Which one from above would you recommend? I am looking for unlimited NBN 12Mbps or 50Mbps plan with no contract, no modem, and no phone. Looking for cheap and reasonably reliable option. Thanks!
For NBN - TPG vs Aussie Broadband vs Letsbemates vs Exetel
virhlpool on 28/07/2018 - 14:29
Last edited 28/07/2018 - 15:48
Last edited 28/07/2018 - 15:48
Comments
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Thanks. It was my first choice as well but it seems to be one of the costliest among these options.
Look at it like this, since they are month to month, once you have everything working if you decide to churn to a different provider, you will have a working system where you know what you should be getting.
Personally if you want cheaper I'd just tune your bandwidth to your needs somewhat (say after the $10 reduction for 6 months gives out).
And if you have FTTP you can trial other providers on 2nd ports to see if they match up. BTW TPG claim high bandwidth performance, but the WP reports suggests otherwise.
A little known fact is TPG is actually rated the fastest speeds of ISP by the ACCC
https://techau.com.au/its-official-accc-says-tpg-has-the-fas…
People seem happy to complain when things go wrong, but for most people , it’s the best value option. Lower cost for the fastest speeds.
Fastest out of TPG, iiNet, Optus, and Telstra… I can't see any mention, even in the full PDF report, of any results from other ISPs.
Also, the article you linked is clearly written by someone who knows nothing at all about NBN:
internet speed on the NBN in theory should be the same regardless of the provider you choose
The ACCC data he's quoting seems legit, although limited.
Update: found this further down the thread - Aussie won the latest round of ACCC tests by 2.7 percentage points over TPG - https://www.canstarblue.com.au/internet/aussie-broadband-acc…
@abb:
Thanks for that. Pretty good example of what you are paying for. For $10 more a month you get on average 2.7 mbps more on a 100mbps plan than TPG. Or a mere 1.35 mbps more on a 50mpbs plan.
I’m not willing, personally, to pay an extra circa (off the top of head) 15% price premium for 2.7% performance. That’s just me though.
In spite of the ABB and TPG comparison, it’s worthy to note, TPG, is second best now, still better than the more expensive Telstra and Optus.
So from a value point of view, it’s certainly a no brainer for me. I’m here for a bargain, not to pay heaps more for a small performance.
Edit: also interesting to note in that same report you linked, during very busy periods TPG has fastest download speed(pg10), faster than ABB. Plus TPG has lower latency, so less ping, in fact ABB has the second slowest ping in that report. Interesting statistics.
I’m with Exetel. On a contract on adsl, but will move to TPG when nbn comes online.
My message was based in the ACCC report linked by the guy named ABB (Aussie broad band maybe?)
read the PDF named Measuring Broadband Australia - On 31 July, the ACCC released its second performance report
Lists Aussie Broad Band as # 1
IINET second
TPG Third, but all of them are very closeI have, and if you read it in detail you will agree. ABB is rated #1 overall download speed. But in Very Busy Hours, page 10, TPG is rated HIGHER.
Also, as you noted, the difference in ABB overall over TPG is a mere 2.7% difference. To put that into perspective, on the 50mbps plan its only 1.3 mbps difference. Is that really worth the $10 extra?
@cloudy: Would there be other considerations for TPG though? That is…
-18 month contract or pay $99.95 set up fee for no contract?
-customer service?
Looking for cheap
AB is not cheap, more like premium product.
is it premium? you can easily find crappy speed test results with AB, probably not much different to TPG.
Only thing not in favour of TPG is installation fees. Others don't charge it.
@virhlpool: also the price of Aussie Broadband seems to be reasonable now, i'm considering them as well now
@Savas: But they are at least $10/month higher than others (Exetel, Letsbemates, etc). If TPG didn't have installation fees, that was my choice. Pretty happy with TPG ADSL2+.
I would say for 90% of the ABB customers it is Premium maybe even 95%!!! You won't go wrong choosing them.
@virhlpool: But you will get 0 congest and 0 slowdown prime time!!! And the best customer service (all Aussies) for any and all issues.
