The bare facts on Optus’ naked DSL

Following the success of its Telstra-free mobile and broadband services, Optus has joined the chorus of ISPs suggesting that home and businesses set themselves free of the fixed line and embrace naked DSL.

The #2 carrier today revealed its entry into the nDSL market with plans starting at $50 per month. However, rather than risk cannibalising its services by adding VoIP to the menu, Optus is promoting capped mobile phone plans as the landline replacement for voice.

The three plans all heavily favour bundling. as customers with an Optus post-paid mobile service score a ‘free’ modem and no setup fee. if you want a truly barebones nDSL service free of additional Optus encumbrances you’ll be up for $248 for the modem and service setup plus an extra $10 per month for each plan.

Available now but allegedly for “a limited time”, with a May 31 expiry on the take-up, the entry level nDSL plan costs $50 per month for bundlers ($60 for a stand-alone nDSL service) and comes with a 7GB data allowance. $60 (add $10 for the anti-bundling brigade) gets you 15GB per month, while the top shelf 30GB plan costs $100 or $110 depending on bundling. This highest level plan is the only one to include a Wi-Fi modem.

All plans run over a 24 month contract and are rated to ADSL2+ speeds. Uploads as well as downloads are counted in the monthly data allowance, although there’s some confusion within the ranks of Optus as to the speed limit applied once you exceed the monthly tally.

Optus’ own Web page promoting the service claims that “if you exceed your monthly data allowance, access will be speed limited to 64kbps or 128kbps depending on your plan until the end of the billing month”, but when APC called the Optus sales desk we were told that 64kbps was the throttle speed across all plans. (Optus has now confirmed that 128kbps was a 'typo' which seems very odd, as it's not a sort of 'oops my fingers slipped' error.)

So how does the skinny-dipping Optus compare to other residents in the broadband nudist park? Not so well, especially if you want to use low-cost VoIP services for national and international calls. Here’s a wrap-up of the deals from four leading nDSL players.

iiNet

Aggressive and high-profile iSP iiNet has enjoyed a huge uptake of its nDSL offerings thanks to heavy mainstream advertising, and it’s a good benchmark for comparison. iiNet’s six nDSL plans start at the same $50 per month as Optus (but without any bundling required) and include the ISP’s iiPhone VoIP service which is good for free calls to any landline nationwide (calls to mobiles are charged at 29c per 30 seconds). There’s also a $150 connection fee, although this is cut to $80 if you ink a 24 month contract.

While the data allowance on iiNet’s entry level plan  data caps are less favourable than those of Optus – you get only 4GB instead of 7GB on iiNet’s $50 plan – things even out towards the middle ground, with 16GB on the $60 plan and then kick well ahead of Optus with iiNet offering 45GB for $70 (compared to Optus’ 30GB for $100), 60GB for $80, 100GB for $90 and 130GB for $120.

However, it’s worth noting that Optus’ downloads are available around the clock whereas iiNet divides all download quotas roughly 50/50 into peak (noon to 2am) and off-peak (2am to noon) allocations.

Internode

Internode’s nDSL offerings begin at $50 for 5GB (good value compared to iiNet's equivalent plan with only 2GB peak usage and 2GB off peak), with mid-range plans at $60 for 10GB and $70 for 25GB, before topping out at  $160 for 100GB. That's in areas that have Internode's own DSLAM coverage. The ISP’s NodePhone VoIP service can be bolted onto any plan for free with nationwide landline calls (18c untimed) and mobiles (29c per minute), along with the usual bevy of worldwide countries (rates depend on the destination).

It should be noted that Internode is one of the ISPs that doesn't 'double dip' by charging for both uploads and downloads. IiNet and Optus charge for both, so if you do P2P, your included monthly usage allowance will deplete much more rapidly than the same number of gigabytes on an Internode plan.

GoTalk

GoTalk’s Great Escape nDSL plans cost $50 for 9GB, $70 for 36GB and $80 for 60GB, although those downloads are also split over peak and off-peak times and the peak component is half the off-peak allowance – for example, the 36GB plan puts 12GB into the peak period and 24GB into off-peak. The off-peak period is also limited to a mere five hours between 1am and 6am.

While GoTalk’s VoIP service is included in each plan, with nationwide landline calls costing 10c and calls to mobile numbers 20c per minute.

GoTalk also offers an Escape with the Lot package which includes options such as free calls to landlines, mobiles and international numbers as well as a capped mobile plan. There’s a fair degree of customisation between the packages, but by way of example, you can combine the $50/9GB plan with free VoIP calls to any Australian landline and mobile for $65 per month.

Exetel

Exetel’s nDSL plans start at $45 for 60GB, with a mid-range $65 for 78GB and top out at $90 for 108GB. Each of those data figures allocates a meaty 54GB to 'off-peak' period between midnight and noon, with the remainder of the balance available from midday through to midnight (and yes, we all wish it was stacked the other way around!). Each plan includes 100 minutes of calls to Australian landlines through Exetel’s VoIP service, beyond which you’re charged 10c per national landline call and 22c per minute to Australian mobiles.