20MB? LOL

"then again the service should reach every home without fail, no?"

No. There will be distance limitations with this as there is with DSL.

hmm ok. cheers for clearing that up (and Ken above as well).

maybe if you lived in Tassie you would understand we don't have the choices mainland Aust, this is a trial i don't believe they are looking for a return on this trial, maybe just trying to cover some cost.

Its a perfect service for my type of use, 1/1MB with 500MB does my fine, and yes it will stream good quality video, just not much of it.

Choices

maybe if you lived in Tassie you would understand we don't have the choices mainland Aust

OK, so we don't have cable internet. We already have wireless, we already have fibre, and we already have ADSL. What other choices do mainland Aust have?

this is a trial i don't believe they are looking for a return on this trial, maybe just trying to cover some cost.

Are you suggesting then that their prices will increase?

We already have wireless

There's wireless and then there's wireless. What kind of wireless?

wont be that long b4 adsl 2 plus will be

avaible in hobart
iinet has their dslam up, and primus soon
the hobart davy street exchange is the only adsl 2 plus exchange in tasmania atm, but heard others will start to follow shorty. may be up to 6 months b4 we see the full effect of it.

I think the tasmanian goverment was a tad behind the 8ball, i thought they allocated millions of dollars to roll out fibre optic cables right throughout the state, and have not even started roll out. they should of done this the same time the was digging up the roads to lay the gas lines, then the stupid goverment could of setup their own adsl2 network,and dslams in the telstra exchanges, and had more compedative prices that was affordable for all tasmanians, than their highway robbery prices of bpl.

"BPL is much more secure than wireless"

So Einstein..... Care to enlighten us on how this is so?

I sent off a couple of enquiries to TasTel last week, asking this (do they provide link layer security?), among other things. No response as yet. Not particularly impressive customer service but there you go.

It would be interesting to see how many of these plans were available in Tasmania, my guess would be very little and in the areas of the trial none. BPL is being trialed in areas that cannot get ADSL or ADSL2, and the vast majority of people in these areas are on dial-up.

ADSL/ADSL2

BPL is being trialed in areas that cannot get ADSL or ADSL2, and the vast majority of people in these areas are on dial-up.

I think you will find you are mistaken. The consensus here is that ADSL is most definitely available in Tollmans Hill, and that in fact the hill is connected to the only exchange in Tasmania that currently provides ADSL2.

Not enough Ports avaliable

I am so over telstra, called iinet, and found out that they dont have efficent ports left for the adsl 2 speeds in the davy street exchange. i wont be going with them then.

Have you used a BPL service???

A few examples of unsubstantiated & outright untrue points in this comparison table:

In your opinion!!

I have a BPL service on the trial so how about i answer your questions for you.

- Speed, Its a lot faster than any dial up or ADSL service i have used.
- Cost, Happy to pay this price for always on access, and it compares nicley to Telstra plans except unlimited plans and i don't need or want them.
- VoIP phone access included, it is i turn the modem on and pluged my phone in and there was dial tone, so i made a cal, its included, the ATA is built in and pre-configured be fore delivery.
- Intergrated Internet and VoIP, 3 ports on the BPL Modem one for phone and LAN/USB
- Cheap VoIP calls, damm site cheaper than Telstra phone and unlike most VoIP services plug and use, happy to pay a few cents extra for convenience.
- Suitable for video, Again i have tried this and the 1.0MB speed handles video well.
- Available within residential areas (its a trial! hardly available anywhere!)I think they mean it's not in the Metro/CBD as most large bandwidth plans are located with cheap prices these forums are comparing it with, if you were on ISDN you would swap like lighting to one of these plans.

Maybe you try one before you make to many rash statements, i did!!

And if VoIP quality keeps improving it's good bye Telstra and my line rental, i have the mobile for power outages.