@Sunshine Moon: I called up letsbemates.com.au today and it has a local customer service too. Not heard a bad thing about them yet. Happy to give it a go. Good service doesn't have to be pricey.. it should be the norm.
@Sunshine Moon: 100%, on fixed wireless. At peak times get 42/50 on Aussie and tested port two with Tangerine and only got 18/50
Don't why you get so many negs when the ACCC with 10,000 test results confirms your statement. only a mere 1.3mbps (2.7%) overall difference between ABB and TPG. Plus, on pg 10 of that report shows during very busy periods, TPG is actually faster than ABB. It also shows it has lower latency as well.
https://www.accc.gov.au/regulated-infrastructure/communicati…
@cloudy: Not sure about others however i have had tpg's service at my current location and Also Aussiebb (which i am still using)
Can definitely say tpg has been slower for me both in terms of latency and speed.
My uncle who has fttp in his premesis currently using tpg is also not happy with tpg and is having congestion issues swapping him to aussiebb this week.
Here are two speed tests currently on Aussiebb 500gb 100/40
http://www.speedtest.net/result/7514724732.png
http://www.speedtest.net/result/7514728676.pngAbout 1 minute apart, and different servers.
The problem with speed tests is they can be fiddled.
All you need to do is spot the type of traffic, or the destination, and give it higher priority.
Not saying that's what TPG are doing, but I've heard of multiple cases where people have said they have got less from TPG than they have when they switch to ABB. I've also heard tell of TPG capping data rates at 80Mbit. Not sure if true, but ….
@sane: That is true however i use Nord Vpn on Australian P2P servers and when torrenting with enough seeders i hit my maximum speed.
Aussie. Free modem at the moment with new connections. Not the cheapest. But really. Do you want good reliable service and customer services? Having said that. There are still the usual connection issues if your locations is difficult to connect. Once on with AB its all good.
Aussie, the only one that monitors their CVC performance to ensure no congestion.
They all monitor their CVC performance. Whether they do anything about the contention is another thing.
Aussie make it public on their site, so if it gets close to the amount they've bought, you can see it (and people will scream).
When CVC goes up in price again, that'll make a difference.
I can’t stream Netflix 4K at peak times on Aussie BB.
did you call to find out why? That is not the norm for ABB
With the fixed data plan (e.g. 100GB), once you reach that cap, do the providers start charging the extra usage or the speed falls to basic (12Mbps) level and you can still use low speed internet without any additional charge?
Usually shaped but barely usable. Some have data add ons. Some allow you to change plans.
give extel a try. no contract so extra $10.
You get free modem tho with a 12 month contract. $59.99 month+once off $20 shipping.
50/20 $70 month to month.
they seem to have good reviews. Hold up during peak.mungi $64.95 50/20
they said they're L2 network is up and runningThanks. What's L2 network?
They use coloau. Meant to be better than the vocus they were using before.
I've been with Exetel for a long time and the only reason I stay with them is that I don't want to deal with the outage if I churn. Their helpdesk has a 45min+ queue any time you need to call them (for example when your adsl port needs resetting [which they sometimes manage to screw up, forcing you to call them back waiting another 45mins to be answered]). They have an online ticket system, but no one ever answers anything on it, I'm not exaggerating, I think they just go to a spam folder.
Speed definitely drops during peak - and considering that I only sync at 7mbps that means that a slow down significantly slower than that.
I can't compare them to others as I have been with them for a long time, but they certainly haven't garnered a lot of good faith from me.
ADSL?
Yes. Although, thanks to a bunch of (profanity), next year I might get slightly better ADSL!
How about if you need NBN plus Phone Bundle local landline, mobile, special numbers and unlimited international calls to India
Looking at 100/40 options now. 12/1 is too little even with 1000gb although 1/3 the price atm.
Not sure.. I just wanted internet only, so thinking of signing up with letsbemates.com.au. Their rates seem to be among the lowest (at least for the first 6 months).
How much for 50/20 or what you are looking at
I am looking at 12Mbps. $49/month for 6 months, then $59/month. 50Mbps is $10 more. No other fees. No contract. No change of plan fees. Check website for more details.
