Hi Eliz,

In Australia, local calls generally cost anything between 17 and 22 cents depending on your phone company. If you access the Net using a modem then you only pay the cost of the local call so long as you can dial in to a local ISP number in your city.

If you live in an area that has cable, then you have a permanent connection and don't pay for any local call costs, just a flat monthly fee.

ADSL which is being provided by Australia's largest telecommunications carrier "Telstra" provides high speed access at up to 1.5 Mbps, many times fater than analogue modems, but using the standard phone line. You still pay for the cost of the call though each time you connect.
However, at present not many areas of the country are covered yet with this new technology. I was told by Telstra that in the next 3 years, 90% of homes will have access though. This seems the way most people will access the net in the near future.

Although cable and satellite are also popular.

As for ISP costs, you can get free access through companies like "freeonline", but are limited to certain web sites. They give you a limited 3 hours a day to access the Net for any site you want. Howver you can elect to pay AUD$20 per month and get unlimited access.

Access charges in Oz vary from zero dollars to $37 per month for say 150 - 200 hours in bulk.
Some charge a flat hourly rate, anywhere between $1 and $7 per hour online.

However.... You get what you pay for. With the smaller ISPs, they are cheaper, but perforamnce may be lacking and often you are sitting in front of your monitor waiting for things to happen (slow access), due to their limited bandwidth to the Internet backbone.

I've tried many ISPs, and have found the largest carrier "Telstra" to offer the best access and bandwidth using standard modem access.

Warmest Regards

Ricky Higgs




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