Dingle, Dangle, Dongle

I bought a 1 GB dongle from Telstra for this family trip.  It cost $29.  I haven’t used one before so was not sure how long 1GB would last.  I knew that downloading photos and videos would be out, but thought it should easily cope with me updating my blog, checking emails, twitter and facebook.  The boys were also checking their skype.

The 1 GB didn’t even last the week.  Four days, I think, which is extremely disappointing.  We used it conservatively, only turning it on once a day for less than half an hour.  With no metering I had no idea how much we were using, so didn’t get any warning that we were about to run dry.

Even though I ran out of data, I can still access the Telstra website, using the wifi on the dongle.  So I checked out just how much it would cost to top up my data.  The prices were outrageous!  I can’t believe that people actually pay that much for data on their smart phones, particularly if it gets sucked up as quickly as mine did.  Steve tells me his work phone has a 1GB plan and he seems to be able to use the internet and his email at will.  But again with no visual metering he has no idea how much he is actually using.

To put another 1GB on my dongle I will have to pay $40.  With no way of determining how much data I am using it is akin to pouring my money down a black hole.  $40 for a couple of days on internet access? No thank you.

I have an Optus mobile phone and often when I recharge it, Optus throw me 1GB of data for free.  1GB of data is almost impossible to use up on my phone as it is one of those cheap but cheerful older ones with a tiny screen.  Yes, technically it can access the internet, but it makes navigating the website extremely painful as you have to scroll around, only being able to see small snippets at a time.

When I go home and have access to our NBN wireless broadband I will search around and see if there is a better deal somewhere.  If there is not I will consign this little experiment to the dust bin of history until the teleco companies get their act together and start charging a reasonable amount, instead of ripping all of their customers off blind.