Telstra turns on ADSL2+ at 900 Exchanges, Increases Charges
APC is reporting that Telstra has made an announcement in conjunction with the new Labor Government that they will be switching on ADSL2+ at 900 exchanges across Australia. The agreement comes on the back of the new government deciding not to regulate third-party ISP’s right to access the network.
The service will be available to 91 per cent of the population in both regional and city areas. That means that if you’re with Telstra, you can now access broadband speeds of up to 20Mbps, if you’re in one of the 360 exchanges where a competitor has ADSL2+ packages on offer. Everywhere else, you’ll be running at 8Mbps…
…And paying for it. The cheapest new ADSL2+ plan on offer starts at $60 per month for a – get this – 600MB download allowance. It does get slightly more reasonable as you climb the scale ($150 for 60GB), but the excess usage fee is astounding – $150 per GB.
The Government’s move to not force Telstra to wholesale its network to other ISPs is probably a good one – Having a national ADSL2+ network is ultimately a good thing. But goddamn Telstra! 150 bucks for a single GB after you’ve exceeded your download limit? That’s just greedy. No other way to describe it.
Also worth noting that this move doesn’t put any dampeners on the government’s plans to roll out that FTTN network either. I just hope that the god of common sense will realise that pricing like that is just plain absurd.
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Comments
Dammit once again we get steamrolled by the Australian Data Nazi Corporation. When will their reign of terror end? Although it is worth noting on the old ADSL plans excess data was once charged at $0.14 per Mb, making a GB worth almost the same. And I hated that too.
Telstra, Behind everyone else, and 2000% markup on the price.
Why anyone would every use these RIP OFF merchants.
I have been getting faster more reliable service from third party operators.
If its not trojan dialers, its the phone companies themselves..
Roll up, roll up, suckers. Uncle Sol and hos three amigos have a deal for you.
and Point Cook wont be one of the exchanges enabled.. . and even if it is… the whole area is a mess with RIMS so it still wont… !!!!!
I cannot beLIEVE how stupidly priced this is. And why on earth people would go with Tel$tra for their ADSL2+ service when there are far better alternatives. $150 per extra gig !!! WTF !!!
I’m currently on a plan (I won’t name with who so as not to seem like I’m promoting them) that gives me 40 gig from 9am to 3am and then another 110 gig from 3am to 9am (all of that per month). I never come anywhere near my download limit. I’m constantly connected at about 20megs because I’m really close to the exchange :)
Oh, and did I mention that it’s costing me $69.95 / mth. Throw in another $27.00 for the line rental and it’s costing me roughly $97.00 / mth for 150 gigs of downloading. Pretty good in my opinion.
Of course, if you have no choice and Telstra is the only provider in your area, fair play. But if not, you’d be crazy to go with them…
Increased speed: great.
Massive huge disproportionately increased cost: You gotta be kidding me. That’s friggin’ ridiculous.
I had to read that “$60 per month for a 600MB download allowance” a few times over to make sure I was reading it properly. Same with the “excess usage fee of $150 per GB.”
I love speedy broadband – a lot – but there’s no way I’d ever consider that package with those murderous prices.
$150 for 1GB.
Does this apply on the 600mb plan also?
Telstra, making the poor poorer and Sol richer.
How else are they going to pay for Sols (performance based!) bonuses. How they have any customers left is beyond me. My experience is nothing but expensive poor service which is why I changed long ago.
My god I hate Telstra. I hate it how they can bully everyone into doing things their way because they’re the biggest. It’s the same with the NextG network, sure you can go to 3 or Virgin and get much cheaper rates, but if you actually want to use it somewhere outside of capital cities, then your up the creek without a paddle, you only option is to go with Telstra, and pay $120 for 3 gigs!
And Telstra are still counting upload as downloads so Double everything.
Gizmodo, thanks for being critical with your sponsor, this site is a great site.
