HOW BROADBAND COULD COST YOU NOTHING EXTRA
More and more people are transferring to
a broadband Internet connection, and the main
reason for this is the efficiency and savings you
can make because of it's excellent speed. What
used to take you 20 minutes can now be done in 5.
There are, however, still two big reasons why
many people have not made the change yet.
- Broadband is not available in their area
yet. This is especially the case for
people in regional areas. More on that
below.
- The perception that Broadband is too
expensive.
In relation to the second reason, Broadband
often isn't as expensive as you think. Take for
example the following situation, which a lot of
people find themselves in:
You may have a dedicated phone line for your
Internet connection, so that you can keep your
normal phone line free for phone calls. Good idea
if you use the Internet a lot. In this situation,
assuming you have two phone lines, your expenses
per month could look something like this:
Telephone line #1 - $25.00 service charge
Telephone line #2 - $25.00 service charge
Internet connection calls - $7.50 (at around
1 call per day)
Dial Up Internet Account - $30.00
Total - $87.50 per month
However, if you were to transfer over to ADSL,
a type of Broadband connection, you then only
need one phone line, as the Broadband connection
can use the same line, even while you are on the
phone. Your monthly expenses then could look like
this:
Telephone line # 1 - $25.00 service charge
Internet connection calls - $0 (as you are
permanently connected)
ADSL Internet Account - $60
Total - $85.00 per month
So as you can see, in this particular
scenario, the person is connected to Broadband
via ADSL, has an Internet connection that can be
up to 30 times faster than dial up, and is
costing them the same or less per month than
before.
Of course, these figures will vary a lot
depending on your own circumstances and the type
of Internet plans you are on. Also there are some
upfront connection fees and you also need an ADSL
modem which can set you back a few hundred
dollars.
Even if your circumstances don't match the
above (eg. you don't have a second phone line),
you still need to consider whether the savings
you will make through Broadband (eg. saved
labour, less phone call charges, etc) are enough
to justify the move.
A warning though from personal experience -
once you make the move to Broadband, you'll never
want to use dial up ever again! The increase in
speed in phenomenal.
Now, back to the other problem - not being
able to get ADSL in your area. We know about this
one. We live in a relatively large regional
centre (Bunbury), but even we were unable to get
ADSL until recently. A very large percentage of
the regional population in Australia are in a
similar situation.
Unfortunately, we have only the following
advice for you:
- First of all, no matter what you've heard
about ADSL in your area, do a quick check
to see if it is available to you. One way
of doing this is by doing an availability
check on your phone number, like the one
provided by Westnet (www.westnet.com.au).
By typing in your phone number you can
see if ADSL is already available to you.
- Check with Telstra when they plan to
provide ADSL to your area. Keep on their
back about it. As they say, the squeaky
hinge gets the oil.
- Check with your local ISP about other
Broadband options. This article is
focussing on ADSL, but there are other
options such as Wireless, Satellite, and
Fibre, which may be available to you
(these all have very different pricing
structures though).
Best of luck.
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