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BigPond Next G Wireless Broadband USB Mobile Card

By David Flynn on 05 January 2007

Telstra's Next G USB modem pushes the wireless broadband needle past 2Mbps, making it a better choice than its sibling PC Card in most (but not all) situations.

Editor's rating:9.0 User rating:4

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  test gave 2/10 on 10/07/2007 20:43 Report abuse

  Totally S*** situation. A tax on those who don't have a wired connection. Thanks for selling off Telstra to the Baby Boomers. Government is supposed to supply infrastructure, not just make rules on how to live your lives. We all pay a big price for selling out.

  • Good: You get what you pay for - a fast internet connection for a reDICKulous price.
  • Bad: Your choices are: No Connection or No money.
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  igboyns gave 2/10 on 20/06/2007 08:03 Report abuse

  I have only had the card now for about +- 2 weeks, have rung their help desk 4 times now, connecting up takes up to 40 seconds? connecting to any web site takes for ever, have changed my plan once, was on the gfast/now sfast paying the $80 dollars a month plan and still get no joy? firewall turned off, I mean since when have we ever been told to swith firewall off?? absolute disgrace to the industry. What a pile of hype you lot are talking about, my signal strength is 5 bar and thats the story so far. Fellow collegues Q is there any other USB providers that are better than Telstra, come talk to me please????

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  aquarius31 gave 4/10 on 15/05/2007 00:11 Report abuse

  Called Telstra for a CD with driver to connect to Vista but still can't connect. Phone support virtually non existant. It takes hours to wait until a person answers.

  • Good: This is the only broadband I can get as I can't get cable due to being in an older area of Perth despite being only a few kms from the Ascot exchange.
  • Bad: Can't connect to vista. Expensive compared to cable or adsl.
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  hgipps gave 6/10 on 07/05/2007 09:43 Report abuse

  Fast
  Expensive
  A **** to install..no Vista driver yet!

  • Good: Fast..faster than my ADSL at home
    Seems reliable and consistent, now its finally set up
  • Bad: Naive me, thinking installing to Vista would be easy. I did finally get it going when an American accented Telstra helpline person remembered it has an issue with McAffee, something to do with the "Xmas" virus. So stopped McAffee looking for that, disconnected the firewall, and disconnected Vista UAC, ...and it works.
    But it won't work or install on my machine without all these 3 pesky problems being attended to.
    So where is the new driver Telstra????
    I've been using it for 6 weeks now. Irresponsible, immoral, reprehensible!
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  Jim gave 5/10 on 12/04/2007 15:21 Report abuse

  From IT support point of view, this type of device will not work for users in companies with strong security in mind. Our corporate IT policy will not grant users "administrator" rights. That makes this device useless to us though we are very interested in it for our mobile users across the country. Wonder why a company like Telstra will bypass this great sector of business opportunity.

  • Good: Great mobility.
  • Bad: May not suitable for corporate computers without administrator rights set for users.
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  fred gave 3/10 on 02/04/2007 20:53 Report abuse

  Pricing is a joke, but great flexiblity and coverage, would back optus first purely on price.

  • Good: network
  • Bad: Very costly for what you get
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  Jonoh gave 2/10 on 01/04/2007 08:32 Report abuse

  I have confirmed by experience with two laptops and by calls to the Telstra help line that this service can only be used by users with an administrator account on Windows XP. This is akin to a car company selling cars to a fleet, and after the sale confirming that they have configured the cars so that they can only be driven by the fleet maintenance manager!!
  Of course Telstra fails to mention this on their website or publications.
  If you are a road warrier working for a company who (like most) don't give mere mortals admistrator access to company machines then don't waste your time with the Next G service

  • Good: USB device is a great design. Australian company as well. Most other providers only have PCMCIA devices, a dying standard.
  • Bad: Must have adminstrator account on Win XP to be able to use.
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  MnC gave 5/10 on 20/03/2007 22:47 Report abuse

  Yes, the plans are expensive but I live in a regional area where there are not many other options (ISDN Home and satellite) so I'm happy enough with the cost. I did get a half-price-6-months deal for bundling with a home phone line I already had.
  
  I had a lot of trouble setting this up, finding I needed an external low-gain aerial to connect at all, and even then signal strength is variable and I get a lot of dropouts. My NextG phone is the same, despite being in a well-serviced zone according to coverage maps. A recurring problem is showing itself to be connected, but not actually offering any data throughput. Even Ping sometimes doesn't work when the device appears connected with 3 bars of signal. Evening calls to BigPond support typically featured 30 minutes or more of waiting on hold, but staff were courteous and generally helpful.
  
  According to support staff, the device may or may not be compatible with IE7, and may or may not be compatible with firewall and antivirus products. It may also have power-saving features targeted at laptops, hence possibly going to sleep at times, without showing a power-off light or anything. Unplug/replug seems to be the solution, a nuisance when it's plugged into the back of a desktop machine. The manual calls this "cycling the equipment" I think.
  
  I've had speeds of up to 1Mbps but never more despite a Super G Fast plan. I frequently run well below the 550kbps plan mimimum. I'm willing to try a medium or high gain aerial, but expect things to improve as the network is tweaked (CDMA got better over time). I will start putting in more blackspot reports when the NextG phone drops out at this location, which it does often.

  • Good: the only reasonable broadband service I could get
    I might be able to take it on holidays with a laptop
    fast (at times) and may get faster
  • Bad: not sure if I'll be able to share this connection on a home network - perhaps not, which will be very disappointing
    drop-outs are common, perhaps network related, perhaps power-saving mode
    long waiting times for phone support
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  growl gave 2/10 on 07/02/2007 16:13 Report abuse

  Outrageous pricing. Australians pay far too much and it is because of Telstra.
  Here is another example of creating a service that very few can afford.

  • Good: Great coverage
  • Bad: Telstra pricing is obscene. How can they justify pricing. Australia will remain in broadband stone age for many years to come because of this.
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  LEEN gave 9/10 on 03/02/2007 09:52 Report abuse

  i replaced my mini max with this modem and it far better in every way

  • Good: great product and should be yacht friendly.
  • Bad: none so far