll never go back.

clp said:

“The only reason we stayed with Telstra when we moved from Sydney was because they promised our home email would stay the same”

Buy yourself a domain name for around $20 a year and you can have your own email address/es which move with you if/when ever you change ISP. No more asking all your friends to update their contacts.

I can recommend Optus. I have them for home phone and ADSL2 internet. They were able to install on the day I moved into the house and both the home phone and internet were up and running before the removal guys had even started to unpack. They were also willing to do a one month contract rather than the usual 12/18/24 month contracts, which can be useful if you are renting and think you may move again within that period. I find the internet speeds to be really good.

arescarti42 said :

I third Internode – I’ve had my service for about 4 years now, it has been great. On the rare occasion that something has gone wrong, they’ve been excellent to deal with and quick to get it fixed.

4th that. Been with quite a few ISP’s and internode has been head and shoulder’s better with good pricing too.

clp said :

There are so many better options out there but trying to work out what it all means is a bloody nightmare – no wonder people end up staying with the big providers.

That’s the problem with competition. Broadband Choice is your friend.

troll-sniffer said :

iinet VOIP phone on ADSL 2+ line 10G + 10G plan $59.95 per month, average phone bill $60.50 to $65.00 per month for internet and home phone.

I’ll see your iinet and raise you an Exetel – ADSL2+, 30Gb+60Gb, 2 x VoIP (100 calls per month avg), 2 x mobiles ($0 min spend), email to fax and web SMS for average $60 per month. Exetel also offer non-Telstra infrastructure where it is available.

The only reason we stayed with Telstra when we moved from Sydney was because they promised our home email would stay the same – but it later turned out that wasn’t the case and we had to have a different address and they would route the mail there from the old address – but it never worked properly and we’ve ended up doing without it for the past year and just using work email (although it was really frustrating as we had moved interstate and I had no work email for first 6 weeks).

At the moment our service often drops out – and we get error messages about Thomson gateway (and half the lights on modem go out) this happens on and off quite regularly – and I’ve noticed our phone line goes funny as well – it will often drop out completely – will be unable to find the handset and the line is very crackly especially if using the internet.

I do wonder if these problems are to do with local line issues – or maybe just wiring in our property.

I third Internode – I’ve had my service for about 4 years now, it has been great. On the rare occasion that something has gone wrong, they’ve been excellent to deal with and quick to get it fixed.

I know this is completely off topic, but troll – why on earth would you choose to use “wuz” instead of “was”? W A & S are in a neat little triangle formation on the left of your keyboard.

Back on topic – keep in mind that if the only thing you’re interested in is the speed and reliability of your ADLS2 connection, then be careful who you opt for over Telstra, considering the majority of them utilise and resell Telstra infrastructure.

There are so many better options out there but trying to work out what it all means is a bloody nightmare – no wonder people end up staying with the big providers.

Iinet does look interesting – I might go for that with a long term pre pay mobile

troll-sniffer1:48 pm 21 Jun 10

I wuz in the same boat as you but even less calls were my norm, and I have ended up with these two:

iinet VOIP phone on ADSL 2+ line 10G + 10G plan $59.95 per month, average phone bill $60.50 to $65.00 per month for internet and home phone. Set up cost was about $250 for modem etc. It’s lightning fast in Campbell, I’ve forgotten what waiting for a page to load was like.

Slimtel VIP plan $0 per month pay calls only. Since I make about 5 calls per month and text a few messages my bills average $5-$10 per month, but I never feel I have to try and ‘use up’ an available credit. And if I don’t make any calls my bill is zip. You have to port an existing active account to them to qualify for the VIP plan.

We’re in the inner south as well. When Transact first came though here in 2002, we quickly ditched Telstra (with great relief) and moved to Transact. Haven’t regretted it for a moment. We use Iinet (was Webone back then) as our ISP.

We’re bundled with ACTEWAGL, except we don’t use Grapevine or gas, and it seems to be OK.

Thanks for the feedback so far thats been very useful

I second Internode – they have been the best ISP I’ve dealt with in Canberra. I’ve been through Transact (Grapevine) & TPG. Internode have been the fastest, most reliable and the first ISP to actually provide me with internet on the first day that they said they would. Oh I live in Inner South by the way.

For around $50 you can get a plan that the speed is capped after 60g download. From the sounds of it that should more than cover your downloading requirements so you may even consider dropping down.

They also offer home phone bundling with discounts, but I have not used this.

ADSL isn’t “meant to be as fast as cable.” It can be faster – and a lot slower. TransACT’s idea of “cable” (VDSL) speeds are a lot slower than the Cable (HFC) networks Optus and Telstra have in other states. I can’t recommend TransACT cable unless you don’t have much other choice.

ADSL2+ speeds are firstly determined by the length and quality of your phoneline – and ADSL2+ is widely available in the Inner South. Then, the quality of the ISP’s connectivity comes into play.

So, the phoneline to your new house will determine your maximum internet speeds as long as you choose a decent ISP (can recommend iiNet, Internode.) I’d recommend shopping around separately for good plans for both Internet/phone and mobile.

Moving within the Inner South.

I think I might separate things out a bit – it just was easier logistically to have it all with Telstra and when we moved to Canberra it became easier to stay the same.

We’re paying about $55 month for unlimited ADSL2 but its pretty slow.

The cat did it12:41 pm 21 Jun 10

You haven’t said which suburb you’re moving into. Be warned that Canberra has some nasty black spots where short-sighted cost-savings during installation mean you may now be stuck with abysmally slow connections. Check the Whirlpool Forums (http://www.whirlpool.net.au/) to see the best deals in your suburb.

If your mobile phone is very low use, look at unlocking it and changing your plan to a pre-paid 12-month deal. Phone companies don’t like to advertise these plans because they are not very profitable, but they are usually available.

Be clear about what you want, and good luck.

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