-
Join the MyBroadband community
South Africa’s biggest forum. Discuss, discover, and connect with thousands of members.
-
Question of the Day: Have you ever been to an airshow?
Australian ADSL
- Thread starter LethalChicken
- Start date
Compared to the UK and the States, the Aussie ISP is still quite expensive. The 1500k connection with 9Gig cap is 90$ (Australian). At an exchange rate of R4.6 it amounts to R414. It is still about 1/3 as cheap as Telkom's slower 1024k connection. I would be far happier paying those prices than what we pay!
bb_matt
Executive Member
The UK isn't as cheap as the US and Asia.
Those deals you see aren't always what they seem.
On average, we're paying around R400 for 2mb and 20Gig, but the key thing here is the percentage of average office workers salary, that's where the real discrepencies lie.
My monthly broadband bill in SA, back when 30gig was available, was about R800 if I remember correctly, which equated to about 1/15th of my salary. Over here, it's 1/50th
That's the real story.
Then again, my rent is half my salary here and it was 1/4 in SA - swings and roundabouts ...
Those deals you see aren't always what they seem.
On average, we're paying around R400 for 2mb and 20Gig, but the key thing here is the percentage of average office workers salary, that's where the real discrepencies lie.
My monthly broadband bill in SA, back when 30gig was available, was about R800 if I remember correctly, which equated to about 1/15th of my salary. Over here, it's 1/50th
That's the real story.
Then again, my rent is half my salary here and it was 1/4 in SA - swings and roundabouts ...
andres101
Expert Member
but is aus they have a very similar situation to SA. they also recently privatised the telecoms giant and it is also refusing to let go of its grip on the market. they are a couple of years ahead though. i think we will be where they are in about 5 years time...
Mr Anderson
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2005
- Messages
- 272
- Reaction score
- 0
I know when I visited my brother in Brisbane last year he had his home telephone line, his cable-television, his 2 cellphone account and his broadband internet ALL in one and it is supplied by Telstra. Everything seemed to work very well and it's very cool to only worry about ONE account instead of 7-billion lol.
p.s Can you imagine how we would have been absolutely ripped if Telkom was a cellphone service provider as well? ouch...you would have paid something like R10 a second or something.
p.s Can you imagine how we would have been absolutely ripped if Telkom was a cellphone service provider as well? ouch...you would have paid something like R10 a second or something.
bb_matt
Executive Member
Hmmm, that's where I find the UK excessively priced - mobile phone bills can be extremely expensive here. I'm paying R250 a month on my contract and I use it very little (don't know enuff people over here yet - heh)
When I first arrived, I was on a pay-as-u-go and was using about R50 a day while searching for work! - madness.
3G is also quite frankly a HUGE ripoff over here, it's little more than a gimmick because of that, as nobody but serious business users can really afford it + to be honest, it's cr@p right now.
The only thing in the UK telecomms wise that is cheap is ADSL - the rest is as bad or worse than in SA. I spent a small fortune in my first few months here on telecoms - the cheapest hourly rate I found for internet cafe was R15, but that was in the city and you have to use thier computers.
The wireless access offered in pubs/coffee shops is mad expensive - the cheapest I found was £6 for 60 minutes, the only good thing being you could use that over a week, so it was possible to go online, get email, go offline, compose email, go online and send it.
It really is all swings and roundabouts - the only thing that saved the UK in terms of ADSL cost is exactly what SA is fighting for now - if you can win that battle, which I think is inevitable eventually, then you'll be smiling.
It'll never be as cheap as the US or Asia and not even the UK, due to simple economics of numbers, but if you can get it down to 50% of what it is now, then that's a good thing - I think it will happen.
In terms of speed, anything above 2mb over here just isn't realistic - the 4mb/8mb stories you drool over are really cr@p as it uses a kinda "burst" thing, where the first 500k comes down at extreme speed and then it gradually "shapes" to 2mb and below.
It's obvious why - if your downloading from a server, that server can only provide so much bandwidth depending on it's load at the time and the pipe it's on, not to mention the hops it has to go through.
The best thing about a 2mb line is torrent files - I can snag a 300mb TV program in 1 hour in optimum conditions.
So yeah, it aint all roses and to be truly honest, aside from torrent files, the difference is just cost, not really speed - a 512k connection is more than adaquate for your average user, but for power users who like downloading a lot of stuff quick, 2mb is heaven.
When I first arrived, I was on a pay-as-u-go and was using about R50 a day while searching for work! - madness.
3G is also quite frankly a HUGE ripoff over here, it's little more than a gimmick because of that, as nobody but serious business users can really afford it + to be honest, it's cr@p right now.
The only thing in the UK telecomms wise that is cheap is ADSL - the rest is as bad or worse than in SA. I spent a small fortune in my first few months here on telecoms - the cheapest hourly rate I found for internet cafe was R15, but that was in the city and you have to use thier computers.
The wireless access offered in pubs/coffee shops is mad expensive - the cheapest I found was £6 for 60 minutes, the only good thing being you could use that over a week, so it was possible to go online, get email, go offline, compose email, go online and send it.
