quote:

Originally posted by Michael Are you guys sure about this? I rang Telstra and they said although it will not show up on the meter during this time, anything you download will still show up, just not for a few days.

Telstra hell desk don't have a clue.

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Dear BigPond Customer, We are writing to advise that your usage meter will not be available over the coming weekend as we work on a major network infrastructure upgrade that is necessary to support the future growth of broadband services. Your usage meter and Toolbar will not be updating from about 5.00 p.m. on Friday 5th December until about midday on Sunday 7th December. In addition, you will not receive any email usage notifications during this period. To protect you from being disadvantaged in any way, we will not be charging you for any of your usage while the usage meter is not available. Your weekend’s usage will not be added to your total usage. Once the usage meter starts updating, it will display your approximate usage for the month, excluding any usage incurred while the usage meter was not available over the weekend. Progress reports will be posted on the service status page http://telstra.com/servicestatus/ throughout the weekend. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this upgrade. Yours sincerely, The BigPond Team

Update:

not sure if anyones noticed this but check out bigponds website and pay close attention to its new plans for cable and adsl

UNLIMITEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

should make a few ppl happy

http://www.bigpond.com/internet-pla...able/Unlimited/

yeah knew about this last week but was sworn to secrecy i think ill be gettin it

quote:

Great speed potential and the freedom to download all the data you want makes this option the ultimate broadband solution - perfect for extensive online media or game users (speed may be slowed to 64kbps after 10GB).

I don't like the sound of that...

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" I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry as I need "
American composer John Cage on his aesthetic of silence

Looks like a cynical grab for market share to me - I simply don't trust Tel$tra. You're locked into a 2 year contract, which will probably cost you a shitload to get out of early, and you're basically capped to 10 gigs.

Also note that Telstra charges you for uploads, they're one of the only ISPs that actually do that. So in effect you'd only be able to download ~7 gigs of the 10 before getting capped.

Once they've gotten everyone to sign up for the "unlimited" service, I see no reason they won't start putting as many limits on it as they can think of, and there's nothing you can do about it because you're locked in for a two year contract. I know a lot of people who got screwed by Telstra in this situation last time, so I'm extremely cynical and skeptical of their motives.

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personally i trust telstra WAY more than most other ISP's

I'm with iprimus at the moment and for about the last month their mail servers have been going down more than some of the girls at kings cross, my mail comes days late etc.. And its not just me, other users (from all parts of the country) have been having the same problems. When i call tech support all i get is "the technicians are sorry for the inconvenience".

When telstra had similar problems, they credited all their customers wether they were effected or not, with a fortnights free access.

Now i am probably somewhat biased (as i do work for them - not bigpond however, telstra mobile) however i reckon they do a pretty decent job.

Keep in mind that probably 50-75% of telstra users are n00b's who have no clue, so its no surprise when their system gets hit hardest when peoples email clients start flooding viruses.

I think you'll find a good chunk of ISP's limit their users to 64k or SLOWER after a predefined limit (and often a lot quicker than 10 gig).


cam do you work for telstra?

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Originally posted by [ groovypants ] I don't like the sound of that...

it's blow$tra, you know it's true. as soon as you hit 10GB consider yourself dial-up. Nothing new though, it's better than the 28.8k rubbish @ craptus.

and 7GB more for the same price is a bargain. sure, it's a ploy but it's better for aus broadband imo.

Well Telstra has the market power and infrastructure to really make a difference and offer some really competitive plans, but they choose not to

I was paying $80 a month to a smaller ISP (igreen) for 256k/64k ADSL, with no limits whatsoever. No download limits, no session limits, nothing. I could comfortably clear 30 gigs a month without even trying. The only problem I ever had was when they went bust and were bought out by a larger company (FlowCom) - about two days of downtime as everyone's accounts were transferred onto the new network, but that's to be expected. And it's apparently better uptime than most of Telstra's efforts!

This is a much more competitive plan than we've seen from them in the past, but I wouldn't sign up to it, simply because I believe the "unlimited" is a gimmick to get customers, and in 6 months time they will reintroduce a 3 gig limit or similar, and because you've signed a contract you have no option but to deal with it.

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This plan is no gimmick, and Telstra are not planning to alter their terms and conditions after locking customers into a lengthy 24 month contract

Also the speed MAY be slowed to 64kbps after the 10 gig limit is reached, but I have knowledge that Telstra hasnt the capability to "shape" customers usage for the immediate time being. So basically, it's free reign for now.

Telstra undeniably has a great network. Although the 24 month contract is daunting, I would not hesitate churning over to Telstra.

I guess we need to wait to see what Optus has to counter this offer!

im with OzEmail and ive never had any problems. 512k/128k

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www.djmuli.com

the reasons that small ISP's go bust/and or get bought out is because peopld clear 30 gig a month and that sends them broke. As most know, 95% of ISP's rent pipes off larger companies (ie telstra) and they pay for data transfer.

everyone always remembers telstras uptime problems from MANY many years ago when they were 1 of 2 ISP's offering an ADSL service. Now that the technology itself is more reliable and every tom dick and harry offers ADSL and its reliable regardless of who ur with.

We have a 5 gig account at work through bigpond and in the last 5 months we've had it, its never gone down (to my knowledge). Every single time ive used it, its performed well.

Telstra DOES have the infrastructure to offer unlimited for very little cost, however that would leave no profits to then fund further research and network expansion.

At the end of the day, telstra is more than 50% owned by the Aust government (well, at the moment they are anyway) so any profits is going back into the australian economy.


I doubt they will remove the unlimited plans. Imagine the negative press because of it.... Look at how many customers that optus lost when they removed netstats...


But just watch, this offer from telstra will encourage smaller ISP's to make their offers better which will drive even more competition into the market.

In the end i think we can all just say that we all benefit from such a change.

2500 calls to 2pm regarding the new plans