Optus Cable - Modem Speed

I just upgraded from ADSL where my average download speed was 3.5 Mbps. I currently get around 36Mps with cable.

MY question is: I am paying $20 per month to upgrade my MAXIMUM speed from 30 to 100Bps.
Does anyone have experience in relation to what speed I might get if I cancelled the speed pack?
Would it drop to 30 or would it drop to even less?

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Comments

  • It all depends on the upstream contention at the times you want the extra bandwidth.

    IMHO they throttle like c%^&^ but it still isn't worth the extra to justify the 30-100 switch as the 100 is seldom practicable and I can live w anything over 20M.

  • I have Optus cable and I get over 100mbps down all the time.

    • Hold on to it. I used to get 100mbps on cable as well. They conned me into NBN signup now I am paying $20 for speed pack and I am only getting 25-30Mbps. It drops down to 3-4MBPS during peak hour. Biggest scam in history!

      Did I mention NBN plan is $140 vs $90 for the same thing on Cable!

      • +1

        3-4MBPS is insanely fast, not sure how u can consider that a scam.

      • It was/is $75p/m for areas where nbn isn't available.

      • I don't think we have a choice. When they put in nbn they shut down the cable network. My parents have nbn at their beach house and despite being on a 100mbos plan and only 500 metres from the exchange, they get 25mnps. Joke.

        • That's what they told me but its a minimum of 2 years where the existing services keep running. Cable is still active in my area but I was told it would get pulled in August last year.

  • +1

    try it for a month. they will be happy to turn it back and take your money if you want to re-subscribe to the speed pack.

    • That was the fallback plan !

    • Maybe, I asked Optus about that idea a while ago and the guy I was talking to at the time said once you're on it you're on it till end of contract. might of been lying or trying to just scare me,, idk

  • +1

    So the question is what the speed is without the speed pack? Well if Optus quote 30 Mbps then it should be that amount.

    I have the speed pack, just did a speed test and it's working with 101 Mbps down (1.73 Mbps up).
    I noticed when I first got it that not all sites and services make use of the speed.
    It's most useful when downloading large files or games on Steam where it easily caps out at 12 megabytes per second.
    4K videos load instantly for me, and skipping through to other parts of the video is seemless. Never tried it with the low tier speeds.

    • +1

      Well if Optus quote 30 Mbps then it should be that amount.

      Cable is shared. Weekends and school holidays can see the speed drop by half or more. One can expect >20mbps or ~10mbps over vpn.

  • +1

    I'm using optus cable without paying any extra. I often get 30mbps, although in peak times I've gotten 10-20mbps
    Most of the time I didn't feel that though, at least not until I tested the speed
    Most of the time i just stream videos btw
    In saying that if you always download stuff all the time, you might feel the difference when the speed is down

  • +1

    I'm on 30mbps. Peak times I get about 5-15mbps and during the day the full 30 - download speeds of around 3.2-5 megabytes/s.

  • Can any MyRepublic users comment on the speeds they're getting?

  • +1

    First up, are you checking your speed from a PC connected to the router via a ethernet cable? As wireless will NEVER give you full speeds on a ISP supplied modem/router combo.

    Assuming you are, then 30mbps is the 'standard' base speed on optus. SO if you're paying for a speed pack, you're clearly not getting it! and that upgrade is meant to be UPTO 100. In offpeak, you should see at least 70+

    If you're happy with the speed today, then I would remove it ASAP as you're not getting it. Worst case, it might drop from 36 to 30….. big deal to save $20/month.

    Or if you want the 'speed', you could always ring optus and advise you're not getting the speed pack, they most likely 'forgot' to apply it. Happens all the time.

  • Thanks all for your comments. It appears they did apply the speed pack because when demand is low my speed rockets right up. However they did forget to port my phone number and give me the 'free' fetch TV channel which was part of the package. At this stage i might keep it on, to keep the gamers in the house happy. Thanks all for your input.

  • +1

    Something that should be noted is that the speed pack only affects Australian sites.
    I have the speed pack and when I do a speed test for an Australian test point I get around 96/2 (they limit uploads to 2mbs on cable)
    But if I choose say a us point I get around 30/2

    It's in the fine print but the speed pack is ony for Australian based sites etc.
    most games have aus servers though so this helps.
    I would also suggest getting a better router than the one supplied by Optus. The wifi on the Optus one is awful.

    • " The wifi on the Optus one is awful."
      Actually that is an understatement. Couldn't even 'see' it at the other end of the house.

      I plugged my Netgear NightHawk in as an access point and it works perfectly - ALMOST as good as wired.

      • Yeah i run a nighthawk router with my cable modem… buffering days are over lol

  • I have Testra cable and they have the same thing, $10 more to get 50 down, $20 more to get 100 down.
    After a few months I went to their online chat asking for better pricing, and they just gave me the speed boost included in the base price.
    Strange thing with that scenario is their call centre told me the online chat can offer better discounts and deals than they can, so that's why I went to them.

    • Any tips of getting an included Speed boost?

      • Try negotiating with online chat, what happened for me is I asked online chat for a discount, and that's what they offered to me.
        My next bill was still full price so I called to ask why it wasn't the reduced priced, and the call centre told me that the online chat actually has more power than they do and I'd have to go back to them to get the discount applied correctly. So I went back to online chat, they fixed it, credited the excess for that month and I've been that way since.
        But I was paying for the speed boost for a few months prior to that, so your mileage may vary, they may not offer something you never had.

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