Well, I’ve got myself a little present to replace the horrible dialup I’ve been stuck on for so long. Over the last 4 years I’ve continually researched options for broadband and there was no way I could get it, and the few options (like satellite) were too outrageously expensive to consider.
But now finally an option has become available with Optus, for $39.95 a month (if you already have a phone with them) you can get wireless broadband with 5G download using the 3G and GSM network. Seemed to good to be true! The other mobile phone carriers that I’d previously researched didn’t have coverage out where I live, except Telstra and they’re very expensive.
So yesterday I signed up for it, since it’ll end up being cheaper than the cost of my dialup and extra landline combined. However, it hasn’t turned out to be quite as exciting as I expected. Unfortunately I didn’t research the difference between 3G and GSM and there’s significantly different speeds between the 2. 3G is quite fast broadband speeds, however the GSM network is much slower, only a little bit quicker than dialup.
So, needless to say my house is stuck in the GSM network. But I have to say it IS faster than my old dialup and at least I can take the USB modem anywhere. I can actually use it as a portable modem on my laptop, so that’s pretty cool. Even travelling on the train or something. Maybe when I’m teaching a class at Zest (that’ll be in the 3G area) I’ll go out and do some work on my websites from a park or something, lol.
So I’m really happy and disappointed at the same time. I haven’t actually lost out, but I’m just frustrated that I can’t get the super fast speeds from where I live. At least the house is for sale anyway, so maybe I won’t have the problem for much longer!