Optus is currently offering 10% off their 4G home internet plans:
500GB/Mth + B818 4G Wi-Fi Modem for $67.50/Month for First 24 Months
200GB/Mth + B818 4G Wi-Fi Modem for $58.50/Month for First 24 Months
If you decide to cancel the 24 month plan, you will just need to pay out the remaining cost of the modem.
If 5G Home Internet becomes available at your address you can switch without paying any plan cancellation fees.
Edit: Offer ends 30/5/21.
Some people have good reception/speeds with Optus. I've heard of them, but never met one in person.
I had OK speeds… Better than my shitty FttN connection can manage at least.
30/8 in peak, up to 100/8 off-peak
Will probably switch back to 4G (or hopefully 5G) at the end of my $40/month, 500Gb Telstra 25/5 NBN contract early next year.
My FttN line is getting worse and worse, now syncing less than 25/5
Less than 25/5 Mbps should mean that NBNCo will investigate and potentially fix.
@mathew42: At the moment, it's probably close enough they'd say it rounds to 25/5
Current Sync rate according to my Arcadyan LH1000 modem 24658/6400
@mathew42: In area with FTTN Optus, Vodafone and Telstra mobile are typical faster, unless you are fortunate. I get 50 down with NBN vs 100 down with Vodafone.
I lived in the dead centre of a city in Japan and we had a 2 gigabit connection which was the fastest in the world when it rolled out about 5 years ago. I never saw the speeds that I am now getting living in rural Victoria on this Optus 4g deal. I get 80mb/s. I usually got closer to 50mb/s in Japan. Fastest connection I've ever had.
I was getting 500mbps up and 400mbps down on 1 gig fiber connection in the US, 2 years ago.
@TEER3X: If Labor hadn't added speed tiers to the NBN we'd all be on 1000Mbps down, 400Mbps up and discussing upgrades to GPONs.
I had good speed with Optus 4G for about a month then it dropped to 3Mbps, this was about 2 years ago and there is no way I would sign up to a 24 month contract.
that's how they get ya, sign up for the first few months then the slow down for the next 20 months. New customers get priority for the honeymoon period, then they want you to pay those exit fees out the arse.
@dbmitch: I was on Optus for two years. Never noticed any slow downs after a certain period time. In terms of speed it was around double what I got with nbn in my area. I did however noticed it was always sluggish at certain locations, which I put down to congestion.
@dbmitch: The only exit fees are for the modem if you choose to buy one on a plan.
Works out to be the cheapest price for a B818 even if you cancel in the first month.
Most likely your modem was locking onto a congested band. You can manually pick other bands which will likely give you faster speeds and fix the problem
We signed up with Optus 5G about 6 weeks ago. For 2 weeks we had fantastic speeds 300-350down/40-50up. The last 4 weeks have however have been horrendous. We had 2 weeks where we were lucky to get 5up/1down as they were working on the tower. It came good for a week and this week has reverted to barely usable again
We had same plan for 12 months, good for 6m before NBN available, had horrenous 3m with tower works, back to good now.
Will keep it for now until better deals
we'be been using it on the Gold Coast for the past 3mths (vpn to work, streaming, etc) it's been quite solid averaging 30+/5+ in peak, higher during the day.
I'm quite surprised. but still no comparison to proper FttC NBN
I do have good reception with Optus. Never had a problem so far.
Just did a few speed tests…
115, 95 and 124 down and 10-12 up each time. Ping of 30 consistently.
Must have decent Optus reception and I'm about 12km north of BNE CBD.
Serving as a pretty good interim solution until NBN sorts out my FTTP install which is dragging on forever.
Ping isn't the best for gaming and is likely much higher when you connect to a game server. You can reduce ping by locking in each of the towers available and see which is the lowest.
Of course, no real benefit if not gaming.
Gaming is a distant memory with 2 kids for me. More likely streaming Disney plus but a valid point nevertheless.
Will swap to FTTP when NBNco is ready but as an interim it's doing a good job.
I just did some speed tests
5G: 658Mbps Download & 43.8Mbps Upload & 12ms ping
4G: 283Mbps Download & 51.0Mbps Upload & 15ms ping
FTTN NBN at my location gets a 11ms ping to same speed test server.
Optus 4G no problem for me https://pasteboard.co/JUVEg4M.png
You can't throw a blanket statement like that for any Telco. Optus is great in our area.
Ive been on this plan for the past 5 months. Its served me well so far - consistently strong speeds, no dropouts. Customer service via live chat has been good as well. Just my 2 cents - appreciate that this is area dependent - im in brissy 10km south of cbd.
I am lucky enough to be in an area where performance of 4G Optus and Vodafone are similar. I picked Vodafone because they don't charge you for data if you go over your cap, not the case with this Optus plan, just FYI. Optus charges $10 per gigabye if you go over according to the CIS.
