Which Mobile service provider are you with.

Labcanary said:
You can gift it to family/friends who are also with Belong. So for example, I don't use much mobile data as I'm often home and use the wifi, but my husband is away from the house more so uses more mobile data. I can gift it to him if he looks to be running low.
Click to expand...
Do you have to actively do so? My partner and I have two Telstra plans ($65/180GB) on the same account and it just rolls them together so we share 360GB all up.

Overkill in most instances but wanted to have full Telstra network - was previously on Optus and found it mostly good except the times I needed to be able to rely on my phone (i.e., MTBing solo) were the times it would most reliably not have coverage. Looked at Belong etc but they're on a slightly restricted version of the Telstra network too.
 
leitch said:
Do you have to actively do so? My partner and I have two Telstra plans ($65/180GB) on the same account and it just rolls them together so we share 360GB all up.
Click to expand...
Yeah, have to do it manually. That's great that you can share the data.
 
Using Moose Mobile on the Optus network. Was $16.80 for 20GB/month (promotional for a year). Looks like their data caps have changed, so I should try dropping down to 12GB when I'm less lazy.
 
ForkinGreat said:
.
I have found iinet's customer service to be worse than useless. I would stay away
(for internet - I assume that for your mobile CS, you would be talking to the same idiots from a random overseas callcentre)

Amaysim for mobile has been good and reliable. can't speak for their more remote country coverage ( i think they use optus towers??)
Customer service was polite, although I found the super strong Phillipino accents of the callcentre staff a bit hard to follow at times, and I'm pretty good with all kinds of accented english.
Click to expand...
Absolutely matches my experience. Iinet somehow deleted my landline phone number, and reallocated someone else's number to my line. Repeated calls to their "service" centre to restore my number drew blanks, and they couldn't even tell what number they'd given me. When my internet disappeared, they were similarly useless, but to cut a bit of slack I suspect the NBN "techs" who did the connection in my street stuffed something up, 'cos that's when it dropped out. Soon after I gave them the arse completely.

Mobile had been on Virgin, but when they shut down I had to go elsewhere. Looked at a few and Amaysim ticked the most boxes for me, so went with them. $20/m for 25GB which banks, and unlimited calls & texts. Yes, they're on the Optus network, which can get a bit flaky in the sticks, but generally not bad.
 
The Duckmeister said:
Absolutely matches my experience. Iinet somehow deleted my landline phone number, and reallocated someone else's number to my line. Repeated calls to their "service" centre to restore my number drew blanks, and they couldn't even tell what number they'd given me. When my internet disappeared, they were similarly useless, but to cut a bit of slack I suspect the NBN "techs" who did the connection in my street stuffed something up, 'cos that's when it dropped out. Soon after I gave them the arse completely.

Mobile had been on Virgin, but when they shut down I had to go elsewhere. Looked at a few and Amaysim ticked the most boxes for me, so went with them. $20/m for 25GB which banks, and unlimited calls & texts. Yes, they're on the Optus network, which can get a bit flaky in the sticks, but generally not bad.
Click to expand...

With me it was some utter barbed wire dildo at iinet ordering the disconnection of our copper landline before we had NBN actually installed.
To say I was angry, would have been a woeful understatement.
my then liberalshitstain federal MP's staffer was actually useful in putting me in touch with an NBN escalation team, who sorted the installation of NBN, and had their people put the cable where we suggested would cause minimum disruption and zero ripping up of concrete, unlike the useless cunts sent out via iinet, who visited several times over a period of months, and kept suggesting stupid ways to route the cable from the kerb to the house.
 
Labcanary said:
You can gift it to family/friends who are also with Belong. So for example, I don't use much mobile data as I'm often home and use the wifi, but my husband is away from the house more so uses more mobile data. I can gift it to him if he looks to be running low.
Click to expand...
Exactly.
 
Seems like as good a place as any to ask:

Does anyone here, just run their mobile phone data as a hotspot for home internet?

My wife is up for renewal of her coles prepaid plan.
I suggested for the cost of her plan, my plan and the broadband we pay for, we could save $400-500 a year by ditching the broadband and just running 5g phone data.

It is only the 2 of us at home and we don't have any streaming subscriptions.
 
fjohn860 said:
Seems like as good a place as any to ask:

Does anyone here, just run their mobile phone data as a hotspot for home internet?

My wife is up for renewal of her coles prepaid plan.
I suggested for the cost of her plan, my plan and the broadband we pay for, we could save $400-500 a year by ditching the broadband and just running 5g phone data.

It is only the 2 of us at home and we don't have any streaming subscriptions.
Click to expand...
It really depends on how strong your phone coverage is. We hotspotted for awhile becasue the wireless NBN was crap, but the phone network wasn't much better, so we were effectively at dial-up speeds.

We also had 4 devices on a family plan and never came near using our data allowance.
 