Speed, Its a lot faster than any dial up or ADSL service i have used

I think the point was that if you are lucky enough to be served by an exchange that has DSLAMs from an ISP who offers ADSL2 and you are close enough to the exchange (and you don't have to be particularly close) then you can readily get speeds that have faster download than the 4Mbit plan described here (or even than the 12Mbit plan that is Price On Application). I mean you don't even need ADSL2 in order to exceed 4Mbit. In other words, the speeds are not outstanding or unique in the Australian residential market. (*)

I suspect that TasTel are primarily focussing their sights on Telstra/Bigpond (thus the VoIP side of it is of equal importance) and hence see themselves as competing with Bigpond's current best offering, which is a modest 1.5Mbit/256kbit.

(*) OK, I doubt anyone's ADSL/ADSL2 can beat the upload on the 12Mbit/4Mbit plan, which plan I am lusting after. I would much rather have 12Mbit/4Mbit than 20Mbit/1Mbit - but everyone's needs are different. I am ignoring this plan because it's POA. As they say, if you have to ask the price, you probably can't afford it.

What has Amateur Radio Ever Done For Us?

(This is a big post as it seems many people have the misconception that ham radio is an old, irrelevant technology that is useless, so I am trying to inform about the many aspects of ham radio. Many hams understand today's technology better than the general public using it-mobile phones for example. I've taken the time to read about and research bpl, and I'd like the pro-bpl people to research about ham radio so you can make actaully make informed comments.

Amateur Radio and it's operators have been at the forefront of wireless communications since it's inception at the turn of the 20th century. Always have been. Always will be.

1950's: Development of SSB communications in conjuction with Military (US Air Force) for long-range jet bombers.

-Development of the internet in conjunction with military. (And we had packet radio networking computers together when Apple IIe and C64 were 'new' which could send/receive messages and files) Packet radio gave birth to the BBS, which in turn became today's internet. (So one could argue, that without 'hams', there may not have been an internet, or at least it's development much slower)

-Digital radio

-The back-radio sytem for NASA's Space Program is amateur radio. Students regulary speak with astrounats aboard the Space Station. I'm yet to see any NASA mission where the astrounats log on to Yahoo Chat or IRC for a public chat. Some hams are lucky enough to speak direct to the shuttle or ISS. Try that on IRC!

-Started using and developing VoIP. Way before anyone was using VoIP for phones, amateurs had linked repeaters and their own stations to the internet, so one can now call any other country repeater to repeater via the internet using several VoIP systems, mainly IRLP, Echolink, eQSO and Iphone.

-Our own satellites in space, using all kinds of voice & digital modes, even computer linking.

-Early television

-The world's first 'broadcast' was by a radio amateur, a few years later commercial broadcasting appeared.

-Sending of pictures via radio, called SSTV, before computers existed. (No, your mobile with picture sending is very old, not new, technology.)

-Provides real-time weather data to the US Weather Service.

-When Skylab crashed over WA, it was hams who helped monitor it.

-In Melbourne, we have our own TV channel (22) which we can use just like 2,7,9 & 10, excpet that any licensed ham can transmit TV across Melbourne on this channel.

-Our own GPS system called APRS. (www.findu.com) (www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?vk3ur-9)

If "old technolgy must give way to the new" I wonder if you no longer listen to broadcast radio, have had telstra remove your POTS service, thrown out and never use a GSM phone anymore, etc etc.

In any field, getting rid of the old as soon as something new comes almost always ended in disaster. New should complement and work in harmony with the old.

And with most hams, I am not against BPL itself. What I am against is the delivery technology, especially since the US ARRL (amateur radio rep body) now has a Motorola BPL system installed at W1AW ('home' of ham radio) which does not cause harmful interference. The BPL systems been deployed here do cause harmful interference and that is the problem. If the companies peddling BPL put as much time, effort and money into R & D instead half-truth publicity campaigns, they may have come up with a viable option by now. Let's not forget that BPL affects the RFDS, ABC, Military, Police, Fire, Ambulance, CASA, Air Services Australia, Remote Cattle Stations, School of The Air and any other user of the radio spectrum between 0-30MHz as much as hams, in some cases even more so, with life-threatning consequences.

Some of you may find your TV, radio and 30MHz cordless phone rendered useless by BPL, but the BPL companies don't tell you that.

