I have been following the mobile broadband trends in Australia for many years now and mobile broadband continues to have the fastest growing number of connections.
Statistics
Mobile wireless internet connections grew by 14.7% since June 2011 and continue to be the most popular form of internet technology in Australia.
As at December 2011 (latest statistics published) Australia had over 5.4 million mobile wireless connections. DSL connections sat at 4.5 million connections.
Popularity
So why is mobile broadband so popular? There are several reasons. Firstly it is the preferred internet connection for anyone renting a home in Australia and this includes many students who are living away from home or require an internet connection when they are at school.
With the increasing growth of tablets like the iPad, more than 50% of these devices are 3G enabled which also require a wireless connection.
3G and 4G mobile broadband is also very popular in the workplace. If you are likely to be traveling or regularly use a laptop away from your desk, chances are that you also carry a USB modem with you.
Price
What has also made mobile broadband popular but also accessible is price. Long gone are the $250 USB modem prices, today you can pick up a USB modem from Telstra (regarded as the most expensive provider) for just $24.50. Prices of $19 with Vodafone are not uncommon either.
Added to this is the significant fall in data costs. Mobile broadband connections downloaded over 23,000 terabytes of data for the 6 months till December 2011 (growth of over 26%). 1GB of data today costs around $10. Four years ago it was ten times this amount. Furthermore, many prepaid mobile plans on offer have plans that offer 30GB of data. The fact that these types of plans even exist, show our appetite for mobile data.
Getting Started
The best place to begin when looking at you prepaid broadband options is coverage. If you live in the central business district plus a radius of 25KMs then all providers are fine. Venture out beyond this and your options are really Optus and Telstra. If you live in rural Australia, I would only go with Telstra.
All providers give you coverage maps via their website, however to test it yourself you can buy a $2 sim card and pop it into your phone. Then using the available credit test the internet on your phone. This will give you the best indication of speed.
Once you are satisfied, buy yourself a prepaid starter kit, with sim and data. You will need to install some software on your computer or laptop which is provided via the USB modem. The rest of the activation process is pretty straight forward.
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