Broadband & The Adelaide Market
Choosing A Broadband Provider
Dealing with ISP's on an almost daily basis, there are only 2 ISP's worth considering at the moment and that is either Adam or Internode. We have had a few dealings recently with Adam internet and they gave me direct access to their engineers to help solve problems for their customers, which is a level of customer service not often seen.
Internode are also a worthwhile consideration, although their plans are more costly than Adam internet and we do not consider their support to be any better than Adam Internet.
Most of our business customers are on Internode due to some of the technology they use although Adam have recently caught up in this area too.
Common Decision Avenues
We would like to call this common mistakes, however this article is based on opinions gained through experience rather than hard facts. I'm sure the consistent bad experiences with the big ISP's over several years are isolated experiences that other I.T consulting firms never face.
Generally the less a client knows about broadband, the greater the chance they will go with either Telstra, Optus, or (for some strange reason) AAPT. Going with these three ISP's is only a bad idea if you value your time and your wallet. If you like paying for a technician at $150 per hour to spend 4 hours chasing up passwords, then either of these ISP's will serve you well.
IInet is another shining example of poor service. Trying to tell a client that they have to wait 3 working days to get a change made all the while knowing full well its a 30 second job is no fun at all. What does this mean for the average business then?
Speed Support & Features
These are the two areas that need your greatest attention. Unfortunately many focus on saving a couple of bucks a month and then complain bitterly about the service.
What makes it even more difficult is these spend thrift types generally go for the absolute lowest cost plan, for example a 200mb plan from Bigpond, not because they are cheapskate charlies, its because they don't understand the underlying technology, they are blind to the extra value of more expensive plans, and so they see a $30 broadband plan versus a $60 broadband and of course there's no competition, the cheapest plans win every time.
Unfortunately a great majority of people who are signed up to these 200mb broadband plans would not know the difference between 200mb and 6 kilos of spuds Bigpond know this, and benefit a great deal from people who are not up on the latest technology.
As a gauge, on a decent ADSL connection you can get through 200mb in less than 5 minutes of downloading, it really is a small limit. 5GB should be the absolute bottom line for anyone that is not sure, or at least get a plan that does not charge for excess downloads, this basically means any ISP apart from the majority of Bigpond and Optus plans.
The big ISP's often block popular ports that enable "extra" features (standard everywhere else) for example, port 25 is blocked on Telstra servers preventing the easy use of an email server at your business. It means sending emails like myemail@my business.com.au is not possible, you have to use @bigpond.net.au.
Stay Local
Internode, one of the biggest ISP's in Australia started in Adelaide, it has its head office in Adelaide. If the service gets that poor or you feel in some way aggrieved, you can drive to their office and demand to see an actual human being. The same goes for Adam internet, they are a local ISP. Apart from the fact it feels good to support local business, their support is so far ahead of the competition that its very hard to express in writing.
My Internet's Bundled With The Phone To Save Money
It seems not a week goes by when we don't hear this one!
Sorry, its hogwash, a myth. If you believe you save money doing this then we have some genuine Persian rugs valued at $10,000 that have been discounted by 80% (and they all gotta go, out the door, were closing down!!)
Basically what has happened here is that a representative of whatever big company you have your phones with rings you up and says "We have a deal on our broadband at the moment that if you bundle it with your phone bill will save you lots of money"
They then go on to basically tell you what you want to hear, they commonly use aggressive sales techniques to baffle and confuse people into signing up.
They give you an inflated figure to provide broadband access, then discount it to the amount it should be in the first place and say its because they have bundled it with the phone bill.
The Fine Print
This is quite ironic because the ISP that most new customers to broadband trust and ultimately go with is Bigpond (because of the rabbits!!)
Guess which one has the most hidden clauses and has the type of marketing that makes you think you are paying for something other than what you ultimately get.
Read about the excess download limits ordinary Australians are faced with every day, their only crime? Not being technically literate and trusting the telemarketers that represent Bigpond.
An example I hear you ask? Bigpond is the only ISP we know of to charge for uploads, this means your download limit that is advertised as part of your package (and probably a primary reason for choosing the plan) is not a true indication of your entitlement when compared to the other ISP numbers.
Well I never upload I hear you say!! Yes you do, all communication on the internet is two way and some traffic goes the other way which is counted as an upload. Another thing and its a major one, get one of Bigpond's super cheap 200mb plans and just say you get a virus or trojan on your PC that you don't know about.
That virus or trojan may well be uploading merrily for an entire month up to 24 hours a day if you leave your PC on all the time. This could quite conceivably upload gigabytes and gigabytes of data. Because Bigpond charge for uploads, guess who gets to foot the bill? You will and it could be thousands of dollars, quite scary actually.
But They Gave Me A Real Cheap Deal
Yep no doubt! Read the fine print, that super deal you've got for a substandard service (when compared to other ISP's) will probably be valid for a whole 12 months of a 24 or 36 month contract after which you will be paying much higher than normal rates. It will not work out a bargain in the long term.
But I got free stuff!!
Nothing is free, companies make their money back one way or another. A good way to measure this is to look at the widget or gadget you have been given "for free" The better the quality of the free item and the more expensive it is, the more of a ride you are going to be taken for.
Voice Over IP (VOIP)
The holy grail of cheap phone calls. Just a word of warning here. Be very cautious of companies selling cheap phone call packages. They come knocking at your door with all manner of pressies, notebooks, computers, and they promise to save you money on your phone bill. BARGAIN!
We have seen recently some pretty shoddy work in this area with some businesses left without functioning telephone systems after these companies have come in and installed the new system.
The hidden clauses in many of these contracts makes the ISP's look like angels. Be very care full and do your research. Your businesses lines of communication are vital. Don't let the checkered suit brigade talk you into tinkering with it.
Summary
I hope some of these bits of advice will help you to navigate a tricky area for many.
As part of our CRYSYS managed services, we require our clients to either sign up with Adam or Internode for their broadband.
The reason for this is our company takes on the risk of day to day problems for our client for a monthly fee. Because of this we need to rely on decent support, we cannot afford to spend hours on the phone to get something simple done.
Also of note we have no relationship with either of these companies (other than being a customer ourselves) and receive no commission or kickbacks. This allows us to remain impartial and not put our interests ahead of our clients.