Nor do they tell you, that they will more than likely be designated a 'secondary service', which means (whilst this is the rule BPL co's want changed) "not cause harmful interference to primary services" and "accept interference from primary services".
As an (and the only) unlicensed user of the HF radio spectrum (everyone else pays an annual fee to the Aust. Comms. Media Auth.)
they, ie you, the bpl customer will have to accept interference my (or other) amateur transmissions or any other radio transmission.

If the bpl system was in my street every time I talked your computer will freeze and you will have to accept that as you and your bpl provider, will be at best, given unlicensed 'secondary service' status. And whilst I won't be purposefully transmitting all the time, I will not be changing my operating practices for a bpl system.

BPL would be great for VoIP linking my VHF radio via echolink (www.echolink.org) to the web, but not at the expense of my HF operating.

BTW not all hams are "old" using "tube radios". Some of those "old" hams may be using old tube radios, but some will be using the latest communications technology, and there are also young people in ham radio who use both old and new gear as well.

And yes, I have read and researched BPL, from both sides, so please try and make informative comments by researching what it is you are talking about. The country where bpl came from, Japan, have banned it, wonder why? Now theses Japanese co's can't sell it in Japan they're trying the 'sell it elsewhere' approach.

Let us also not forget that the 2.4GHz band some of you may use is actually a ham radio band, and non-hams can use up to 4 watts between 2.4 and 2.463 GHz. Hams can use up to 120 watts from 2.4 to 2.45 GHz. Hams can (and are) experimenting with this band and 802.11, non-hams can't really experiment with it, except for testing it's range and making your own antenna. It will be the hams, yet again, that further develop and discover things about this band and mode which will benefit everyone-not just hams.

Ham radio has been *the ONLY communications working* in affected areas after:
Cyclone Tracey (1979), Black Friday (1930s), Ash Wednesday (1983),
Newcastle Earthquake (1989), Hurricane Katrina, Asian Tsunami, September 11th, Sydney To Hobart Yacht Race Emergency to name but a few.

The Red Cross & Salvation Army rely on ham radio in their work too. Without it, many of the dedicated people, working with people in third world countries rely on ham radio to 'connect' to the outside world. In many cases, ham radio does exactly what the internet does in places the internet doesn't exist, it actually bridges the gap on the 'information superhighway'.

As in Monty Python's 'The Life of Brian,' "What have ham radio operators ever done for us?"

(1)All Radio Amateurs are, in effect, government radio stations for ANY service or agency that may require our assistance at any time. Which means,you, the public, have 14,122 back up emergency stations scattered across Australia at no cost ever to you at all. Every one of our shacks is a back-up communications system for every citizen of the world (this means YOU) and this country-not just hams. (It's on our licence and in our "Regulations" exam that we must listen to any emergency call "Mayday" or Urgency "Pan Pan Pan" signal heard and take appropriate action.)

(2)Radio Amateurs don't need any form of training to be police, fire, ambulance or many other 'dispatchers' should the need arise, and in many cases know more about the equipment they are operating than the actual dispatchers!

(3)We can repair the sytems we are using ourselves.

(4)Radio Amateurs most basic (and oldest) form of communications HF Morse Code, will work when all else fails.

(5)Unlike the internet (ISP), mobile phone (tower), fixed phone (lines), satellite (a satellite in range and accesible) all a ham needs is a radio+antenna+power source, there is no infrastructure (in brackets) needed mid point or need for a 240VAC from the power station.

(6) Our service is a dispersed and decentralized communications system that can't be shut down by terrorist attack or other disaster.

(7)Public safety agencies rely on central dispatch stations, amateur radio operators can go on the air just about anywhere anytime.

(8) Hams are trained communicators with technical knowledge that prepares them to put their stations on the air at remote sites quickly, creating makeshift facilities when needed.

(9) Amateur radio operators don't have to wait for technicians to arrive to repair equipment or re-program computers. Hams can do it themselves on the fly.

(10) Unlike cell phones and the Internet, ham radios can handle massive surges in traffic and rarely succumb to technical glitches.