We have a wifi thingo = ( miseego ? ) as the nbn was diabolical - its fast - is I bit hinky in windy and heavy rain - I live in Macedon ranges
Shared data of approx 350 gb - generally never use it unless - like recently I was home for a month streaming - stuff I cant even remember as by brain was booggered hahaa

However - its reasonably priced for 2 mobiles and the wifi = $ 170 a month ? - with the Telstra pirates

I WFO , its super portable - so could take it on hols if you wanted .
But I have been known the hotspot off my phone for work when needed - but it doesn't seem the use much data - I guess video calls would be a bit more challenging / gaming may be tough also ?
Another option I looked at was starlink - but it was expensive by comparison - it is a lot cheaper now - but you need to purchase the 'dish/ hardware
'
To be honest , I cant complain - its reliable , reasonably priced - just works .
 
fjohn860 said:
Seems like as good a place as any to ask:

Does anyone here, just run their mobile phone data as a hotspot for home internet?

My wife is up for renewal of her coles prepaid plan.
I suggested for the cost of her plan, my plan and the broadband we pay for, we could save $400-500 a year by ditching the broadband and just running 5g phone data.

It is only the 2 of us at home and we don't have any streaming subscriptions.
Click to expand...
I do it. Complicated backstory, but by various means iiNet and NBN collectively fucked up my landline completely, so I told them both to get stuffed.

My mobile is on Amaysim, costs me $25 a month for a generous enough amount of data for one person, and it means I can jump on the net on my laptop anywhere I have mobile coverage. That last bit is the flaw - you need mobile service for it to work.
 
Yeah, we would mostly have WiFi at work so would just be what we use in our home, generally the 5g is pretty good too as that's what I was using to stream the mtb world cups last couple of years (was less laggy than our broadband lol).

Did some numbers this morning and put this table together for some of the (apparently) better options review wise (pinch of salt and all). First belong line is my current plan.

Screenshot_20251206-081101.Excel.png
 
Prior to iiNet's initial fuckup, I was paying about $60/month for a landline connection. After NBN completely finished the fuck-up that left me with no connection at all, but for a while I could tap into open but not free WiFi nodes through a network called Fon, for $45/mo, but it could be pretty patchy, especially in bad weather. Hotspotting off the mobile is basically half the price.
 
Last edited:
Do both networks have good 5G coverage there?

How much data do you need/currently use a month? (home and out)
Could have one cheap plan, and one less so? (And hotspot both)

Spintel do 5G 25Gb at $14 for 6 months (then $22), which is maybe worth a churn to test Optus 5G there?
(if not on a Coles plan that does 5G already)
 
oldcorollas said:
Do both networks have good 5G coverage there?

How much data do you need/currently use a month? (home and out)
Could have one cheap plan, and one less so? (And hotspot both)

Spintel do 5G 25Gb at $14 for 6 months (then $22), which is maybe worth a churn to test Optus 5G there?
(if not on a Coles plan that does 5G already)
Click to expand...
Yeah pretty good coverage for both here. Our internet is with iinet which use optus (I think).

I have that 40gb belong plan (telstra) currently and I had over 200gb in the data bank earlier this year from using the WiFi at home and data when not home (instead of work WiFi etc).
It took me about six months to whittle that data bank down to 10gb just using it exclusively.

Spintel look tempting, but no data banking unfortunately.

Superloop are probably the best overall (of the ones in that table).
 
fjohn860 said:
Seems like as good a place as any to ask:

Does anyone here, just run their mobile phone data as a hotspot for home internet?

My wife is up for renewal of her coles prepaid plan.
I suggested for the cost of her plan, my plan and the broadband we pay for, we could save $400-500 a year by ditching the broadband and just running 5g phone data.

It is only the 2 of us at home and we don't have any streaming subscriptions.
Click to expand...

Yes, I have done this while I was camped at Mum's house. Just with a amaysim in a cheap Chinese dsskphone + hotspot. Worked better than I expected for casual interneting and could also run VPNs for work too. Only 2.4Hhz WiFi though but the coverage footprint was better.

I ummm and arrrrhed about putting on the NBN but really didn't need that much internet. I was getting around 18-25Mbps. The Amaysim account had about 460Gb banked up and I was all in to finally use it. The Amaysim account was 4G only and I had 4 bars of signel strength.

For bugger all per month compared to the NBN then I was pretty happy with it.
 
I am on Belong, owned by Telstra. It costs me $30 /month and I get a $83.33 monthly phone allowance from work, so presently well in front there. But my handset was just paid off, so in a year or two I'll need to replace the iphone.
 
fjohn860 said:
My wife is up for renewal of her coles prepaid plan.
I suggested for the cost of her plan, my plan and the broadband we pay for, we could save $400-500 a year by ditching the broadband and just running 5g phone data.

It is only the 2 of us at home and we don't have any streaming subscriptions.
Click to expand...
https://www.aldimobile.com.au/collections/plans has 5G deal that gives you 300 GB for 365 days for $259 at the moment (otherwise it's $289). Aldi use the Telstra Wholesale network rather than the retail network that Telstra and Boost uses...

Hotspotting off a phone is very straightforward. But you can also just use a mobile modem attached to an external high gain aerial - which might improve things.
 
silentbutdeadly said:
https://www.aldimobile.com.au/collections/plans has 5G deal that gives you 300 GB for 365 days for $259 at the moment (otherwise it's $289). Aldi use the Telstra Wholesale network rather than the retail network that Telstra and Boost uses...
Click to expand...

I moved my Vodafone number to AldiMobile 365 day plan about 6 months ago and it has been great. A sharp rate for Tel$tra coverage. Why pay more?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top