Internet Lead
How often do you review your household costs? Most of us are looking for ways to save money – but how often do we actually review the bills that we regularly pay? A case in point is broadband: while the much-awaited $42 billion National Broadband Network project has finally been launched on the mainland, it has around nine years until completion. And research released this week by online comparison site iSelect suggests that in the meantime, consumers should focus on what they currently have.
The iSelect Broadband Report found that Australians on average download more than forty-eight gigabytes of data per household per month (the equivalent of approximately twenty movies and two thousand songs). More than half of Australians across all age groups rate the internet as the single most important piece of technology in their home, well ahead of television. Yet almost sixty percent of those surveyed did little or no research into different broadband services before choosing a broadband package. As a result, they are over-spending on their connections by more than one hundred and forty million dollars each year.
According to technology expert and blogger Charlie Brown, a little bit of research could save money. “More Australians than ever before are connecting with each other via the internet,” he said. “This research found that two thirds of Australians now rely on the internet to keep in touch with their relatives and friends, and social media is growing at a rapid pace, even amongst older internet users. However Australians aren’t researching their choice of plans properly. There is a lack of understanding of the more technical details such as connection speeds and how much data they actually need, leading to consumers signing up to plans that don’t fulfill their needs.”
The research found that a quarter of Australians don’t know how much data they download each month and consistent with this, a third never check how much of their download limit they have used. Less than a quarter understand how the speed of their broadband connection is measured (megabits per second), yet almost ninety percent say speed is very or extremely important to them.
A broadband plan can be a significant cost, with over twenty percent of internet users spending more than seventy dollars per month on their plan and nearly a third of consumers exceeding their monthly data limit.
On the one hand the government is saying “NBN, NBN, but the majority of Australians won’t experience it for years, “ says Charlie. “Just like phone contracts, companies release new broadband products all the time. So if consumers just revisit the package they’re on and shop around a bit, many would find that they can either get the same as they currently have for a cheaper price, or alternatively something faster or better at the same price. And when you save twenty dollars on your contract that’s not just twenty dollars – it’s twenty dollars every month.”
The overall message? Forget the hype about the NBN; concentrate on what you’ve got right now.