(11) Can link in with Military systems if needed for both civil defense and other purposes.

"Many of the local communities served by these Hams have extremely 1imited resources and would be without a backup communications system were it not for the Hams. The services provided by these Hams often involves life threatening situations." ( Paul K. Reid, Jr, FEMA)

"America's quiet warriors are the legion of ham radio operators, 700,000 of them, who are always at ready for backup duty in emergencies – amateur, unpaid, uncelebrated, civilian radio operators, during and after floods and fires and tornadoes. After the 9/11 attacks, hams were indispensable in reuniting friends and families. Most recently it was they who expedited the search for debris after the disaster to the space shuttle Columbia, and right now, at this moment, they are involved in homeland security to a greater degree than you would want me to make public." — Paul Harvey News and Comment, ABC Radio, March 19, 2003

"We're very dependent on ham radio folks," said Ron Castleman, chief operating officer for the Homeland Security Department's Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate, formerly the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "When something adverse does happen, they're first to keep the information flowing, often without electricity."

The same applies down under and all over the world.

Please don't destroy our hobby for the sake of the internet. Our skills and knowledge could one day be used to save your life, or you could have a mother, father, son or daughter-anybody-for example-who was in Florida recently, then the only way you could find out if they were safe was ham radio.

Let's work together and find a solution that is amicable to all concerned.

"Many have made such scare mongering claims, but have failed to substantiate them."

Like wise many of the manufacturers have made claims that the issue had been fixed, but have failed to substantiate them.

"By using these plans/prices/data limits, it's only making people laugh and look the other way."

It may also be, as someone else stated, to reduce usage.

Basically unlike DSL it all goes down the same wires so if everyone hits it hard they'll be faced with the requirement to increase overall bandwidth usage on the power lines and in crease the amount of "now fixed" interference. Leading to issues that may cause the ACMA to frown on the results of the trial.

"And where did I imply BPL would not have an access fee?"

You didn't they did have a look at their website.

Tolmans Hill *HAS* ADSL...

Tolmans Hill already HAS ADSL...

A friend of mine lives there - up the top (nice view!) - and has Bigpond 512k...

It's the only part of Mt Nelson that CAN get it...
The rest is too far away (trans loss)

If they'd run with BPL to Mt Nelson *INSTEAD* of Tolmans Hill, they may have a warmer reception... if they fixed the quota allowances... and the voip pricing...

A friend of mine lives there - up the top (nice view!) - and has Bigpond 512k...

It's absolutely crazy to see someone on the only exchange in the state which can get ADSL2 - using BIGPOND of all ISPs!!

BPL limit

What makes you think that BPL will work more than 6km from an access point?
BPL is hyped to the nth degree at the moment.
BPL may be suitable to deploy in some areas, but it will never compete with the newer wireless technologies or even ADSL. BPL needs lots of injection points. How far do you think a modem can push a signal up a noisy power line? It would need kilowatts to get it 6km up the line!
So, BPL would be very expensive to deploy and, while they are talking 200Mb/s speeds, universal availablity... they are really dreaming!!!
Twisted copper wires as used for phones and ADSL were also never meant to carry high speed data but at least they are a "predictable" medium and line impedances, attenuation etc can be determined for every connection.
Try that with a power line, where things are constantly changing, appliance turned on and off, power drills making a racket, switch mode power supplies from TV's, computers etc etc etc radiating into the network...

There is more "spin" than you can poke a stick at.

Cheers

It would need kilowatts to get it 6km up the line!

I'm no electrical engineer but kilowatts is one thing that you would think they have lots of. (-:

But seriously one of the issues with the expandsl technology that Bigpond is trialling is that you can only have one repeater that is powered from the exchange i.e. 2km out from the exchange. If you need more repeaters to bring the customer premises to within the ADSL limit of the last repeater then you have to source power at the site of the extra repeater(s), not always straightforward. This is at least one problem that TasTel does not have.

