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Well, Broadband in Australia is getting a bit of a hammering by the press and might even play as an election issue.

Having not that long ago returned from the UK where I had a 10Mbps (yes 10 Megabits!) cable connection I find the prices ‘comparable’ – the 10M connection, 60G allowance was approx (~£40) $100/month. Not knowing the ‘landscape’ when I first got back I upgraded my existing Telstra plan to a bit more speed and decided to look into it ‘later’.

My current Telstra ADSL runs at around 1300Kbps (test results, in reality equates to ~170Kbytes/sec) is sold as 1500/256, shaped after 12GB, and costs $69.95 (~£29) per month bundled with phone (at base $29.94/month). So overall a cost of around $100/month for telecommunications.

After researching with the Whirpool’s Broadband Choice I have elected to run-off (‘churn to’ in industry terms) to Spin Internet for their ADSL2+ deal (6 months free broadband, free changeover, on a 24 month contract, offer ends 4May07).

Spin will give me an ADSL2+ connection (which by using my current line attenuation of 31db calculates to a theoretical 15000kbps – approx 1800Kbytes/sec if all goes well), shaped after 40GB, for $69.95/month bundled with phone at $29.95/month (there is a $26.95/month option). So on the face of it the same cost for higher download allowance and speeds.

So the comparisons are:

It’s a ‘no brainer’ really.

I haven’t talked about phone costs but I have compared them. I don’t really care about local calls with most calls being national or internationals. So you may compare yourself if you wish (Telstra HomeLine Plus, Spin Talker).

We’ll see how it all goes.