iiNet has taken their popular BoB modem/router/phone/VoIP device, stuck it on a treadmill and forced it to shed a heap of weight. The end result is the BoB Lite, which was released today by the ISP.
For just $99 outright, BoB Lite is a four port wireless router, just like its chunkier cousin, but doesn’t include the phone in the unit, and doesn’t support the BoB handsets. the product is the first to come out of iiNet’s new R&D facility. It will also support Fetch TV, which you probably worked out for yourself given that the picture of the unit has a FetchTV unit in it.
If you’re willing to sign up for a 24 month contract, you can get the router for just $69, saving you $30.
Given the move away from landlines in the home, this is a great option for people on Naked plans. For under $100, it’s a nice option.
[iiNet]
Benjibuls
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 5:06 PMUm it’s actually not a great new option for the naked plans. The Belkin router they had before BoB lite did exactly the same thing, just in a white box rather than a black one.
poedgirl
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 5:48 PMThe big question I have is: Is it still made by Belkin? Seriously, I have the original BoB and it’s near useless due to their incompetence.
Namarrgon
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 6:47 PMTo my surprise, I’m finding myself tempted to buy one of these.
I need a new modem since a near-miss lightning strike took out some crucial ports on the old one, and a good-looking modem that does VoIP w/ PSTN failover, Wifi-n, Annex M, USB sharing and TR-069 for $99 delivered actually seems like a pretty good deal. No GbE ports, but I have a switch for that already.
Rhys
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 6:58 PMNo gigabit = No buy.
Paul
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 7:11 PMI have Big Bob. Not happy Jan.
Iain Graham
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 8:41 PMCompared to the original BoB unit’s price of $369, the $99 price tag is very nice for an iinet supported device,
Mr Mack
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at 1:13 AMDoes it still suck as much as the old BoB? At my dads place I installed a nice Linksys ADSL gateway to combat the rubbish phone line, and told the BoB just to be a wireless router and it still sucks at doing just that!!!
Gradenko
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at 9:17 PMIt’s a Belkin, it’s going to blow just like all their Belkin’s before it. Should have gone with Billion as your partner iiNet, then my BoB’s phone wouldn’t have melted and the Wi-Fi wouldn’t be rubbish!
skeptic
Saturday, December 18, 2010 at 10:53 AMAnybody actually used this unit rather than just theorised about it?
Yes, bib bob’s phone apparently blows; this unit doesn’t have one, so I don’t really care.
What I do care about before staking a hundred bucks on it is whether this unit works. If anyone can tell me from experience, I’m all ears.
Higgens
Friday, December 31, 2010 at 9:17 PMNo problems with this unit (unlike my previous Belkin-iinet voip modem). Great range, speed (PS3 operates well through 3 walls) and no problems with voip. In my opinion great value for money if you also require the voip and 3G/storage feature.
Leigh Kennedy
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 1:51 PMIts not a belkin – iinet are building them now.
Higgens
Friday, December 31, 2010 at 9:10 PMJust got mine – it says Belkin on the front???
higgens
Thursday, December 23, 2010 at 1:39 AMJust ordered one – hope it has a better wireless range than the iinet-Belkin unit that I got on the original plan