Telstra Air a reliable replacement for home broadband?

jleno on 03/04/2017 - 15:47

Hi Ozbargainers

I understand that Telstra Air means you can use your broadband anywhere in Australia where there is the Telstra Air hotspot.

I'm moving interstate temporarily and am looking to avoid signing up to a broadband for 12/24 months. I was considering just upping my home broadband data limit and enabling Telstra Air and relying on Telstra Air while I'm temporarily interstate (assuming I'm living somewhere with a Telstra Air hotspot).

Does anyone have any experience with Telstra Air to know if the service is good enough to be a replacement for home broadband? I usually only use it for web browsing / Youtube etc.

J

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Comments

  • C0123 on 03/04/2017 - 15:58
    +1

    You will need a fair bit of luck to live somewhere with Air in range. If you are lucky then it is fine to use for browsing / Youtube. I would suggest https://www.vividwireless.com.au/ if you don't have Air in range.

  • [Deactivated] on 03/04/2017 - 16:02
    +1

    The range on the hotspots is pretty small - think a few meters around a phone booth. Are you planning on repeating the signal or just hoping it'll work inside your house?

    There's plenty of internet options that don't require a 12/24 month contact… 4G?

    • C0123 on 03/04/2017 - 16:11
      +5

      I live across the road from the phone booth and I get range approximately 20m away.

    • Diji1 on 03/04/2017 - 18:15
      -8

      Incorrect, why are you commenting when you don't know what Telstra Air is?

      • [Deactivated] on 03/04/2017 - 20:26
        +3

        Are you sure you know what telstra air is?

  • retiredfeline on 03/04/2017 - 16:20
    +1

    Doubt it. If a domestic hotspot, you are at the mercy of the homeowner's habits. They may use it intensively leaving you with little bandwidth. Or turn it off when they go on holiday. If a phone booth, speeds vary, and login sometimes fails.

  • Savas on 03/04/2017 - 16:29
    -2

    No

  • Cheap Charlie on 03/04/2017 - 17:05

    Speaking of Telstra Air, my understanding is Telstra pushed out a firmware upgrade to eligible modems which added the ability for your modem to broadcast a separate Telstra Air SSID. There is an option to turn the feature ON or OFF withing the admin panel.
    Effectively Telstra is wanting to expand the AIR network utilising customers hardware as access points.
    I may not have explained that very well

    • Diji1 on 03/04/2017 - 18:16
      +1

      Correct and yes, you need to turn it off in your Telstra account settings or your crap Telstra modem router will just ignore whatever setting is on the device.

  • Diji1 on 03/04/2017 - 18:14
    +1

    Lol no.

  • shapers on 03/04/2017 - 18:23

    It was so slow last time i tried it, i just use my data instead of using it now

  • zappy32 on 03/04/2017 - 20:04
    +1

    I used it for a few weeks while our broadband was connected. I was lucky in that one of my neighbors had enabled. It was capped at 2mbps, so not exactly fast but fine for casual browsing etc. I'd look at a 4G option if you are going to use 50GB or less(OVO/Optus/Amaysim etc).

  • [Deactivated] on 03/04/2017 - 22:57

    yes, i used telstra air in africa and it worked well

  • JLHC on 04/04/2017 - 14:12

    If you have Optus 4G with 2300 MHz coverage, you may want to consider the Home Wireless Broadband from Optus:-
    http://www.optus.com.au/shop/broadband/home-wireless-broadba…

  • jleno on 04/04/2017 - 15:13

    Sounds like 4G is the way to go. Thanks everyone - time to investigate which provider has the best deals!

  • majuks on 09/04/2017 - 19:43

    I've got a question.

    Say, if I sign up for telstra cable and activate Telstra air at my own home, i then try to connect to it with my other telstra service via telstra air like the $2 sim, would the speed be limited to 2mbps for residential telstra air?

  • srhardy on 15/04/2017 - 22:43

    Telstra air is 10gb per month, free roaming internet to be had if you have a telstra mobile/sim, tablet/sim or adsl/vsdl & fttp NBN. Was unlimited but thats now expired.

  • harkoliar on 19/05/2017 - 21:09

    Chatswood Telstra air phone booth is next to useless. I think everyone is trying to connect to it.

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