At Last ADSL for ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

;D

Hey all I am SOOOOO stoked.
Australia finally has an affordable ADSL provider.
www.netspace.com.au :- they have 10GB downloads at 512/128 (down/up) the same price telstra charge for 3GB!!
WOO HOO!!!
Unfortudenty I lost my job last week so I cant sign up right away, but by god give me afew weeks and Ill be signed up and ready to go!!

Note: This deal is nowhere near as good as the peeps in the US get but hey, its the best we got...if you cant get Optus@home cable.

I have a co-worker here who is an exchange student from Australia.  He's going back home to finish up his studies and we were shopping around for broadband ISPs over there.  I was suprised that there was no such thing as an ISP that allowed you unlimited access.  All of the DSL and cable people were charging by the bandwidth usage.  YUCK!!! Is this common in all parts of Australia or is this just region specific?

Until netspace.com.au cam aalong in the last month or so there were only 2 broadband options for the home user.

Telstra...better known as Tel$tra, is Austrlaias biggest ISP/telephone provider and as such OWNS the copper lines that run around the country.

They charge $100 for 3GB of usage and $175 per GB after that (ouch) for ADSL....cable is slightly cheaper.

Optus is a (fairly) recent addition to Aussie IT and T arena (recent meaning I can remember it coming into being).

They only offer cable at the moment (ill explain why in a sec).
And since cable has to be rlled out they only offer it to certain areas and only to houses (no flats etc).

The charge $75 a month for what they call "netstats" which is where you can download upto 10 X the avarage usage of the Optus Cable customer base, which avaerages 16 - 18 GB a month.

Optus is still the best buy, but its limited availability means uptil the last week or so everyone has had to go stick to dial up OR bend over and let Tel$tra shaft you with a 3GB cap.

The reason T has had no competition up till now is because they resold the copper wires (which they own) to other ISP's for just under what they charged end users for there own retail offering, making it financially unviablefor other ISP's to compete with them.

people have been protesting for ages and finally the ACCC (govt watch dog) have forced T to lower there wholesale prices.

This virtually overnight lead to a new DSL service from netspace @ $99 a month for 10GB.
Still not as good a deal as optus cable, but since flat dwellers cant get it ( and I aint buyin a house to get cable) its Telstras best alternative so far.

this can be seen in the 100's (literally if not 1000's) of T subscribers who overnight (literally) defected to netspace
Hopefully in the coming weeks and months we will see more competition to help lower pricing.

if you what to see soe REALLY pissed off broadband users goto www.whirlpool.net.au and click on the forums link....send your friend there too...its the best place to learn whats happening in Broadband in Aus.