CIS states this:
If you use more than your included data during your billing
month, we’ll automatically give you another 40GB for $10.
This automatic top-up will occur up to five times (i.e. up to
200GB for $50) within a monthly billing period. If you use more
than 200GB of top-up data on a single billing account, we will
slow your speed to 1.5Mbps until the next billing period.
Optus charges $10 per gigabye if you go over according to the CIS.
It actually says: "When we automatically add an additional 40GB data for $10 to your account up to five times within a monthly billing period"
The full wording is:
"Included data and additional data
Monthly data inclusions are set out in the table above.
If you use more than your included data during your billing month, we’ll automatically give you another 40GB for $10.
This automatic top-up will occur up to five times (i.e. up to 200GB for $50) within a monthly billing period. If you use more
than 200GB of top-up data on a single billing account, we will slow your speed to 1.5Mbps until the next billing period. Data
expires at the end of each billing month. Data is counted in kilobytes, and includes uploads and
downloads. 4G Internet plans do not support Data Sharing or Data Pooling."
Effectively unlimited (although slowed to 1.5 MB) after you go 200GB over the allowance for an extra $50 is how I read it.
I stand corrected $10/40GB as pointed out by Now Gone and sircable. If you go over on Vodafone, they slow you down to 25mbps, which is what I was getting on NBN.
When I joined this Optus plan I found a setting to disable the $10 upgrades so that I just go to the 1.5mb/s speed straight away when I finish my 500gb. I haven't had a chance to test it yet but if you are worried it's worth getting on the chat and asking if this is possible.
Vodafone deal for me was $42 for 200gb and then slow to 10 not 1.5. 10 faster than my old adsl2 connection. So pretty good deal. $58 for the Optus close equivalent doesn’t seem like a deal to me. I use to pay $84 a month on Optus for 200gb but that also came with my 512gb note 9 included at the time. I think that Felix deal is hard to beat though.
Vodafone deal for me was $42 for 200gb and then slow to 10 not 1.5
Is this plan still available at all for new customers? Cannot see it anywhere on the Vodafone's website.
Had this service at a place I was staying at for only 6 months.
Was fantastic.
Got 180 MB down and 80MB up from memory.
Better than my old FTTP service (100/40 MB).
Just my experience of course…
dumb question, can you take this modem anywhere and use it? or does it have to be at a fixed address?
Yep.
Took it from Brisbane to Noosa on a family holiday last weekend with no issues. Beats cr@ppy hotel internet (4g reception permitting I guess).
I'm on Optus 5g internet. and I wouldn't recommend from my experience:
- Fluctuation of speed within 30 sec is very high (between 30mbps to 98mbps)
- Very slow upload speed + fluctuating heavily (1.4mbps to 7mbps) - Not recommended for Zoom/teams video meetings
- High Ping rate (24 to 31)
Upon reporting this to optus $50 mbps speed guarantee will apply if you can supply them various speedtest results and when they call, the speed to should be below 50mbps after couple of restarts.
Secondly, Optus rep claimed that they're aware the upload speeds are slow and hence they do not provide a guarantee; suggesting to take up NBN service.
Haven't heard much positives from 5g yet, early stages I guess
Because it's not proper 5G
Aw was hoping to jump on 5G, but I guess not (yet)
This would be a good deal, in conjunction with an app such as HuaCTRL which allows you to manipulate the bands which the modem uses.
You can survey your area with the Aus Phone Towers app, find a good band, use HuaCTRL to only use that band (both Android apps, unsure if iOS equivalent exists)
I was getting solid 120/25 for over a year with this combo because FTTN sucks, I now live somewhere with FTTP so no need for 4G
I'm waiting for Starlink
200gb should be ~$40 a month now to be a deal. And speed should be slowed to 10 not 1.5.
That ought to help congestion!
can we chuck any SIM card in the modem after you leave Optus or is the modem sim locked ?
B818 is "unlocked" and works with any SIM. It's a great modem good WiFi range and I live in rural area just outside of 4G range according Telstra map. Around off peak I get 30-50mbps, 10-15mbps during peak periods. It outperformed Nighthawk M2 in every aspect. Highly recommended.
You can find more information in Whirlpool B818 thread https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/9p8yvml9
Been on this plan for 6 months. Speeds were decent but lately speeds are horrible. Optus claims it’s a combination of congestion and “upgrades” in the area. Now they’re saying they can’t supply this to my address, which to me is weird. As it’s no different to someone hot spotting or using their phone.
I am only 10km from Sydney CBD.
thanks. i downgraded from 500gb to 200gb plan
also vodafone 4g 200gb is $55/month on a 36 month plan
optus ewwwwwwwwwww. NO THANKS