As an Apple Macintosh user, there is nothing to recommend the bigpond internet product from Telstra, relative to iinet & thus westnet, unless Telstra is the only service provider in your area. As a mac user, essentially all your internet traffic (both uploads & downloads) are counted towards your monthly Gigabyte limit, ie Apple software updates (a bevy of Apple software updates can exceed the monthly limit of Telstra's cheapest plan - this being only 600 MB - in one run of Software Update). Any iTunes product (movie trailers, music purchases or movie rentals) are counted, as are ABC iView streaming of recent ABC TV shows. The cited examples are all part of the iinet freezone. Bigpond's own movie rentals & pay TV offerings, although not counted as part of the bigpond traffic limit, are not usable on Apple computers running an Apple OS, because the products rely on Windows only DRM. If you have an intel mac, you could purchase Windows and a product like Parallels and run windows on the intel mac to get access to the bigpond free content, so you may not be so technically constrained as Apple PPC users. Therefore, as a fulltime mac user, the 12 GB/25GB per month products from bigpond, depending upon your internet tastes, may only be equivalent to a 3/6 GB product from iinet. On the phone side of things, I am noting that iinet's VOIP product, with its much cheaper calls, has improved remarkably in quality - however there can be good reasons to maintain a more expensive standard POTS service (iinet market this as Phone1) , than switch to something like iinet's Naked service which offers only VOIP calls.
Richard On Sat May 2 22:59 , Malcolm McCallum <doc...@westnet.com.au> sent: >Suppose it would not hurt . >Mac >On 02/05/2009, at 10:35 PM, Robert Howells wrote: > >> >> On 02/05/2009, at 9:42 PM, David Moyle wrote: >> >>> Promised you an approximate speed.. :) >>> >>> ----- Original Message ----- >>> From: "Malcolm McCallum" doc...@westnet.com.au> >>> To: "WAMUG Mailing List" wamug@wamug.org.au> >>> Sent: Saturday, 2 May, 2009 9:39:38 PM GMT +08:00 Beijing / >>> Chongqing / Hong Kong / Urumqi >>> Subject: Telstra. >>> >>> >>> I have just had a very plausible-- and pleasant Indian salesperson >>> at >>> my door and he talked me into changing from Westnet who have given me >>> exceptional service for some years. >> >> >> So did you ask westnet to quote on the same package ? >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >>> They (Telstra) have promised me >>> speeds of !7 megs approx and $70 dollars less on my combined >>> telephone/ >>> Foxtel/internet cost as well as reliable well supported services. I >>> told the salesperson I would personally remove his reproductive >>> organs >>> if he did not stick to his side of the bargain. :-) >> >> >>> I have a rule not to buy anything at the front door , >> >> >> A damn good rule ! I suspect you have been sold by the silver >> tongue ! >> >> Bob >> >> >> >> >> >> >>> I hope I do not regret breaking my >>> rule :-( >>> >>> Mac >>> >>> PS I have a 10 day cooling off period. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- >>> Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> >>> Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> >>> Unsubscribe - >>> wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au','','','')">wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au> >>> >>> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- >>> Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> >>> Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> >>> Unsubscribe - >>> wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au','','','')">wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au> >> >> >> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- >> Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> >> Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> >> Unsubscribe - >> wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au','','','')">wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au> > > >-- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- >Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> >Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> >Unsubscribe - >wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au','','','')">wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au> >) -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au>