Feb 08 2010

My Mobile Watchdog

Category: Kids Stuff Online — @ 9:44 am

My Mobile Watchdog is a new safety service aimed at parents so that they can monitor their child’s mobile phone usage. It allwos them to receive instant alerts about unsafe activity, including cyber bullying and contact with unknown (numbers) people. According to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, 22 per cent of girls and 15 per cent of boys aged between eight and 11 own a mobile phone.

However most children are not content with just a run-of-the-mill handset, and demand the latest technology that gives immediate access to the internet. This usage is often unsupervised and can create a form of social underground that many parents don’t know exists.

My Mobile Watchdog logs and stores copies of all mobile phone activity, including text messages, phone calls, e-mails, picture messages.

The service was recently launched in Australia and has received quite a bit of publicity. It costs $14.95 per month and comes with unlimited alerts to your nominated email accounts and full access to the My Mobile Watchdog website.  Parents can access their e-mail at any time to see if alerts have been sent regarding unauthorised or unapproved contact with their child’s mobile phone.

Learn more here.

Feb 04 2010

Prepaid Mobile Broadband Price War

Category: Prepaid USB Prices — @ 10:51 am

My prediction is that prepaid mobile broadband USB sticks will be given away for free sometime in 2010. Either Optus, Vodafone or 3 Mobile will give their USB stick sway for nothing. This will be the ultimate in this market share tussle that is going on that the moment and has driven prices to extraordinary levels in just a few weeks. Each time I check they are dropping by $10 or $20. Optus o/night reduced their prepaid USB modem price from $79 to $69, this is the lowest it has ever been and it is still February.

Its a grab for market share as each provider is trying to get their USB in your hands so as you begin to contemplate mobile broadband as an option or a supplement to your fixed line internet, you will use them.

The funny thing is that there are several providers like Exetel for instance that resell the Optus range so, even if you buy an Optus USB for $69 you can (after paying your lockout fee) move to another provider.

Compare the latest prepaid mobile broadband prices here.

Jan 29 2010

NetComm t1 Travel Router

Category: Wireless Internet — @ 4:53 am

The NetComm t1 Travel Router needs no power or Internet cables and can keep multiple wireless devices connected to 3G networks on the fly ­ in the car, office, hotel room or walking down the street. It runs off an internal battery, leaving mobile users free of the need to set up cables in temporary situations. The $199 pocket-sized t1 allows connection via ADSL and Wi-Fi through the use of a 3G USB modem allowing for speeds of up to 150Mbps.

Jan 26 2010

Exetel Mobile Broadband Speeds

Category: Wireless Internet — @ 11:11 am

I have talked/written about Exetel in this blog a few times. Last week I read an interesting post about Exetel’s mobile broadband speeds and how this compares with that of Optus, baring in mind they use the Optus mobile broadband network. This is extract has been taken from John Linton’s blog.

Our wireless sales are up around 300% from the same period in January 2009 (when we had only begun offering the service) and around 30% over the same time in December which means the small changes we have made to date have had some effect but not nearly enough. One thing that remains puzzling to us is that we use the Optus 3G network yet, since we began, delivering wireless services (via Layer 2 direct connection not just re-selling the retail service) in October 2008 the speeds on our Optus service are consistently much faster than the speeds on Optus own service by a quite considerable margin. We tested this out with the Optus Product manager on two occasions over the past year and he agreed that he duplicated the results and mumbled something about ‘firewalls’. I also have an Internode/Optus service (I purchased late in 2009) which is, as far as I know using Optus Layer 2, and that service whenever I test it over the past three months is far slower than the Exetel/Optus Layer 2 service in identical locations (strangely it almost looks as though Internode are just using the Optus retail service based on the speeds being nearly identical – but that can’t be so based on Internode’s public statements) – I have no idea what this means but I do know two acquaintances that use all three services and say that it’s a consistent result. It would be nice to find a way to use that anomaly but if, in fact there is a way, it continues to elude me.

