vividwireless revamps broadband plans

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Wireless telco vividwireless has unveiled minor changes to its broadband plan range, boosting download quotas across the board and bundling voice services into its offering.

The company operates what it descibes as the nation’s first 4G wireless broadband network, which is based on the WiMAX mobile standard, in comparison with the 3G/HSDPA wireless networks used in Australia by mobile telcos Telstra, Optus and VHA.

vividwireless — a part of the Seven Group — initially launched in Perth in March 2010, but has since expanded to cover some areas of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra. Testing by Delimiter in Sydney last year showed download speeds on the network ranging from about 6Mbps to 15Mbps, with upload speeds of about 1Mbps.

In a statement today, the company revealed it had allocated several gigabytes of extra download quota to its $35 and $49 monthly subscription plans, abolished its $99/40GB plan, and established a new 15GB plan for $55 a month, as well as making slight pricing changes up and down to other plans.

It’s a similar situation with vividwireless’ prepaid plans, which now have a $79/12GB plan included. The company’s broadband and phone bundles range from $39 to $109, and come with varying amounts of data — from 8GB up to unlimited — and with varying degrees of phone calls included. Most of the bundled plans, apart from the lowest $39 bundle, come with unlimited local and national calls.

vividwireless chief executive Martin Mercer said the company’s plans offered “some of the best value in the market” and had also started rewarding loyal customers, with the company reducing the minimum term commitment required to receive one of its modems.

Its $299 home gateway is now available for only $149 when customers sign up to a $49/12GB monthly plan for 12 months — and will cost customers nothing on a two year plan of $49 per month or above.

The vividwireless USB modem, normally $69, will be provided free of charge when customers sign up for a one year or more plan at $35 per month or more, and the Wi-Fi hotspot device will be free on the same plan or above.

Image credit: vividwireless

8 COMMENTS

  1. Why this will fail just like all the other Wireless ISP’s:
    – Latency.
    – Cost per month.
    – Small GB/month.
    – Not cheaper than Competing ADSL/Cable plans.
    – No guaranteed speed.

    Master them five points, and your Wireless ISP will be a great success!

  2. @Jim, though I am in agreeance with everything you stated, it is good news for us who have been ass fucked by no ADSL coverage.
    There new plans look like heaven for those of us stuck in a telstra only wireless zone. Hopefully Bigpond gets it though their thick damned skulls that people want better price and higher bandwidth allocations.

  3. I think there is still a good market for these types of services. The technology can only improve and the price will drop.

    Im sure people said back in the day that mobile phones would never replace PSTN because of the quality and price. There will of course always be requirements for low latency, high througput services.

    Sub $50 a month for more than 10GB of quota will suit large numbers of people who want fast services without a location lock-in and phone/fibre priced service. University students particularly (where Vivid have already said they are trying to edge into) and retiree areas etc.

  4. @Jim
    — google.com ping statistics —
    12 packets transmitted, 12 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
    round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 58.863/74.064/94.155/9.906 ms

    Latency is far, far better than 3G – it is almost never over 100ms. Only a serious FPS gamer would have issues with that. For the average user, it is very responsive – local sites load very quickly. It does not drop out at random (as long as the signal is good) like 3G does.

    As for guaranteed speed, neither ADSL nor cable guarantee anything. I know 5 people that get less than 4mbit on their ADSL connection – I’m getting double that right now with vivid. Cable is generally faster but in some areas it is quite congested.

    Vivid does not necessarily “compete” with wired connections – it is extremely convenient for eg. students who may move every couple months.

    The low GB/$ is due to the limitations of wireless. It will be interesting to see how successful vivid is 2-3 years down the track.

  5. @Jim

    You really have no idea, considering you don’t need a land line the plans are quite reasonable. Unlimited will cost $79 per month, not sure what you are paying for that.

    I have been using them for just under a year and found them to be very solid.

    As for your five ‘points’; I dont think any wired services have successfully mastered all of them, not sure why you should think a wireless service will.

  6. Also, Vivid basically block torrent downloads. Download speeds are abysmal.
    However, if you don’t use torrents, they’re not too bad.
    (I have personally tested a Vivid connection).

    If you can’t get decent ADSL speeds, or MUST have a roaming wireless connection, give them a go. Otherwise stick to ADSL.

  7. I was with Unwired for a few years and immediately switched to Vividwireless when they offered the upgrade to 4G and I’m extremely happy with the service. I’m not a gamer so their setup suits me just fine and dandy. I’ve just moved to a high-rise and the service hasn’t changed at all. It seems to me that wireless broadband is the technology to follow, It seems obvious to me that wireless BB will evolve into a system that will leave Prime Minister Gillard’s NBN for dead. Who needs more cables all over the countryside and underground ? Not us.

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