As Bigpond sponsors Gizmodo, do you end up paying them?
I’m pretty sure Giz has reported this wrong…
Hellstra have removed the throttling on all exchanges, not just the exchanges with competitiors offering ADSL2+ already…
That’s no excuse for the financial raping of suckers who think the 10% saving they get from bundling Local, STD and International service with their internet plan makes it “good value”, but still potentially good news for people who want ADSL2+ speeds and can’t get it from anyone else!!
and I thought $5 for 1 GB post limit at internode was bad :/
So they’ve installed all these 2+ exchanges, but are only turning them on where Telstra have competition for it?
Thats not building a national high-speed broadband network, its just cutting people off from the faster connection for no good reason.
Do I get a reacharound with that?
I pay $4/gb at aanet. x.x
So.. not only are they gouging the people who dont know any better, but they also had 900 exchanges in sight for the better speeds and didnt turn them on for fear that they might have to share.
Hurray for an ignorant population and an even more ignorant government. Here’s hoping the powers that be turn around and force Telstra to open the ADSL2+ network now they’ve played their hand.
As long as there are stupid people, there will be rich people. Despite the majority of households having a PC, the vast majority of owners really haven’t a clue about anything other than the power button and how to click things with a mouse pointer.
If people get smarter, Telstra will bust, right along with IT. But you can compare this easily to other industries. When you’re in the know, it all seems incomprehensible. But…. how many of you don’t service your own car but think you’re getting a good deal?
This does not surprise me. It is not for nothing that Sol is still under summons to appear before the Nevada Gaming Commission.
And has not yet done so.
As the head of the Commission said “If you have not heard of Sol in Australian as yet…you will. You will” This comment was made just after he headed Telstra. We will get better prices when he is gone.
I cant believe they can attempt to charge that much…But I guess this is why you shop around when looking to purchase a product.
You just have to feel sorry for all the pensioners out there that Telstra cold call and manage to sign up on a 24 month contract…and then go over there limit because their grandkids have got the computer infected with a virus….and then the grandparents get a $1000 bill for excess usage and lose their house because they cant afford to pay the bill
A more accurate version of the story is out there.
The govt. simply stated the ACCC position on wholesale of ADSL2+ and asked them to get on with it. – more Tel$tra cherades
eg:
http://www.cnet.com.au/broadband/adsl/0,239035934,339285693,00.htm
I’m getting off Telstra this week actually, looking forward to it. Just waiting for the switch to happen now, bring it on!
This is exactly why i moved away from telstra bigpond. Excessive costs and tiny usage allowance are not a good mix. I now pay half as much, and get 3 times the usage. Not to mention $5/Gb over teh allowance :)
I had been waiting for this to be announced for a long time but now I am hugely disappointed.
Why will ADSL2+ cost so much more? Telstra must have paid off all of the equipment that they have had installed and lying idle for the past 2-3 years (poor value for the shareholders to have an asset sitting unused!).
I am on a 20GB@8MB/s plan with Internode that I am fairly happy with but it is my understanding that because it uses Telstra gear at the exchange it is more expensive than it should be. The Internode plan for 20GB@24MB/s is cheaper ($90 vs $60) and I understand that this is because they use their own gear and don’t have to pay Telstra their ransom.
http://www.internode.on.net/residential/internet/broadband_adsl/pricing/
Can anyone confirm or deny this?
adsl2 $90/month 12G ->telstra
adsl2 $40/month 20G ->dodo
God help Aussies save thier hard earned money by 50 dollar every month..each individual would save in a peroid of 2 yrs = $1200 ..dats lotta money mate.
Well, looks like once again good ol’ Point Cook has been left behind while all the other buburbs are moving forward…it actually seems as if we’re moving backwards…
Brand new estates and yet…we’re all on dialup connections? How can this be?
(Bigpond is the only ISP offering ADSL2+ plans at Point Cook as of a week ago…but as if that counts?)