@virhlpool: if you just need 12/1 1000gb go Telecube they are great pretty much no fees and can upgrade on the fly. Only bad thing is no unlimited but if only need 12/1 you should be fine with 12/1.. it is about 10 days of non stop downloading so if you only use full speed of internet roughly 1/3 of a day then it should be good.. cost is $40/month and you can even get a free number for just receiving calls if you need to.
@virhlpool: Go telecube much affordable and no nonesense deals…. everything including setup, change plan etc… speed sometimes plays up but better than aussBB who charges premium price and their speed also drops down….
Tangerine Telecom Great service and price. Have been using for nearly 2 years.
I've been an Exetel ADSL customer for well more than 10 years and would not hesitate to recommend - haven't got NBN here yet.
Have no real complaints, especially in light of horror stories of other providers.
They do, however, expect their users to have some knowledge of fault finding.
If this is not you, choose Telstra, etc.
My previous experience was with TPG and Telstra and it was not good. But that was a long time ago.I've had the opposite, I expect my helpdesk to have some knowledge of fault finding - something they don't seem to have. If I ring they run through the standard script which I assure them I have already done (reset things, made sure nothing else is on the line [never is]). A few times a year I deal with their PPP authentication failing for no reason. Normally nothing they do makes any difference, and it normally just magically fixes itself a day or two later.
Exetel heavily shaped my download speeds for anything it deemed not legitimate downloads. So your typical YouTube, Netflix, Steam, Speed Test, etc would work at near max speeds of about 1mb/s (depending on the time of day of course, as low as 600kb/s at peak time) and anything else would get like 5kb/s between ~5pm and ~12am. I complained a few times and they did nothing apart from tell me to restart my modem and it upped the download speed to about 50kb/s for a few days, but then returned to what I described previously.
I switched to Aussie Broadband as soon as I could get NBN (FTTC) in my area and the same downloading gets as low as 6.2mb/s sustained during peak times and up to 10mb/s to 12mb/s off peak.
Would never recommend Exetel.
Seconded… Exetel used to be good 10 years ago. Now they over provision, under support and boot 'high use' users. E.g. 100-150 gb of the unlimited plan.
Steer cleer is my advice.
Been with Exetel for years with ADSL2+ and internet was average. Some frequent drop outs. Changed over to NBN 50/20 with them and speed is very good. Typically getting around 40/19
$60/month, 12 months contract with free modem and they wavered the $20 delivery.
Was setup and running within a week.
Have also bad experiences with Exetel - they cut our business internet a number of times claiming our account was unpaid when it wasn't, with no apology or reimbursement for the days of downtime. It was almost impossible to cancel as the call center wait was 45min+ then passed between different teams before actually getting anything done. They would then claim that they never received the cancellation and would bill us another month ($2000+).
Ended up paying 3 months extra after churning because of their incompetence but our company was just glad to be finally rid of themHad a personal mobile account with them and again massive wait times for their call center and even dropped out after around 45minutes - a couple hours wasted on trying to cancel
Would never recommend them to anyone
If you reside anywhere between Grafton and Logan/Daisy Hill, go with OntheNet.
Sydney. Decided to give letsbemates.com.au a go.
*$10 off promotional pricing runs for 6 months from date of connection, and will revert back to the full price in month 7 of your plan. Promotional pricing is available for new customers only, connecting at an address for the first time. Addresses that were previously connected with MATE are ineligible for this promotional pricing.
Are you aware of their pricing?
i think i will pay $10 extra for Aussie BB
You may get peak slowdowns (depending on your CVC congestion). Switch to ABB if you get peak slowdowns. All the best!
Internode
Aussie Broadband by far!
Click Broadband.
$77/month, no contract, unlimited, Vocus L2+L3, Apparently great connection performance on their 100Mbs/40Mbps tier.I'll report back in the coming days/week. Bit so far I'm hopeful.
(PS just moved to a new FTTP house)
(profanity) me I didn't even know about Aussie Broadband and I've just signed up to a 18 month contract with TPG. (profanity) me dead.
Oof
I’ve gotta say Tangerine! I’ve been a TPG boy since dial up. Moved to a new house with NBN FTTN. Decided it’s time to check the market.
Peak speeds were my concern, and of course price.Not only were they cheap, peak speeds are awesome, I called and got to speak to someone very quickly a few days prior to connection. To top it off, I then received a call back from them 48 hours after connection to…wait for it… “see if everything is ok and if there’s anything else we can do”.
So far, can’t fault it. They connected on the agreed move in date too.I’m on the 50/20 I think it’s $59 a month. No phone, no modem, no contract. All booked online too.
Lets be mates. Never had a problem!
I didn't either till I tried Aussie Broadband. The speed difference in peaks is pretty significant.
Used Mate for almost a year. so many dropouts and slow connection speed during peak. They suck
Went to Aussie earlier this year after being with Telstra for a 3 years (HFC NBN), never going with any other provider again. Their customer service is well worth the prices they charge. I felt like smashing my head against the wall everytime I called Telstra.
You get what you pay for, like anything in this world.
I've used Letsbemates over three different addresses, and they've been nothing but cheap, reliable, and have great customer service!
Aussie Broadband has been absolutely amazing for me, coming from the awful Exetel. Highly recommended.
I know this isn't in the list but Vodafone NBN has been the best one for me so far. Big Name brand, heaps of support. Cheap. They're NBN plans are month to month. They have this 4G back up thing to where if your nbn goes down there is a back up sim card if it ever drops out so basically never drops. I pay $69 for mine NBN @ up to 50Mbps. It's usually 79 but my phone plan is on vodafone so i get a discount. no issues since sign up. worth a check! i rate :)
Thanks, the 4G backup sounds good for my wife (working from home). Is it pretty seamless? Have you ever noticed it kick in?
I have Telstra $80 for 100/40. I had to keep asking to get the discount but eventually they gave in :) . 1000gb which we never use (only use half that)
Might be worth getting on their chat, you never know they might upgrade you for free
It’s a contract though, but with free premium modem too.From personally experience I have been with TPG 100/40 (FTTP) and my speeds during off peak is great and peak hours seem to be same. (95/38) I haven't really notice a speed drop during peak hours where I had to conduct a speed test.
I had many issues for first few month(high ping) but I collected issues with high ping connection log throughout the day and contacted TPG and pretty much I was able to talk to "supervisor" forgot what you their call them but probably within 24 hours the issues with high ping and not so great speed disappeared. I haven't had much issued with speed since(15 months).
I was able to rule out my router/networking gear issues as pretty much was enterprise was able to handle up to 10gigabit connection without DPI/IDS or VPN.
I did tried Aussie Broadband(A bit more than TPG and speed was a bit better)and MyRepublic (pretty cheap but speed was not consistent).
Aussie Broadband did have much better customer service compare to TPG/MyRepublic/Optus/Vaya. Pretty much all ISP has shitty technical support, essentially all same default troubleshooting steps you can do yourself. You only really need ISP if issues occurs at their end(such of broken DNS - never use theirs) or account inquiry. I mean now day is pretty easy to switch providers, so in the future if TPG is not performing and I can find a similar price service I could switch within hours with most providers.
I have been using LETSBEMATES Unlimited 50/25 NBN for over 2 years and have no complaints about the service or the speed. It's always been between 45+ for download and 22+ for uploads over WiFi in the house. Reasons why I chose them
1) Aussie call/support Centre
2) No lock-in contracts
3) Doesn't force you to use their supplied modem/routers, however, happy to supply you with a pre-configured device should you wish
I've been on NBN50 with Mates Communicate since January and have had nil issues. For any queries, you call up and someone from their Sydney office answers the phone. Peak time speeds are pretty good. Can definitely stream 1080p videos during peak times with nil buffering.
Let me start this by saying I am a very heavy Internet user, I could easily do up to 500 Gb per month, working (and playing games) at home.
Do not use TPG! I had used them for 2 years and hated it. Their up time and support was horrible.
After moving to LETSBEMATES, I am in a completely different world. To my knowledge, it has never gone down, nor have I needed support (on the times I called to ask a question, they were aussie, very courteous and knowledgeable). I honestly cannot recommend them enough!
I guess TPG’s call centre being abroad hasn’t made any difference in my 3.5 yrs with them but this time they simply didn’t qualify as the cheapest and reasonably good service due to their contract condition, no promo discount and installation fees. However, if someone needs a new modem, then TPG is still their best bet as they provide free modem which no other vendor is providing.
TPG call centre is courteous too and their email support is good. It’s just that they are a budget player like many others and their teams don’t have authority to compensate you for any losses or offer you any customised deal or discounts. Had their call centre been in Australia, I don’t think anything would have changed in terms of service and pricing. In fact, pricing would have been more.
Only Aussie Broadband delivers consistently in customer service, local speed, uptime and most importantly to me INTERNATIONAL speeds.
yeah im moving to aussie - internode is terrible for customer service so i went to telecube - who were fantastic on all front for a while - now lots of downtime, inoperable voip every se cond day, un-reachable support and useless user interface.
Yep same. To have the level of customer service telecube have, you'd think they'd have a network as good as abb
TPG
Currently on TPG. After reading this thread, found AB and letsbemates pretty popular.
Decided to give LetsbeMates a try as they have 6 month promo $10 off. Signed up to unlimited 50 plan for $59.99. Will reassess in 5 months time. Hopefully AB would reduce prices or make unlimited plan slightly cheaper.
I hope its better than TPG as I am pretty sceptical about changing internet companies.As mentioned previously, you may get peak slowdowns (depending on your CVC congestion) - if you do, switch to ABB!
Aussie Broadband all the way. The call centre is based in Morwell (La Trobe Valley, Victoria) staffed by people who know how things technically work (you're not going to be rebooting your modem for an hour with a L1 techie if you've got a fault).
In addition, they publish their CVC graphs so if on the NBN, you can work out how much congestion is on your POI: https://www.aussiebroadband.com.au/cvc-graphs/
All I can say is the other providers may work fine, but Aussie Broadband consistently performs including on their 250 / 100 plan (FttP customers) and when I was in a location with FttN, they were maxing out where my distance was (they were ~50/20, others were coming in at 38/12).
I went to Aussie broadband after sky mesh killed themselves. I’m on their 100/40 plan and always get 92+\36+, any time of day, for the year I’ve been with them. Their ceo posts about how they run their business - and the service I’ve received supports their claims. People say they are about $10/month more expensive when compared to other isps. But I feel that the difference is that the company is working to support their customers rather than screw them. To me this is worth $120/yr.
I'm with TPG. Can't be happier. Got the NBN50, and never have speeds under 45Mbps, any time of day.
Thanks for the link.
No poll ?
TPG FTTB is simply the best but unfortunately they are not rolling it any further from what I read.
Can Aussie broadband provide NBN over HFC?
Yes
Yep, our area only became ready for service early July.
We were on Telstra Cable. I ordered with Aussie on the 18th and had a tech appointment booked nearly instantly for the 27th.
Aussie's communication was excellent, clear, straight forward and kept us informed of the next steps.The NBN tech called about 30 mins before arriving, he tested all the cabling and then replaced all the fittings / terminals before installing the NTD.
We getting 95+/38+ up throughout the day and night
Aussie Broadband hands down, they have the best speed. I'm on the 100/40 plan and consistently get 95/35 which is great. I actually have a health check script that runs hourly and graphs out the speeds and ping (Running almost a week since we got connected)
https://i.imgur.com/2SFCS55.png
(The big drops to 50 are late at night when the torrents are allegedly running at full speed)
Nice script, now average the data out to make it more readable. Maybe daily, or a few times per day.
Mungi have been great since I signed up, highly recommended, great reviews online.
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Aussie Broadband.
Basically the answer is Aussie Broadband unless you specifically know you need something else. Prices can be slightly higher (although deals tend to bring that down), but they deliver the bandwidth, and being able to phone someone who actually knows what they are talking about is worth it's weight in gold.
Several different deals on at this moment.