It really is all swings and roundabouts - the only thing that saved the UK in terms of ADSL cost is exactly what SA is fighting for now - if you can win that battle, which I think is inevitable eventually, then you'll be smiling.
It'll never be as cheap as the US or Asia and not even the UK, due to simple economics of numbers, but if you can get it down to 50% of what it is now, then that's a good thing - I think it will happen.
In terms of speed, anything above 2mb over here just isn't realistic - the 4mb/8mb stories you drool over are really cr@p as it uses a kinda "burst" thing, where the first 500k comes down at extreme speed and then it gradually "shapes" to 2mb and below.
It's obvious why - if your downloading from a server, that server can only provide so much bandwidth depending on it's load at the time and the pipe it's on, not to mention the hops it has to go through.
The best thing about a 2mb line is torrent files - I can snag a 300mb TV program in 1 hour in optimum conditions.
So yeah, it aint all roses and to be truly honest, aside from torrent files, the difference is just cost, not really speed - a 512k connection is more than adaquate for your average user, but for power users who like downloading a lot of stuff quick, 2mb is heaven.
matt, when I was in London last year I had a 24mbs line for 24 pounds a month. I regularly got 2MB/s downloading stuff, especially from large sites like Fileplanet, etc. It was a beautiful thing! A thing of beauty! Please don't make light of the beauty!
*eyes start glazing over*
The beauty...
EDIT:
Also, you can't compare some costs to SA because ppl in the UK earn so much more than us. When I was there I earned on average 2500 - 3500 pounds a month and I'm just a kid fresh out of matric. So their perception of money is very different to ours, but this is changing as things get more expensive here in SA. When I got back I was truly shocked at the price of food, etc.
*eyes start glazing over*
The beauty...
EDIT:
Also, you can't compare some costs to SA because ppl in the UK earn so much more than us. When I was there I earned on average 2500 - 3500 pounds a month and I'm just a kid fresh out of matric. So their perception of money is very different to ours, but this is changing as things get more expensive here in SA. When I got back I was truly shocked at the price of food, etc.
Last edited:
feo
Honorary Master
The average korean apartment dweller uses 8Mb broadband...that was 2 years ago....pass the kleenex 
bb_matt
Executive Member
mooK said:
Well, I guess you were living the life of Riley then, £2500 a month?
Hmm, what the hell were you doing to earn that?
I'm living in a fairly cushdey pad, which with council tax, is half my rent. In London, if you want to live with at least a reasonable modicum of finese, your talking R6000 a month rent. I'm living down in Hampshire, so add some more onto that - my rent is like R8000 a month before tax/phone/gas/water/electrics !
Sure, you CAN earn £2500 a month easily if you have the l33t skills to find that kinda job and then more too.
In about 6 months from now, when my skills have reached the standard of UK web dev pro's, I'll go contracting for £250 a day - right now, the competition is TOUGH, so I've settled for staff work to gain the skills required to get that.
It ain't easy over here.
As for 24mb ADSL, it's so damn rare, it's ridiculous - the overall standard here is 2mb and like I said, 4mb and 8mb for most people is overated.
It will get better, sure, but what I'm trying to say is don't view somewhere like the UK as being some kinda "paved with gold" place, because it isn't.
feo
Honorary Master
I don't understand why it's rare...cheap and very fast, people should be snapping it up like hotcakes.
Hey Matt,
I just got really lucky and found an overpaying job, I was basically a glorified typist for a court case, I've got no 1337 skills or anything, it was just after matric.
I lived down in Wimbledon and my rent was about 450 - 500 pounds for a nice big room, although the house was kinda ****, I got ripped off but I'm young and naive so it's to be expected.
Anyway, I found the internet to be really reliable, it is what it is, if you have a 2mb line, you download at 200kb/s. If you have a 24mbs line, you get 2MB/s.
That is of course, if the server you're downloading from can upload it to you at that speed, which with smaller sites would not be the case. And obviously you won't get your max speed with torrent files, but the beauty is you can download like 10 at a time.
Anyway, the UK isn't paved with gold, imo it's a pretty lousy place to live because of the miserable weather, etc but there is a lot of money to be earned and as far as that goes it's probably better to be there. Although, it is expensive there and your lifestyle does change.
I just got really lucky and found an overpaying job, I was basically a glorified typist for a court case, I've got no 1337 skills or anything, it was just after matric.
I lived down in Wimbledon and my rent was about 450 - 500 pounds for a nice big room, although the house was kinda ****, I got ripped off but I'm young and naive so it's to be expected.
Anyway, I found the internet to be really reliable, it is what it is, if you have a 2mb line, you download at 200kb/s. If you have a 24mbs line, you get 2MB/s.
That is of course, if the server you're downloading from can upload it to you at that speed, which with smaller sites would not be the case. And obviously you won't get your max speed with torrent files, but the beauty is you can download like 10 at a time.
Anyway, the UK isn't paved with gold, imo it's a pretty lousy place to live because of the miserable weather, etc but there is a lot of money to be earned and as far as that goes it's probably better to be there. Although, it is expensive there and your lifestyle does change.
bb_matt
Executive Member
mooK said:
Ahh, good old Wimbledon - lived there for 4 months before landing a job down here - one of the better areas of London, LOADS of Saffas - heck, you can hardly walk 10m without bumping into one.
