Mum (aged pensioner) has had dial up forever, and now one of her friends has suggested she get broadband, what is the best deal for a pensioner to get broadband, she will hardly use it (unless we visit and the kids get on her computer)and I think she has been told to bundle it with her home phone. She uses telstra for her phone and tadaust for her dial up, but now she is looking to change, what is the best deal. She lives in Gosford, so I am hoping she has some choices and should be able to get a good deal. thanks
Pensioner mother needs to connect to broadband what is the cheapest option?
hsk on 01/04/2013 - 18:26
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Also will be worth mentioning when searching sort via Price (with the little drop by menu next to the filter button).
I would also suggest looking in the Excess rate column and choose a company that says shaped. This means when you hit your limit instead of getting charged additional fees, you get to continue your internet access with slower speeds, generally a bit faster than dial-up maybe faster depending on the internet carrier you may choose for example TPG's usage Excess speed is 4 x dial up speeds.
I would probably suggest the link below by TPG and choosing the $39.99 bundle.
http://www.tpg.com.au/products_services/home-phone-bundle/Basically this plan includes 10gb of data.
You also get an additional 10gb for use in offpeak periods.
This amount of data should be more than enough to suit your needs and you should be able to upgrade your plan for an extra $10 a month at any time for an extra 40gb in both peak and off-peak periods.This plan includes phone line rental in which you pay extra for phone calls.
See this link for call rates
http://www.tpg.com.au/homephone/callrates
Call Rates are pretty similar to Telstra.TPG seems to be a fairly popular company. Like most Australian internet companies you will probably get a overseas call center but that's a trade off for such a great price.
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EDIT: Ignore anything below this line.
As it seems TPG has an exchange in your area and I edited this out after reading scrimshaw's comment.Just letting you know the following information is really for customers in metro areas. I just noticed Gosford is an outter region area. But best to read anyways and try and sign up, it may still work. Let us know how you go. (Also note, if TPG doesn't work and whirlpool is a bit hard to give you a working ISP in your area, it would be a good idea to check out adsl2exchanges.com.au and enter your mums phone number and see what exchanges she has access to, in many cases in regional areas telstra is usually the only one and it's usually best to go direct via Telstra. As other providers who resell telstras service isn't much cheaper.
TPG has exchange in Gosford. $40 a month for home line rental and 20GB per month ADSL2.
depending on location, signal strength etc, a long expiry data only SIM with dongle could be an option.
it's difficult to advise on most suitable as a bundle may be best, but for that would need to know Mum's phone requirements (local, national, mobiles, etc).
Ring tadaust and ask them the cost of other options. I think you will find they are most suitable.
I would recommend her to get a redbull mobile recharge for 365 dollars which provides one year of unlimited calls to all numbers and messages and also 5GB data every month and a mobile.
She can hotspot the 5gb data to be used with the computer and unlimited phone calls and text and all that for free. YAY..!
Its pretty good if you understand.
This is the first time i have recommended a Vodafone product in a long time but I would get a Vodafone prepaid mobile broadband product with a 365 day expiry.
It's $125 for 15GB, 365 day expiry. I have set exactly this up for my wife's grandpa and it works well, have had it set up for 3 years now. Additionally will cost about $80 for the pocket wifi device.
If her usage is going to be as low as I suspect it will be then 15GB over 12 months is plenty.
With the amount of money Vodafone has spent and the amount of customers that have left I would be surprised if congestion is an issue. Plus they have a money back network guarantee.
thanks, I am following up some of this.
My 75 Y/O mum uses one of these http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Unlocked-Virgin-3g-modem-Huawei-E…
with the Amaysim 365day 10gb $99 data sim http://www.amaysim.com.au/mobile-plans/amaysim-mobile-broadb…
Pretty simple to use.
Go here and do a search: http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc/?action=search
Suitable plans start at around $40/month, including the phone line rental.