Kilowatts

"I'm no electrical engineer but kilowatts is one thing that you would think they have lots of. (-:"

Sure, they have lots of kilowatts... but I am talking about a modem that feeds modulated RF into the powerpoint to hopefully reach an access/injection point some km down the line. I would think it will not get very far, hence my comment that there would need to be lots of those access points to make it work. I rather doubt they would throw money at areas where there is no ready market. If Telstra thinks it is not worthwhile to upgrade a telephone exchange to ADSL, then I doubt it would be economical to deploy BPL.
It is also interesting to note that this trial is deployed where most power lines are underground, therefore greatly minimizing potential RF interference. Not a real world situation in my book!
As for the data limits, I am sure there is a lot of method in the madness! I can't see the system supporting too many leechers on the same local infrastructure, so, to discourage that sort of activity, they limit the data and make sure they only get folks who read a few emails and look at a few web pages and don't know about downloading yet!
Cheers

A few Facts might help

BPL transmits its data (usually) in three 2 Mhz bands from the substation and two 2 Mhz bands from the user. These five bands are changed at every repeater to another five bands. They can reuse the first five bands after the second repeater. The distance between repeaters varies on the condition of the power line.
Radiation from the power line depends on how well the power line impedance is matched to the transmitter.
The match is usually rather poor. The worse the match the more radiation and the smaller the BPL signal and the sooner another repeater is needed. Spacing between repeaters can be as small as 100 metres or may if they are lucky get up to around 400 metres.

You can see from the above that 20 Mhz can be used by every repeater. This is a large slice of the HF radio spectrum of 2 to 30 Mhz. If we take the Queanbeyan system as an example the BPL signals in the street are such that if they notched a frequency there would only be a 20 db reduction in signal strength.
To remove the interference 70 db reduction was needed.

The problem is that their so called mitigation of interference is a fraud, 20db is nowhere near enough. Interference can be heard out to 1Km and at times out to 2 Km from the BPL powerleine.

The other side of this radiation coin is that the BPL system also receives radio signals because it has an antenna connected to it.

Tests in the US and Europe have shown that the BPL system will stop dead if a close by transmitter of 5 watts operates.
A transmitter of 400 watts can stop BPL at about 500 metres distance. All this is dependant on the orentation of the powerline and transmitter antenna.
However the word is that an el cheapo hairdryer is well able to stop BPL.
BPL does work, I have seen it but to pollute such a valuable natural rescource as the most valuable part of the spectrum is nothing short of criminal.

There are problems with interference despite what the spokesman for Aurora said. The reason that there was no interference was because they turned that street off before they went to the complainents house.
This investigation technique has already been reported in the US when the ARRL went to North Carolina to do some measurements.

Cheers

Interference

"Well if you can't hear the interference and if you live in Hobart, then the watts off the RF band leakage must be low."

This just shows that you really don't have any idea what HF communications is all about. Indeed, you may not hear an interfering signal a few km from the source, however, HF propagates very differently to any other radio frequency. That interfering signal, low power as it may be at the source, will pop up 100's or even 1000's of kms away. It may surpise you that it is possible to maintain 2 way communications from Australia with stations in Europe or anywhere else in the world using LESS than 1 Watt of radiated power under the right conditions within the 3 to 30 Mhz spectrum.
Why pollute such a valuable resource as the HF radio spectrum with its unique properties, when there are other means to deliver internet services.
Cheers

Do they want this trial to fail?

They seem to want it to fail. You would have to be pretty clueless to sign up for a broadband service that gives you 20MB of data a month. And if you did, it won't take long until you realise that you have been badly ripped off.

I can see the calls to the support line now.

Customer: "Yes, hello, I've plugged in my modem for the first time, it worked well for about 20 minutes, but now it's no faster than my old dial-up modem."

Support: "Yes, sir, that is because you have used up your monthly allowence, we hope you have enjoyed using our service."

I suppose I should not have expected anything better from a QUANGO.

Speed down/up: 256kb/64kb
$ per month: $14.95
Included Data MB: 20
Extra Data $/MB: $0.10

More like, "I had $2000 in my bank account, where'd it go?".

EDIT: Just saw this "Speed reduction once data usage reaches 150% of included data (to ensure your bill remains under control)".

