With a competitive initial outlay cost, no bills or contracts and the ability to recharge the service at your computer, Telstra’s Pre-Paid Wireless Broadband service sounds promising. It’s more expensive than offerings from competitors and Telstra’s Pre-Paid Wireless Broadband modem (MF626) only has a theoretical maximum download speed of 3.6 megabits per second (Mbps) over the telco’s Next G network, but the service during testing was fast and stable.
It is unfortunate that Telstra’s Pre-Paid Wireless Broadband modem (MF626) isn’t a 7.2Mbps-capable device, as faster speeds are certainly achievable on the Next G network. Compared to other USB keys eg Optus’ eg E1762 USB Modem and 3′s E160 Internet Key, the Telstra modem is rather chunky.
Telstra’s USB stick has its required software installed on it making it easier to use the service on multiple PCs.
The Telstra Pre-Paid Wireless Broadband service is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS X, and it is simple to set up. PC World recently ran tests and found the following results. PC World managed to achieve download speeds of up to 2Mbps, but it regularly hovered around 1.5Mbps. Upload speeds were stable also at around 340Kbps. The Telstra Pre-Paid Wireless Broadband modem downloaded a 74 megabyte iTunes installation package in 5min 45sec — an average speed of 219Kbps.
The Telstra Pre-Paid Wireless Broadband pack retails for $149 and includes a USB Modem and $10 credit (equivalent to 75MB). Telstra uses a per kilobyte charging system, and the data rates and allowance are determined by the recharge amount. For example, recharging with $30 gives you a per kilobyte charge of 13.3c (225MB of effective data), while recharging with $100 gives you a per kilobyte charge of 1.65c (6GB of effective data). Unfortunately, all recharges have a 30-day expiry, so any unused credit after this time is lost.
