A dose of intertubes misery:
Dear BigPond(R) Member,We’ve noticed that your estimated usage on your BigPond Broadband account this month has reached 8 GB.
Of course you can continue enjoying the internet, but we wanted to remind you that on your current plan, your service will become slower after you reach your monthly usage allowance.
Still, maybe it’s for the best. After all, we know from The Government Gazette fast broadband is just middle class welfare, anyway.
And has anyone thought of the horrors that could be unleashed if we had fast broadband?
Bill Heffernan might be able to get up to all sorts of dastardly blackguardly behaviour if he learned how to send an email!
Known for his pursuit of High Court judge Michael Kirby and saying that Labor’s deputy leader Julia Gillard was unfit for leadership because she was “barrenâ€?, Senator Heffernan admits to using eccentric methods to bamboozle opponents….One of those opponents is John Grabbe, general manager of Cubbie Station, the largest irrigation farm in Australia, which the senator believes is responsible for depleting much of NSW’s vital water resources.
A few weeks ago, Mr Grabbe answered his mobile phone and heard some fellow introduce himself as an ASIO agent. After a few questions about Cubbie Station and Mr Grabbe’s life in general, he twigged to the caller’s identity.
“I know Bill’s voice now, so it wasn’t long before I realised who it was. It’s the sort of thing that would go on in kindergarten.�
Just think, if we had fast internets, citizens could upload non-pr0n video of their orgasms to this site:
http://suicidegirls.com/news/culture/21605/
Hang on, maybe best not to tell Senator Coonan that.
If what you have stated is Heffernans behaviour,surely it could be unlawful and,subject to a number of laws including impersonation of a agent of the Commonwealth. Unless he doubles up as a Politician and also derives an income from A.S.I.O!? I have almost panic whenever I now receive a Telstra bill. They maybe exploiting me,but, they are not my contemporary enemy. I do not think the Cubbie Station owner always has played clean,but,if, Heffernan did do that it might explain the local National Party resistance to Heffernan,which is very personal on both sides,and on that front the Owner of Cubbie,could and should talk with the honest farm and townsfolk in N.S.W. sooner than later.
That’s Tim Dunlop’s argument - Heffernan is acting illegally and should be charged. You couldn’t get away with making a “joke” in an airport about terrorism, so why should “it’s just a bit of fun” be a get out of jail free card for Heffernan?
Yeah, best not let Coonan in on that one. You linking to that in the context of a discussion of Bill Heffernan has conjured momentarily some horrifying possibilities, Mark. Nothing more bamboozling than sex-positive pollies. Scares me just to think of it. I’m glad they’re all prudes, actually.
It may be for the best!
8 GB? A month? How does anyone survive on 8GB a month? The fact you get shaped (”service becomes slower”) after you exceed your plan of course has nothing to do with broadband speeds. Upgrade! (but not with Bigpond. Ugh.)
Amanda, I’m in the same predicament. But I’ve been advised that most of the other alternatives that are cheaper and have a bigger quota offer slower speeds than Bigpond cable.
Well I don’t know but if I were shopping around for broadband I would do nothing without consulting Whirlpool, the “Broadband Choice” comparison thingy and the forums. http://whirlpool.net.au/
I have 20Gb peak and 40 GB off peak with iinet and am bumping my quota with more than a week to go til refresh. Gah.
A friend of mine did, and concluded we were stuck with Telstra or Optus because the cheaper plans worked via ADSL and cable was quicker.
Premature submit. What I know about Bigpond is that they are one of the few to metre uploads as well as downloads which sounds like bad value to me.
I thought cable was (marginally) faster for downloading large amounts of stuff but if you have an 8gb monthly quota you’re not doing that so don’t think you’d be getting much value out of it. Alot more outfits provide ADSL though so its cheaper and I’d say the difference in speed is completely unnoticable.
That’s true.
I have found the cable connection extremely reliable, though, and I gather that’s not necessarily the case with ADSL.