Looks good

To me there is only one problem with the trail and that is TasTel doing it they are not and have not been known for the cheapest prices in town

Maybe you should take another look?

Contact TasTel get their lastest call prices and compare them to Telstra, Optus and any other Telco out their, i think you will find their competitive plus they design their plans for Tasmanians not East Coast Australia.

I am glad TasTel are doing the trial at least i can contact them unlike most larger Telco's.

oh dear another good idea gone very very wrong, what idiot came up with the plans ??

depends on your point of view!!!

Maybe they want to manage the amount of load applied to the network? I would, its a new product, untested in this enviroment, a good way to do this would be to have plans that restrict the heavy users? and slowly apply services, you know the sort of thing you do when your trialing a new technology.

Whos the idiot?

Thats no moon....

its a rock of crock.

The foolharder little doo dars who came up with these plans are the same ones who came up with the idea of the great benefits of super high speed internet with a massive download of 20MB.

For those ppl in tas who arent too savy about what 20MB is exactly, i can see a lot of ppl over here who are going to be getting a massive phone bill, if this is a trial then bring the prices down or bring up the download limits...just my 89 cents, im off to the zoo

The market will decide

I am all for new technologies and players entering the broadband market. The market will soon decide whether they are a viable option or alternative to existing broadband services. Unless they drop their prices to a level in line with other major ISPs, they will be doomed to the margins.

pfft

what a hunk o' junk

who in hell would pay those prices with those speeds and those download/upload allowances... when it can be got considerably cheaper with adsl/cable...

Yeah, well done champ, ADSL is cheaper but loads of people can't get it in Tasmania, and cable doesn't exist.

So you would pay the crazy prices for BPL if you could not get ADSL? There is no way in hell I would do that - rather stay on dialup - value proposition is just not there...

If I could get BPL, with decent downloads (4mb with say, 40gig downloads) I'd happily pay $100 a month.
Why? Because we don't have shit all else here.

Unfortunately here in Tassie most of us cant get ADSL, ISDN etc...

Both BPL and TasCOLT are being trialled in areas that dont even need this technology and yet again rural Tasmanians miss out.
I would pay for anything that allowed me to gain access to high speed internet access

Ack !

What a total rip off with limits like that..

Australia just keeps on going backwards...

Hopefuly after the other power companies in other states start doing it the price will fall..

But damn, what cant Australia be know for a technology/price breakthrough for once.. instead of waiting for competition to FORCE prices down...

Third world countries have better broadband setups than us !

Speaking as a potential customer:

I am one of those people this technology is being slated for.

I live in Tasmania, about 30ks outside of Launceston.

My local exchange is ADSL enabled, but I hand off some kind of remote local sub-exchange that is connected via fibre to Exeter.
I was informed this week that ADSL is not, and will not be available in my area for a LONG time.

THEN , this trial got announced. I got excited...I am a supporter of the concept.

BUT:

This pricing structure is obscene. There's a profanity missing before the word obscene....

I am a moderate userr of the internet. I download approx 1gb a month.. I am on 56k dialup and its costing me <$30 a month.

I cannot fathom how they came up with this pricing stucture... The data limits are so tiny, that I though it was a misprint... surley they meant gb not mb...... but no...

I'm afraid Aurora, that only your staff will be using this system, seeing as they get a hefty subsidy for being beta testers (and appear to be posting here defending your pricing).

I cant believe that I'm about to condsider those crazy sat plans again... they seem positivley cheap compared to this.

Good Luck Aurora, you're gonna need it!

Not value For Money

I had thought even with Tastels trial of BPL, that their prices would be on comparison to telstra, but I was far wrong when, I was told to watch the news by sales agents from Tastel last weekend.

They are re selling engin voip 10 cent untimed local calls and 10 cents per minute elsewhere in the country. Engin charges 10 cents flatrate to any landline untimed.

Once the trial is finished I would like to know what they mean by network charge, the network charge could cost the cost of having a normal phone line.

I wouldent trust aurora, and or the hydro as far as I could kick them.

