What is Broadband?
In the olden days every one used to have to connect to the internet using DIALUP internet. Basically this operated by plugging a phone line diretly into the computer and it made a phone call to another computer which allowed it access to the internet. This method is VERY slow, and also more insecure (allows viruses and hackers into your computer easier) than the new Broadband Internet.
Broadband is an ancient Aramaic word meaning "fast internet". For most people in Australia there are 2 main types available: Cable (connect through Fiber Optic Cable), Satellite (with a Big Dish) or ADSL. ADSL is by far the most common type, especially here in WA where cable is much too expensive for the Telco's to lay. If you want broadband chances are you want ADSL.
ADSL uses your existing copper phone line wires, but it uses differanct frequencies than your Voice bit of the line, allowing MUCH faster download speeds. Also because it is not using your voice bit of the phone line, you can continue to make and recieve phone calls even when you are on the net. ADSL uses a special ADSL Modem to make the connection, most Internet Providers will give you one for free when you sign up. We would STONGLY advise against using Bigpond for your broadband as their equipment is generally very un-user friendly, and their support staff are not the best.
Dialup internet Cost VS Broadband Internet Cost
With Dialup you pay for a normal phone call EVERYTIME YOU CONNECT TO THE INTERNET. For most families the average spend is around $1 per day for the actual phone calls (3-5 calls per day including drop offs, people needing to use the phone while the kids are on the net etc), add to this the price of the actual Internet account ($20 per month is fairly normal) to get your total cost of dialup. For most people this is around $50 - $60 per month. So just to be clear, most people with SLOW dialup Internet are paying $50-$60 per month for it! WHY??? Well, the short answer is we forget to take into account the phone call cost to actually connect, with broadband there is NO FEE TO CONNECT each time, just the normal monthly costs. iinet for example have accounts ranging from $39 - $49 that provide alot more than anyone can get out of dialup.
My Internet Provider says I can have a certain amount of Downloads. What does this mean?
Downloading means pulling something off the internet, onto your computer. So every webpage you look at is downloaded, any songs you get from the internet are downloaded, any movies you look at on the internet are downloaded.
A Megabyte is 1024 Kilobyte and a Gigabyte is 1024 Megabytes. To give you an idea, a song is typically 5mb (5 Megabytes). A Webpage can typically be around 50k - 100k depending on whats on the page. So a 200mb account you get get 40 songs IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE on the internet. Clearly this kind of account is unsuitable for most people, normally look at around 2 GB as a minimum.
DECEPTION and common pitfalls - Things to look out for.
USAGE vs DOWNLOADS.
Normally the providers monitor and charge according to Downloads. Some providers, like our friends at Telstra, are very sneaky and use the word Usage instead. What does this mean? Basically they charge for DOWNLOADING (taking data from the Internet) and UPLOADING (sending data to the Internet). When a normal person surfs the net, their typical Usage is one third Up, two thirds Down. So where a Bigpond Customer who is not computer savy may think they are getting 500MB Download per month, it is really around 300-350 MB.
What Happens after I reach the Limit?
Most Internet Providers will "Shape" your internet connection from its normal speed to a slow speed once you exceed your limit for the month. IE: instead of 12,000kps you get shaped to 64k (just over dialup speed) so you can keep using the net, but it is clear that you have gone over, and can adjust your account if needed (ie: buy more downloads for next month). SOME providers charge extra for downloading too much. Typically this can be around 15c per MB. Doesn't sound like much? Let look at a normal family usage of 2GB per month. If someone was using a random internet provider, lets say.... Bigpond, and was on their Bundled Phone line and Internet 400MB Account they would pay $39.95 for the account + $240 for the extra downloads!!!
Read the Fine Print and ask question.
Here is a random clause from a random providers fine print.
2. Usage (MB and GB) means combined upload and download data transfer allowed per month (except for some traffic provided from time to time by BigPond at no cost). For the purposes of calculating usage, 1 Gigabyte = 1000 Megabytes. Unused usage forfeited. Additional usage charges are charged at $0.15 per additional MB for downloads above the plan usage allowance. Unlimited* downloads plan speeds are slowed to 64kbps after 10GB of usage.
Here we have 4 things which are terrible and would be easy to over look if you were just looking at the plans themselves.
1. They bill for USAGE not DOWNLOADS
2. They round DOWN from 1024 > 1000. This may not seem like much but as anyone who has compared the size of the Hard Disk they just bought from a manufacter to what its actual size is, it can be significant. For example if you round 10 GB down from 1024 to 1000 MB, that is 240MB difference.
3. Additional Usage is charged, instead of shaped;
4. Unlimited DOWNLOADS MEANS 10GB!!! A heavy user can EASILY go through 20-40 GB Per month.