I never have real problems with my ADSL2. But anyway, whatever works for you. I just have a very bad impression of Bigpond.
I’m on the same Liberty 12 Gig plan, and I’ve used 6.2 gig. I normally only use around 7-8 gig per month anyway.
I’m with bigpond because they are the only ISP which you don’t need a credit card (I’m on the DSP and I don’t want a CC) and you can pay in cash at your nearest Telstra Shop or Australia Post office. Every other ISP I know of won’t even let you sign up unless you have a Credit Card.
I don’t have a credit card either, but a debit card does the trick.
I’m a cash person
But the fact is Telstra own the copper in the street and the infrastructure for ADSL1 (I’m on a sub-exchange) - anything goes wrong I only have one company to deal with. If you’re with another company, and there is a problem beyond their network, then they have to contact Telstra who then come out to do the work and sometimes they get it wrong big time. Better to cut out the middle man and deal with the one Telco - less headaches. Plus it does help if you have the direct number for the head of Telstra Cabling - it took me 5 years to get ADSL, and it involved a level 2 tech to remove me off a pair-gains system onto ISDN, and then pressuring them to install a pillar to the sub-exchange.
Its really going to depend on how far away you are from the exchange and the quality of your copper line. If you’re out in the sticks and you find your phone line gets a bit crackly when it rains because the conduits leak, then you’re going to have problems with ADSL. If you’re in the burbs close to an exchange then ADSL2 will probably be better - and you don’t have the trouble of your network slowing down because your neighbours happen to be bittorrenting movies - ADSL is dedicated capacity for the user, rather than shared, as cable is (as long as your ISP has suffient external capacity, but good ones do).
I believe Internode let you do direct debit - in fact they charge extra if you want to use a credit card.
I’ve been looking around for a house for a while - is it only me that wishes that the real estate agents listed how fast the maximum broadband connection you get to the house is? I’ve resorted to mapping where the telephone exchanges are, and only considering houses within a certain radius.
Interesting point, Chris.
I’m a renter in the inner city so cable connections are probably about as good as they come.
My friend and I have been discussing her intention to buy her mum a laptop and sign her up for broadband and that’s where it gets really tricky - because she’s in Maroochydore and the nearest exchange is Buderim (quite a distance) and we suspect the copper wire isn’t all that flash.
If you are still getting capped at 10GB you should upgrade your account to the new 12gb plan. Its the same plan they have just increased the limit. They just don’t do it for you.
You will then have an extra 2GB to spend on the horrors of the Intertubes!
“Every other ISP I know of won’t even let you sign up unless you have a Credit Card.”
I am with aaNet, and they offer monthly direct debit from your bank account.
And I highly recommend Whirlpool for info comparing different ISPs.
I’m not a fan of Direct Debit - I don’t even have a Bank Account, I get paid by Cheque and cash it via the family Winery. I prefer dealing with Cash, you know people will get their money and I don’t like the idea of giving a company carte blanche access to your money, I’d liken it to giving a thief the keys to your house and a note to help themselves.
And I’ve said earlier, unless the ISP own the infrastructure in the exchange, you are basically buying a resold Telstra product anyway. Id prefer to cut out the middle man and I know Bigpond will still be around whereas all these resellers of Telstra Wholesale may go out of business tomorrow.
Wine’s a far more reliable medium of exchange than money, to be sure
Best use of the internet by far:
Convicted criminal pictures
Speaking of ministerial incomprehension over the intertubes, when Dickie “Deadeye” Alston was telecommunications minister, he attended a meeting where the subject of internet gambling was raised. Dickie wondered aloud why this should be such a problem as persistent gamblers would soon find themselves unable to afford all those long distance phone charges.
My snouts who attended said even Dickie’s advisors were wincing as everyone tried not to catch eachother’s eye across the table.
As for the future of broadband in Australia, it’s worth keeping an eye on COLT.
Also I wonder if Bill Heffernan has had a little ASIO card made up so he can flash it at people. I’m sure it would be quite the icebreaker next time he’s down the Cross interviewing rentboys.