Sounds like you were damn lucky to land such a cushdey job - but that's London for you, luck of the draw. I struggled for months and spent every last penny I'd made from selling all my stuff in SA - R60000 just gone
Still, happy here, with my 2mb line ! - hmmm, and no worries about crime ...
munwaal
Senior Member
bb_matt said:
Amen to that. I have my completely uncapped 3MB line (in China) and have downloaded in excess of 400 gigs since December, at a full 300k a second.
As for crime.. what crime? When you see school children catching a bus ALONE after dark, you know something's going right.
Last edited:
feo
Honorary Master
Yip generally Asian countries seem to have less of a problem with crime than western countries...and their broadband is about a 100x faster and 10x cheaper.
Moklet Kcuf
Senior Member
Aussie prices, good value!
Refering to the original comment, from Blobnow, you're right
www.aussieisp.com certainly is pricey. There are however, far better deals than that.
I've recently spent hours researching Aussie ISP's, on behalf of my technophobe aunty in Sydney who wants ADSL.
24Mbps ADSL2+ deals start at AU$50 (R220, GBP20) per month inclusive
http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc-plan....ont=150&needhw=no&conntype=1&rt=1&dd=1&sort=2
A basic 512Kbps account starts at around AU$30 (R132 , GBP12) per month inclusive.
http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc-plan....ont=150&needhw=no&conntype=1&rt=1&dd=1&sort=2
These prices are more or less on par or better than most other western countries.
Just a bit of background info-
Despite a relatively late start, public pressure in Australia has influenced government initiatives, making Australia amongst the forerunners in rolling out ADSL,ADSL2+ and Cellular Wireless. There are relatively few Asian and Western countries ahead with urban broadband infrastructure. Considering the size and population spread of Australia, it's a respectful acheivement. Mind you, one downside is butt-ugly cell towers everywhere in the cities. The Federal Goverment has rights to plant a tower ANYWHERE by stealth, bypassing local townplanning regulations, but thats another story.
Telstra (the former Telcom monopoly) has had competition with new operators since the early 90's, namely Optus. ISP's and other Netork operators buy usage of their fixed line networks at wholesale price (much the same as in the UK with BT). Despite this, Telstra's and Optus's retail ISP and telephony services are still amongst the most expensive, yet a lions share of customers stick with them assuming that, seeing they are the biggest (marketers) they are the best!
As we know, looking at cash cow Telkom, this certainly isn't the case either, the sooner a SNO starts playing the game the better. But unless the fundamental practices of the Industry change here, we will always be envying progress elsewhere.
Yes it is nice to have one bill but Your brother is likely paying way too much for the convenience, he could probably save $100's of dollars a year by shopping around. Telsta's bundled internet prices alone are almost double what you can find elswhere. Get him to try a broadband plan search at www.whirlpool.net.au to see what I mean.
best
Kryon_MC said:
Refering to the original comment, from Blobnow, you're right
www.aussieisp.com certainly is pricey. There are however, far better deals than that.
I've recently spent hours researching Aussie ISP's, on behalf of my technophobe aunty in Sydney who wants ADSL.
24Mbps ADSL2+ deals start at AU$50 (R220, GBP20) per month inclusive
http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc-plan....ont=150&needhw=no&conntype=1&rt=1&dd=1&sort=2
A basic 512Kbps account starts at around AU$30 (R132 , GBP12) per month inclusive.
http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc-plan....ont=150&needhw=no&conntype=1&rt=1&dd=1&sort=2
These prices are more or less on par or better than most other western countries.
Just a bit of background info-
Despite a relatively late start, public pressure in Australia has influenced government initiatives, making Australia amongst the forerunners in rolling out ADSL,ADSL2+ and Cellular Wireless. There are relatively few Asian and Western countries ahead with urban broadband infrastructure. Considering the size and population spread of Australia, it's a respectful acheivement. Mind you, one downside is butt-ugly cell towers everywhere in the cities. The Federal Goverment has rights to plant a tower ANYWHERE by stealth, bypassing local townplanning regulations, but thats another story.
Keep your Fingers crossed tight to be sure!andres101 said:
Telstra (the former Telcom monopoly) has had competition with new operators since the early 90's, namely Optus. ISP's and other Netork operators buy usage of their fixed line networks at wholesale price (much the same as in the UK with BT). Despite this, Telstra's and Optus's retail ISP and telephony services are still amongst the most expensive, yet a lions share of customers stick with them assuming that, seeing they are the biggest (marketers) they are the best!
As we know, looking at cash cow Telkom, this certainly isn't the case either, the sooner a SNO starts playing the game the better. But unless the fundamental practices of the Industry change here, we will always be envying progress elsewhere.
Mr Anderson said:
Yes it is nice to have one bill but Your brother is likely paying way too much for the convenience, he could probably save $100's of dollars a year by shopping around. Telsta's bundled internet prices alone are almost double what you can find elswhere. Get him to try a broadband plan search at www.whirlpool.net.au to see what I mean.
best
Last edited: