For home internet, one typically pays around $59. Mobile is around $15-$20 to get 5GB which i expect sufficient for most people.
Nowdays you can get crazy data on mobile plan for $30-$50. This might be faster for some people as well.
So, potentially, you can just connect to your hotspot and not get separate internet.
I was wondering on how many people do that? Also, does it work to stream netflix on their tv as well?
I have 2x Optus tablet plans. One tablet for the other half she is happy on wifi. One for me with the SIM. Spare Sim is in an smashed S7 tethered to a Asus router.
100/50 most days if not higher. We stream , work, use to our hearts content. Has been absolutely reliable and trouble free for the last 10months.
We use about 300gb per month out of the 400gb allowance.
how much per month
$120/m $40 than what ADSL cost me, and now with the NBN FTTN having rolled out my neighbour struggles with 12/5 on a good day. More than worth it to me.
Sort of..
I have an Optus Data SIM, 200Gb plan, in a 4G modem at home. My Optus phone plan 10Gb data is shared with the 200Gb home plan, so in total I have 210Gb to use every month whether through the Modem or through my phone.
We rarely use more than 150Gb, and usually there's a rush at the end of the month to make sure all devices have software updates run.
I'm on the Optus 500GB sim in a 4G modem at home, works well considering my alternative is 5mbps on ADSL2+ and NBN isn't available until next year.
I don’t have home internet, I solely rely on mobile data, but I would not say 5gb is enough for me.
If I work from home it usually uses about 1gb a day if I am connected the entire time. Considering most of our stuff is cloud based, if I am working on the same document as someone else, I need to be connected.
I would use anywhere between 20-40gb a month, depending on if I have access to wifi to download Netflix/Stan for offline use. If I don’t have that wifi connection, I tend to be much closer to the 40gb. If I end up working from home a lot in a month then once again, much closer to the 40gb.
Household of 3 here. Month to date we have used 2.76TB.
No way a 4g sim would suffice.
That said, my phone data of 50GB is barely touched (unless I stream Plex remotely). Average phone data usage is about 900MB.
What are you doing to use that much data? That is insane. Almost 1 TB per person.
And one of the people is 3yo.
I stream Optus Sport a lot and collect Linux ISOs.
Also, streaming Plex remotely uses a lot of data.
Wow, I think I do not know anybody else (not a business) who uses this much data monthly. Very impressed/in awe. ;-)
@Lysander: Low (0.3 GB per hour) Medium (SD: 0.7 GB per hour) High (HD: 3 GB per hour, 3D: 4.7 GB per hour, Ultra HD 4K: 7 GB per hour)
i can easily do 50 gb on average a day.
@garetz: Wow. Ok, that explains it although you would still need 30 days per person to get to 3TB with two people.
I only watch SD Netflix and cannot even use up 40Gb a month - I guess when it comes to data use I am a total amateur. :-)
No fixed line internet here.
Typically use 20gig per month and additionally have access to Telstra Air for those entertainment related large downloads.
Do you stand next to a pink phone box to download a movie ?
Might have done that before. :)
But normally go to one of the local Telstra stores, sit on the couch for half an hour or so, and fill up on the complimentary mints.
have access to Telstra Air for those entertainment related large downloads.
When we used to have a limited data plan (around 200gb) we used to all switch to the Telstra Air network when low on data.
Our router broadcasted the TA network so we could stream/download using that. Now that we have unlimited I am using about 100gb per week (and have disabled Telstra air) lol.
If your router supports it you could enable it and basically have unlimited internet access.
Isn't it really slow though? I thought it was limited to something like 10% of the connection speed so the customer providing it doesn't suffer.
It is really slow, it's like 1-3 Mbps. Basically can only use it for web browsing/overnight downloads.
I tried it this month. In 10 days i used 50gig+ on netflix lol
I'm on Telstra ADSL2+ and hoping to skip NBN by hot spotting 4g or 5g data on my phone when the copper gets cut next year. I'll check out the data plans then.
I see Optus 5g are pushing for sales ATM. There's a 1st month free deal posted today on the Internet forum.
4g modem on a 250gb/month data sim from Ovo (uses Optus). Generally good speeds ~20 Mps. No fixed line at address.
Household of 5; tried going on mobile data for a few days as a trial but we're already using 12GB/day without youtube - our 4K TV's are going to burn through data from Netflix and Youtube
We set up a cheap android phone plugged into our AC68U router via USB which works fine, between 30Mbps and 80Mbps on Vodafone but no plan will have enough data.
We're on Belong Mobile and we use 60GB to 100GB a month since we rarely stream TV. This costs between $30 to $50 a month. We've been on mobile broadband for around 2 months.
We're similar to the above poster where we're on an mid range Android old phone (used because it supports Carrier Aggregation for higher speeds, cheap Android phone's don't support it) plugged into our ASUS RT-AC58U router via USB.
