Hi, does anyone have experience with Belong Broadband service? I need a modem for my new house where the NBN is not yet available until 2019.
I am considering between
TPG ADSL2+ Home Bundle with 18-month term OR
Belong Broadband ADSL2+ Home Bundle with a 12-month contract
Both unlimited data package, same price $60 per month
Of course, the shorter contract term the better but I am not sure if Belong's internet speed is stable. I read that they are using Telstra Network.
What do you think?
Belong is Helstra Bogpond, right?
What is bad about it?
Not quite. Belong is owned by Telstra but it's not the same network as what Telstra uses for it's direct customers.
It's very congested and I recommend avoiding it completely. TPG will be heaps better, hands down.
I agree!
Belong is owned by Telstra but they are using a completely different wholesale network.
I cancelled my belong service via TIO complaint and moved to TPG almost 3 years back - no more issues from that point!
I live in Reservoir, VIC region.
Belong's network is heavily congested in the evening and I cannot actually use it as that's the time I usually at home.
As bonez said, just go with tpg.
as bonez said Telstra own Belong but do not use the same network.
They use the old ADSL architecture and the performance is horrid especially during peak hours.
@Hiroko, @bjdchwr
Are you talking ADSL or ADSL2+?
They say they offer ADSL2+ 'in most areas'.
Are you saying they are segregated (and bandwidth constrained) within the Telstra network?
Plenty of other ISPs use Telstra controlled tails and manage to offer very good quality ADSL 2+ service.
Belong uses a company called Telcoinabox for their services. Telcoinabox buys bandwidth, AVC/CVC and leases the DSLAM ports from Telstra, then package it up into a single wholesale product and sell it to Belong.
The reason congestion occurs for Belong is because they don't buy enough AVC/CVC/internet bandwidth from Telcoinabox to cope with peak periods.
So yes technically it uses Telstra ports at the exchange, Telstra backhaul and Telstra's domestic/international internet links, but it's via a 3rd party who leases it from Telstra wholesale directly.
Telcoinabox is designed to offer a full end product to anyone who wants it, eg. you and I could start our own ISP with very little technical knowledge if we wanted to and they'd look after all the billing, faults, dealing with Telstra wholesale and everything else. We'd just sit back and do our own marketing to sign up customers onto the network.
Your end customers' experience would all boil down to how much you were willing to pay Telcoinabox - you pay them peanuts, they provision you peanuts. This is what Belong does.
@bonezAU: Thanks for the details there, that about sums it up.
If you buy from dealers at the end of the chain, you are the least likely to get 100% pure product, and are most likely to get the worst service, turnaround- and be charged a premium price to boot.
So the only way to make that fly would be to spend as much on third party provisioning as you could to make the product works right up to and even beyond expectations, and win investment to get you to the later funding stages after which you can start provisioning the parts of the service which will cost less to do (properly) do yourself.
So Belong have Telstra investment, but don't manage this, it seems… already they are working to be part of the fold!
Check your address and see if Telstra cable is available in your area if you need speed. ADSL is pretty old tech now and should be quite stable whoever you go with. The speed is determined by how far you are from the telephone exchange more than anything else. The closer the better!
Belong was the worst ISP I've ever used
and I've gone through my share of telcos
Terrible speeds
Terrible customer support
0 help
Thank you guys. These comments are helpful!
We’re with Belong ADSL 2+ at home, it sucks balls but it was the cheapest option at the time.
Soon as the 12 month contract is up were jumping ship.