You can compare Exetel’s Prepaid Mobile Broadband plans here.

Jan 25 2010

Review – 3 Mobile Prepaid Broadband

Category: 3 Mobile — @ 9:29 pm

Speed is obviously a burning question for anyone looking to use a mobile broadband offering. The best way to test speed is to lend a USB modem from a friend and test it out at home. If its for business then rest assured that if you are traveling around capital cities all providers will perform relatively well. From some recent research I undertook, 3 Mobile has been one of the star performers outside of Telstra in terms of speed. You can read the review we did here.

However 3 Mobile Prepaid Broadband is more than just a good performing solution, its also very good value. They are currently offering their E1756 modem for just $79. And to top it off you can bundle 12GB of data for just $199 and it will last you for 12 months. This is much cheaper than a 1GB monthly contract from most providers.

3 Mobile’s prepaid recharge options start at $15 for 500MB, 2GB for $29, 4GB for $49 and 12GB for $149. In addition, you also get 10 free SMS and your data lasts for 30 days except for the 12GB plan which lasts for a year. Are they good value? I think they are. Optus is currently offering 1GB for $30, 3.45GB for $50 and at the top end, 9.2GB for $130 lasting only 186 days. So yes, I think 3 Mobile’s value is good. Where it could be better is in a few more options for those people looking to spend between $50 and $150. So it would be nice to see maybe a 9GB plan introduced.

Is 3 Mobile broadband good for regional Australia. It’s improving but at the moment for best results I would either look at Telstra or Optus (or an Optus reseller eg Exetel). If you travel into the city mainly or if you live in the suburbs around major Australian cities, 3 Mobile should be fine. You can check the 3 Mobile coverage map here.

Jan 24 2010

The great SMS Rip-Off

Category: SMS Rates — @ 10:42 am

RICHARD WEBB – January 24, 2010 (Sydney Morning Herald)

Australians are paying the highest prices in the world for text messages, industry experts say.

And texts cost the mobile networks practically nothing but earn them millions in profit each year.

Australians are expected to send 20 billion texts this year, more than 20 per cent higher than last year.

While the cost of mobile phone calls has declined in the past five years, the standard flat rate for a text message at Telstra and Optus has remained unchanged at 25 cents. At Vodafone, a text is 28 cents.

According to research done for The Sun-Herald, that is more than 10 times what it costs in many parts of Asia and almost a third higher than in Europe and Canada.

The Australian consumer is being “abused” by this text messaging pricing rort, said Allan Asher, chief executive of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, a new consumer body established by Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.

“The mobile service providers are pricing texts at a vast profit margin and, sadly, it shows just how far from the competitive world market Australia is,” he said. “We are being abused by the Australian telcos.

”Our service is among the worst in the world and our prices are among the highest. We are being taken for a ride by an industry that just doesn’t care.”

Last financial year, total mobile telecommunications revenue increased by 10 per cent from $10.8 billion to $12 billion, while mobile phone subscriptions increased to 24 million.

Consumer monitor Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn said the price of text messages would not come down until there was ”a proper competitive market with transparent pricing”.

Robin Braun, professor of Telecommunications Engineering at the University of Technology, Sydney, said that texts were a ”huge money spinner”.

The cost of texting on the GSM (2G) system was effectively free for the telecommunications companies, as they piggybacked on the management channel used for the operation of the network.

Texting was a cost for the 3G system but it was ”minuscule”, Professor Braun said.

The 25 cent cost of a text, for 160 bytes, means Optus and Telstra effectively charge $1560 per megabyte. If comparing with a $30 internet plan with a download limit of 10 gigabytes, the charge per megabyte is 0.3 cents, including free email.

There are several online companies in Australia offering cheap packages of text messages, often used by marketing companies. One Australian company, SMS Tech, resells bulk text packages for between 5 and 8 cents a text.