The speeds vary from 30Mbs during peak to 100Mbs off peak.
I have my dad on Optus 4G.
Currently paying $60 for 200GB + $85 for an iPad Pro 11” with 200GB. So 400GB all up.
The $60/200GB plan goes out of contract in September so I will cancel that because dad typically uses about 150GB/month…
It works well, delivering 50/20 speeds.
A guy from work uses his mobile for his home internet… his family just plug their mobiles into a dock at home and their whole network has internet (both him and his wife have a big data plan).
That doesn't work for me… I don't use my mobile enough, nor is that setup convenient for my partner and I. I'm on FTTP anyway… my $59/mth unlimited data 50/20 plan is rock solid stable most of the time and I'm happy with spending $16/mth for unlimited mobile with 13Gb data to use on the go and for my peace of mind in case the NBN does drop at home.
Who are your NBN and mobile providers?
Exetel for nbn but it looks like new customers are charged $69.95/mth for unlimited 50/20.
Kogan for mobile. That's on a 24mth recharge.
How did you get a 24-month recharge with Kogan?
I use around 2TB a month on average (just for me) have a 60GB mobile plan too.
If ur only using 5gb then u must get free streaming of slow netflix etc from your mobile phone provider, otherwise your not watching any tv episodes or movies.
If you're using more than a few hundred gigabytes then you are streaming or downloading tv episodes, movies and games of questionable legality.
We cancelled dodo after the 24mths contract finished and they want to raise extra$10/mth. Since then i bought the kogan $4.90 extra large 40gb 30days prepaid to be shared by my parents. Was just barely enough as they usually watch hometown news. currently I have got the amaysim 1gb 28days plan and catch connect 54gb 90days plan for myself. I also only use abt 5~6gb/mth, so will let my parents hotspot my data when they run out b4 activating another kogan. saved a lot instead of paying mthly min $60 for modem plan.
Unfortunately my mobile data is slow (8-15Mbps) compared with home internet so not an option.
Also you cant compare Unlimited internet with 5GB or 10GB or even 20GB or 30GB
Two differnt animals if you ask me
This is true.
TBH when i was looking to make the switch from unlimited broadband to 4G internet, i went through our usage for the last 12 months and we seemed to average 100-150GB each month. The Optus 200GB plan seemed the best option for us and meant the missus got a new iphone XS out of it.
What would be the cheapest way to connect 2 older PCs (both currently use ethernet & have no wifi cards) to mobile data (150-200GB per month)?
I have family (an older couple, 70+yo) who want to stay on their PCs but have a terrible ADSL connection & NBN is not in their area, yet. They both rely on too many desktop apps to go to tablets and their PCs are fine for everything except wifi.
You can purchase a Netgear LB2120 and hook it in to your current modem/router.
You could then have the 2 PC's hardwired (networked) in to your modem/router and they would have Mobile Data internet access
USB wifi dongles are less than $5 on eBay.
Use 60GB/month, on mobile, separate from rest of household. Use it up every month. Was on 50GB with Telstra, and the extra 10GB now makes a lot of difference. The ping speed though is very high, at about 30ms, but I'm in a Telstra mobile dead spot.
"So, potentially, you can just connect to your hotspot and not get separate internet."
I've been doing this for years. Every month I alternate between, say, Optus and Vodafone, taking advantage of their "just joined" deals. So I typically get around 35-45GB (plus 10GB iView on Optus) for $10-15 per month. In the unlikely event that there's no introductory offer when i need it, I just buy a cheap SIM to tide me over for a week or two. Speed is fine for browsing and movies.
Only downside is that, each month when you sign up for a new account, there's a small chance they'll stuff up and make life annoying for a while.
I have Optus 4G/200GB at home, which works fine and is just as fast as people in the neighbourhood who have 100 NBN but much more reliable.
If my kids give the usage a bit of a hammering, I use the data that comes with my Lebara mobile deal, which is 29GB/month. It often runs at 100mbps download and 50 upload, absolutely reliable, and it has banking for unused data.
I will look at Optus 5G when my 4G contract runs out (and when Optus decides to do something with it in Melbourne).
I have the same optus plan.
Been using for 5 months now and has been so much better than our ADSL1 speeds we used to get
I'm currently on the Telstra 160GB mobile plan. I use 4G hotspot to all my devices at home, as my home internet is NBN fixed wireless, which is horribly slow in the evenings. There was talk of upgrading the fixed wireless towers, but that got scrapped.
Prior to nbn rolling into our streets I had adsl2 which was taken over by wife's desktop and iPad. I used my data 180gb per month for my desktop, laptop and ps4. I usually hit the 80% quota reached but now with nbn I'm just hitting 80 to 100gb usage per month
Do you live alone? In my household of 4, we use just under 500GB/month of data. I know because I am signed up for 500GB data, and I get the 80% quota reached with a few days left in the monthly cycle. Sometimes more if the month has school holidays in it.