The Joys of Internet

Finally!!!   We are back online and so excited!   I can't believe we lasted so long without it.   The only thing that kept us going was the 3G on our mobiles, but even that was chewed up so quickly we had to ration ourselves to one look at Facebook per day!

So while we're on the subject, I might as well let you know about the joy of setting up internet in Australia.  For those of you that are moving over here, consider this a priority and get researching as soon as you have a new home to move into.  I waited until we moved, thinking it wouldn't take more than a few days.  And Oh how wrong I was!

So the first thing to note is that Telstra is the BT of Australia.   They own the phone lines and all other providers go through them.   This does not mean that are the cheapest!

There are many service providers that you can go with and the best thing to do is just research what each has to offer to suit your needs.   Most of them will do phone/broadband/tv packages.  

The main providers I’ve heard of along the way are iiNet, Telstra, TPG, and Dodo.   The service has not been amazing from any of the providers so I wouldn't recommend one over the other for that reason.  All I can do is tell you what we went with.   

We chose to go with iiNet’s TV Combo.  For $119 a month you get the broadband, phone line and Fetch TV.  This includes the monthly rental of the super sleek modem and phone, 200GB of internet and all landline calls made within Australia.   Fetch TV is the usual free channels plus a few extras, but the best part is that we can pause, rewind and record!  The adverts here are a nightmare so this is almost as important as having internet!  We also have access to newly released movies that we can rent but get 30 free ones to start us off.

We can upgrade the TV to include more channels but with baby on the way we’re waiting to see if we need them - Brad will be far too busy to need the sports channels!