Exetel went into a bit of a hibernation with their wireless mobile broadband collection in the past 12 – 18 months after being one of the first ISPs to really push mobile broadband and to provide with competitive pricing.

Having regularly read their business blog over the past 2 years, issues with hardware supply and wholesale pricing from Optus to make it worth their while have driven them to close their mobile broadband offers from the retail market.

Although you may have noticed that we kept their pricing on the PrepaidPlans.com.au site over the period. This is mainly because the offers remained active for Resellers and so were where able to offer them to you.

This week Exetel announced new 12 month mobile broadband plans. The plans run for 12 months and you can begin with the 1.5GB per month plan for $15 per month with excess data at 6c per MB. This upgrades to 5GB for $25 and goes all the way through to 18GB for $75 per month. Bare in mind a $15 connection fee applies.

You can find out more about Exetel Prepaid Mobile Broadband pricing here. Interested in their 12 month wireless mobile contract plans?

Dodo has upgraded its prepaid mobile broadband plans with peak and offpeak rates, effectively doubling what is on offer. It has also halfed the price of its starter kit from $99 to $49 making it one of the cheapest in the market when you factor in that you get 5GB with that $49 (30 days).

Starter kit is now down to $49 and comes with a couple of data starter options including 5GB – 10GB for the first 30 days. The new plans are:

Data                                   Expiry             Price
250MB – 500MB            30 days          $10
1GB – 2GB                         60 days           $20
3GB – 6GB                        60 days           $40
6GB – 12GB                      90 days          $70
10GB – 20GB                  180 days        $99
15GB – 30GB                  365 days        $139

Pricing/offers current as at 8/10/2010. Double Off-Peak Usage – Usage range is shown as minimum and maximum allowance. Receive double your allowance during Off-Peak Hours (12am to 7am). Maximum allowance based on off-peak usage only. Minimum allowance based on peak usage only.

Just through you might need some definitions for happens when you reach your data limit.

Throttling
Throttling maintains your ability to connect to the internet but slows your connection to something similar to dial-up. This can be rather frustrating if you’re mid-month and notice your once fast internet is now barely loading pages.

Shaping
Shaping collects the data packets you are requesting or sending and sends them at bursts to and from the network to minimize the stress on the network. You may get a rather fast burst or nothing at all depending on the requests at that time.

Overage
Last is overage, you maintain your connection and speeds but pay a per kilobyte rate for each kb you sent or request, like pay as you go. For many this is the optimal scenario as you do not find yourself without internet half way through the month if you have reached your allowance, just keep track of your usage and the price you pay.

Telstra has dropped the price on its Turbo Next G prepaid USB drive and introduced a new $89 model that includes a rotating USB connector so you can plug it in at any angle you fancy (more user flexibility).

Telstra has to date been charging $129 for its (non-rotating) Turbo prepaid USB. The data allocated to this USB has also doubled from 1 to 2 GB.

You can still purchase the $79 non-Turbo prepaid model, but with only $10 the difference, going for the potentially speedier model seems a no-brainer.

Virgin Mobile is updating its prepaid rates from July 1. Change will result in data increases at the top of the market but some trimming on the cheapest plans.

There’s a couple of new price points ($19 and $79), $1 sliced off the price off most of the mid-tier plans, and an increase in allowances for all the plans between $50 and $100. The cheapest $15 recharge, will now offer 300MB instead of 500MB.

Telstra has launched a new range of pre-paid mobile broadband plans. The new plans offer much better recharge value and have longer expiry periods.

“With Telstra pre-paid there are no bills or fixed term contracts so it’s a great choice for people who want to keep track of what they’re spending month to month,” Ms Glenice Maclellan, Acting Group Managing Director at Telstra Consumer said.

“We only charge customers for every kilobit of data they use so they can rest assured they’re only paying for what they use within the recharge period, giving them greater control and transparency.”

Recharge prices will from tomorrow be updated to the following. $40 will buy 1GB of data, increased from 300MB, and $60 will buy3GB of data – up from 1GB. Expiry times have also been increased – 3GB & 4GB of data will now expire after 90 and 180 days respectively.

You can check the details out at prepaidplans.com.au

Seems a new prepaid mobile broadband provider is just about to launch into the market. Planet Prepaid who has been offering prepaid dial up cards for a while now is getting ready to launch their broadband offering.

The offer looks to include 3 prepaid cards offering 1GB for $22 and 30 days, 2GB for $33 and 30 days and 4GB for $63 and 90 days. The USB will be via the Optus network.

No pricing at this stage on the USB stick. Stay tuned for more.

Optus has just launched a range of new recharge options for its prepaid wireless broadband offer. These include $20 recharge which offers 750MB data lasting for 15 days (includes 50 free SMS), plus the $80 recharge offering 4.6GB which lasts for 186 days and also includes 100 free SMS and finally the biggest recharge offer from Optus yet at $130 for 9.2GB (100 free SMS) lasting 186 days.

You can compare all of the Optus prepaid wireless offers here.

Prepaid broadband is a great option if you are anti-contracts or just want the luxury of internet when you aren’t at home or work. Telstra’s Prepaid Broadband isn’t considered the cheapest in the market, actually they are the most expensive but their coverage is 2nd to none.
Telstra has announced a new modem for pre-paid wireless customers, costing $179 with speeds of 550Kbps to 3Mbps. There’s also a non-Turbo modem which costs $129.

They both come with $10 of included credit and also offer 1GB of bonus data if you activate before December 31. Telstra also offers to double the data alllowance if you recharge $40 or more before December 31 2009.

Recharge prices are $80 for 3.5GB. Spending $50 gets you 625MB.