SMS Global resells text services at between 5 and 10 cents a message – for both local and international texts. The standard price for an international text at the major mobile services providers is 50 cents.

SMS Global director of marketing Paul McKenna said: “We came into the market with a belief that everyone is paying too much for SMS.”

Australia’s three mobile network carriers Telstra, Optus and Vodafone argue they are not charging 25 to 28 cents a text since most Australians sign up to a cap plan, whereby the user gets a certain number of calls and texts a month for a set amount of money.

Vodafone Australia spokesman Greg Spears said the company’s $49 cap plan, for example, provided customers with $350 credit a month.

”If a customer used their entire $350 worth of credit exclusively for texts, that customer could send 1250 texts per month – so each text has actually cost less than 4 cents.”

However, Mr Spears conceded there was a need to be more transparent about costs to customers in the cap plans.

An Optus spokeswoman pointed to the Australian Communications and Media Authority Communications 2008-09 report, stating the average revenue generated per text message sent in Australia had declined, from 9.1 cents the previous year to 8.6 cents.

She also pointed to the range of Optus SMS packages such as one whereby customers could send 500 texts for $10 a month, which reduced the price of messages to 2 cents.

A spokesperson for Senator Conroy said: ”There is competition in the mobile phone market. Companies offer a range of different services. It is important that consumers shop around for the best deal.”

HOW WE COMPARECost per text message

CountrySMS price (in $A)

Australia 25c

Canada 16c

China 2c

Hong Kong 9c

India 3c

Indonesia 4c

Japan 6c

New Zealand 14c

Britain 20c

United States 21c

Jan 22 2010

Telstra Elite Mobile Broadband

Category: Wireless Internet Speeds — @ 6:24 am

If you cna afford to spend it and you want the speed, then the newly-launched Telstra Elite mobile broadband card is a very attractive 3G mobile broadband option. It offers theoretical maximum speeds of up to 8Mbps in capital cities as well as quad-band access, making it a very sensible choice if you plan travelling and require internet access.

To get it started your laptop  will require an ExpressCard or PC card slot. The card can be purchased for $399 outright, or subsidised with a 24-month contract on one of Telstra’s business plans.

Jan 21 2010

Mobile Phone & PC Repairs

Category: PC Repairs — @ 10:37 am

As an added extension to our prepaid mobile and prepaid mobile broadband comparison services we have added a repair store directory. Over time we home to begin filling it with quality PC and mobile phone repair services that you can make the most of.

The directory is free at the moment so if you know of a store let them know and they can get listed. At some stage later this year a small annual fee will be introduced to help pay for it.

For the moment though as I said its free. So if you have  or know of a quality PC or mobile phone repair business help it get some exposure to the thousands of visitors to our prepaid comparison website.

The new mobile phone and PC repair directory can be found here.

Jan 20 2010

Use of Skype impacting carrier revenues

Category: International Phone Cards — @ 4:28 am

Source The Age

Users wanting to call home from abroad are increasingly turning to Skype’s internet telephony service to the detriment of international carriers, new data showed.

“Skype is now the largest provider of cross border communications in the world, by far,” said Stephan Beckert, analyst at research firm TeleGeography on Tuesday.

Skype’s technology allows consumers to make practically free long-distance calls over the internet on fixed lines. It is mostly used on desktops but Skype has made the move into mobile too and it now comes pre-installed on some mobile phones.

According to the firm’s data, over the past 25 years, international call volume from telephones have grown at a compounded annual rate of 15 per cent.

In the past two years this growth has however slowed to only 8 per cent, rising from 376 billion minutes in 2008 to an estimated 406 billion minutes last year.

By comparison, Skype’s on-net international traffic between two Skype users grew 51 per cent in 2008, and is projected to grow 63 per cent in 2009, to 54 billion minutes.

“The volume of traffic routed via Skype is tremendous,” said Beckert.

