Choosing a Broadband Plan

 

Broadband Choices

There are so many broadband plans in Australia with a bundle of features. Which plan should you select? something that meets your needs and is within your budget as well? Here is some advice that can help you out in selecting the best plan for your needs.

Understand the plan types

Where do you live? For most of the homes in Sydney or Australia, an ADSL or ADSL2 is a good choice, which is delivered over the traditional copper network for telephones. Your plan speed depends on how close you are to an exchange; you can enjoy better speeds if you are close, and slower speeds if you are further away. Unfortunately, there isn’t much that you do about the speed issue other than completely change your broadband plan type.

You can also choose a cable broadband; service is offered through the cable under this plan. Eventually, cable network will be merged with the NBN, but there is still some time to it.

If you live in an area where NBN has already been setup, then sign up for an NBN plan. These are offered in various speeds. However, faster speed plans are priced higher than standard ones. While most of the NBN services are based on the fibre to the premises or FTTP type, the newer connections will be of fibre to the node or FTTN type. The latter of these uses the existing telephone copper network for the final connection, so they are slower than other NBN plans. In terms of costs, the rates of both plans are nearly the same.

If you live in a remote area, a satellite connection may be the only possible choice for you. This option is more expensive, and offers a slower speed. You can also go with 4G mobile networks for broadband access, but the rates are again higher when compared with wired broadband.

Compare plans

When you have chosen the type of plan you want, and compiled a list of providers, compare their features and rates to see which plan would be more affordable for you. Websites like Compare TV has made this quite easy to do. Check out the reviews of these plans as well.

Decide a suitable speed

How much downloading speed is enough for you? Many plans do offer unlimited data, however, if you restrict this to 200 GB a month, you can enjoy lower rates. So decide a suitable speed for your needs. If your family watches Netflix three hours a day, you would need around 600 GB, but if you don’t stream videos, then even a 75 GB plan may be enough for you.

Does your chosen plan offer unmetered access?

Unmetered access doesn’t count towards the total volume. Providers may offer this feature for Netflix. The speed is much lower, but at least you don’t have to pay extra bills when you cross data limits.