Think back when many people was caught out by telstra and recieved internet bills such as $2500, $10500 for example, because of not offering unlimited download plans.

With faster speeds it could even be worse for example 1gb $100

and if they count voip traffic as part of the uploads and downloads, it will even make it a more expensive exercise.

Come on Tastel be realistic, and offer plans that are more compedative, and hurry up and offer normal adsl 2. They do offer normal adsl.

BPL is in it's infancy, perhaps it may never (due to the issues it has) become viable, but i'm sure with improving technology that it will find a home somewhere...

Hopefuly this takes off so that people who can't get ADSL via their phone line can get it via their power line.

Hopefully if it is a sucsess then prices will drop to encourage the adoption of BPL.

BPL will die

COSTS

With the costs that Tastel are charging, and the speeds they are offering we may see more people on shows such as a current affair, and today night, like the old days of telstra, when adsl was hefty, and they didnt have unlimited capped plans.

I think we will see people having a heart aatack once they start getting their bills. I think withe the 4megibit speed plan for eample we will see some nieve people who are new to the net, end up with worse bills than the $2500 $10500 bills that we have seen on curent affairs programs.

I hope with their voip traffice that it is being routed via their voip server and not being counted, if not it wont take long before the upload and download limit will be reached, and megs and megs will be added to the cost of the so called call. I was told by a voip company that i use today if i added a ata box to my modem i could be using as much as 3 megs per hour talking to people on the phone. I had also thought of going with them for adsl and home phone, and was also told that they also count traffic on their voip service even if you choose them to be your adsl provider.

I think people should ask Tastel many questions such as if they count the voip traffic going to and from their voip server, since they are reselling engin, they more likely wont have their own voip server, and it runs straight to engin itself.

After talking to one of the companies that helped tastel set up the bpl, they said to me they thought tastels prices was a misprint, and think that the prices they are charging is not substainable if they want to stay in the market and get market share.

I had thought of giving them a ago but the more i looked into it, i thought no way not value for money at all. VOIP is good, but it isnt as reliable as the normal home phone service, and I wouldent suggest someone who has ill health to totally rely on voip, as voip run through servers, it can crash and not work at times, like that i have allreay found out. Thier are many cheaper voip providers out there so my suggestion is to shop around. i am on a casual plan with gotalk so i dont pay a plan fee only for the calls, and on the $9.95 plan and above your calls are 9.9 cents untimed to any landline in australia and 20cents to 1300 numbers, because i am on the casual plan i am paying 14.9cents per call to land line.

https://www.gotalk.com.a...lt.aspx?tabid=82

people who are new to the net, end up with worse bills than the $2500 $10500

No. The speed capping means they can only get to the bottom end of those kind of dollars. Still might be enough to make it on to ACA though. )-:

Seems they listen

Well, I just check the site and noticed the plans have changed...
Packages, so they listened or have had more than enough complaints, but charging extra for Antivirus and AntiSpam protection. Might as well do it yourself for those prices.

Power_4000 4Mb/1Mb Waived for pilot $79.95 2000

Value for money

Put me down for the 20Mb plan, please.

20 MB

We Thought Tel$tra was Money Hungry No Its Ta$ Tel. I Give Apoligies To Telstra

lol

well said.

If any thing goes with the way they charge for elecrity in tasmania by aurora, then tastel will fail. They need to be more realistic on prices. I thought they would of set it up to woo telstra customers. If they had realistic prices that was compairble to telstra then I may have thought of giving it a go.

They need to listen to people, the taxpayers of tasmania who own them, and not rip them off.

Unfortunately I feel that if TasTel go to the rural areas they will reap the benefits big time, as most rural Taswegians dont have access to high speed internet - most of us would happily pay the prices advertised recently by TasTel. HEll - I would probaly pay more for BPL or TasCOLT especially considering the options of HDTV and VIOP etc... this could be huge to Tasmanias infrastructure.

BPL sux

BPL, causes mass intererence to HF radio communications systems in area's its implemented. Hate to see what Stray RF down you power lines does to sensitive medical equipment.