Dan Warne09 October 2007, 3:55 AM
No, Telstra's unplanned broadband is not what happens when its senior management team forgets to use protection: it's a new wireless broadband service available on a prepaid basis.
 Unplanned broadband: prepaid customers can now connect to the net via their Next G mobile |
No, Telstra's unplanned broadband is not what happens when its senior management team forgets to use protection: it's a new wireless broadband service available on a prepaid basis.
Telstra is marketing the "browse plus packs" as a convenience for anyone with a prepaid Next G mobile phone.
The idea is that rather than paying for a wireless broadband service at expensive monthly rates, you can simply pay for it when you need it by hooking your prepaid Next G phone up to your laptop via USB.
Like everything to do with Next G, the pricing is expensive, but at least it is mitigated by the fact that you don't have to keep on paying for it when you're not using it.
Plans start from $5 for 5MB (that's about enough data for a single web browsing or email session lasting perhaps 10 minutes or so) and range through $10 for 20MB, $29 for 80MB and $59 for 200MB.
A Telstra website has a tutorial on how it works: essentially, you have to navigate through the Telstra menus on your Next G handset and go to the "my prepaid" menu, then "plus packs". You then have to select the size of the pack you need -- bearing in mind that if you go over the prepaid allowance, you'll be charged at $2 per megabyte, which could get expensive very quickly.
The prepaid data allowance lasts for 30 days (or until the credit on your prepaid voucher runs out.)
The deal is only available to Windows users -- Telstra has not got Mac-compatible software for its Next G handsets.
Telstra recently upgraded its Next G network to offer speeds of up to 7.2Mbit/s -- but only to people using a laptop data card or USB adaptor. The speed available to prepaid customers using their mobile phone connected to a laptop will typically be 550Kbit/s - 1.5Mbit/s, according to Telstra.
The prepaid deal will particularly appeal to business travellers and may put pressure on hotels to drop their $30 per day in-room broadband rates. Travellers staying at a hotel could pick up a prepaid Telstra phone at an airport and use the prepaid data packs for the duration of their stay (though, admittedly, a 200MB allowance for $59 would be spread thin for a stay longer than two days.)
Telstra says the deal is ideal for Facebook junkies wanting to get a fix when they're out and about, people desperate to book concert tickets, or researching a weekend away on a lunch break.
Both Optus and Vodafone say they are looking at product offerings that will compete with Telstra's prepaid wireless broadband service.