In general, TeleGeography said, “demand for international voice has been remarkably robust, but it’s clearly not recession-proof.”

Traffic to Mexico, the world’s largest calling destination, declined 4 per cent in 2008 for example, and aggregate traffic to Central America declined 5 per cent, data showed.

Established in 2003 and based in Luxembourg, privately owned Skype has more than 520 million registered customers who use the free web service for voice, video or text communication.

But despite its size, its revenue is relatively modest — at about $US551 million ($596 million) in 2008 — as the company has had a difficult time getting users to pay for its largely free services.

Skype aims to nearly double its annual revenue to $1 billion in two years.

Jan 19 2010

Tips when buying mobile broadband

Category: Wireless Internet — @ 8:09 pm

3G broadband is the fastest growing form of fast internet in Australia at the moment, fast outstripping ADSL 1 & 2 growth rates. If you looking to join the many that have already joined then here are a few tips to help you in your decision making.

According to ACMA, sales of mobile broadband grew dramatically in 2009, with 2.1 million total users (up 162% on the figures for the previous year). A quarter of all Internet subscribers now use mobile broadband.

Starting with 3G broadband requires buying both a 3G modem (usb or dongle), and a SIM card used to access the 3G network (inserted in the modem). Most ISPs offer the option of either buying the hardware outright or paying for the hardware via a 12 or 24 months. Your choice of plans include prepaid plans where you pay upfront and select the amount of length of time you wish for the credited data allowance to last or subscribing to a monthly contract and having a fixed allowance each month.

No matter who you choose, these questions are worth considering:

Why am I interested in mobile broadband?

Most likely answers are: flexibility, insurance, or lack of alternatives.

Flexibility covers both someone who expects to move house frequently (eg student) or someone who travels a lot. Depending on where you travel eg rural Australia then coverage should be your key consideration. If you are sticking to cities then all options should be OK with some performing better than others.

Insurance covers a scenario where you largely rely on traditional ADSL, but like the idea of 3G as an additional resource if there’s a power or connection failure. This is common if you’re utterly reliant on Net access to do your full or part-time job. As you are already paying for fixed line broadband, cost becomes an important consideration, and prepaid broadband or pay-as-you-go is likely to be an attractive option.

Lack of alternatives If you live in an ADSL blackspot or in rural Australia and satellite doesn’t interest you, then 3G may be the only viable option. In this scenario, you really only have 2 choices in Telstra and Optus.

What’s the reception like at home?

No matter which category you fall into, it’s worth checking on what the network reception for a provider you’re considering is like at your home. Coverage maps may give you some idea, but the best way to do this is find a friend who is using the particular ISP and trial their usb modem on your computer at your home. Alternatively you can test it with their mobile phone by checking how it handles voice and data tasks.

What’s the reception like where I need it?

The same exercise should ideally be repeated anywhere you’re likely to want to use broadband with your laptop. Obvious options include your workplace, schools or campuses, relatives’ houses (if you visit frequently) and even train lines you regularly use. You’re unlikely to get ideal results everywhere, but a consistent series of blanks might suggest thinking about a different provider.

Is there supported software for my preferred OS?

With sufficient effort, you can get 3G to work on just about any platform without actually installing new software, but for the average user, you want to be able to install software from the box and to call on technical support if things go wrong. Virtually every provider supports Windows (though support for versions prior to XP is unlikely); many support Mac, but there’s often a delay before official software becomes available. Linux is for the most part a DIY prospect. If you buy a netbook with Windows CE, you could also have some difficulty.

What’s the total cost?

For contract plans, look at the total cost over the time period (which has to be specified in the documentation). For pay as you go, check the expiry period on unused credit: if you routinely top up with $20 but then only use the service one day a month, you’re likely to be ripping yourself off. In some cases getting yourself a longer term prepaid broadband plan can be more advantageous than buying a starter monthly contract plan.

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