As with many others we received new "Fly Buys" cards recently in a massive shopping push by Coles. In the correspondence which arrived was a special deal for an inexpensive and not overly sophisticated smart phone. It was going at 'half price', around $50.
The internet was my friend with phone reviews and recommended retail prices on this model. As a pre-paid cheapie it received pretty good reviews and came 'locked' to Telstra. However if you search eBay you can get an guaranteed to work unlock code for around $2. A recent RRP I found online was over $120.Some of the forums I visit indicated this special was selling like hot cakes with several stores 'sold out'. Trish thought she would enjoy one and visited our local Coles buy it. Caloundra Coles had sold 35 of them over the last few days so it is a popular buy. Trish already has a cheap $20 per month Telstra phone deal so we slipped the sim card into the new phone and "Hey Presto" she is now connected with her inexpensive smart phone.
The black ale I brewed the other day is bubbling quietly in the garage but it isn't enjoying the cooler mornings.It should be ready to bottle around Wednesday.
Computer Club on Saturday was especially successful with several members taking my advice and being delighted with their new devices or services. Aldi had a recent special on a wireless 4 port modem router for under $50. I am heading around tomorrow to set one up for an older club member. Another chap is giving away his "wireless dongle broadband connection" and having his service converted to landline ADSL with Optus. He says he is getting 50GB broadband as well as all his local and national calls (with a few exceptions 1900 nos etc) for $60 per month. Where he lives he is able to connect directly into the Optus equipment at the Caloundra Telephone Exchange which gives him this great deal.
We are unable to have a direct connection to Optus where we live so would be ineligible for the deal. Over the next month or so many Internet Service Providers will have some better deals going when Telstra slowly loses its grip on the copper network and the NBN Co. begins to take over.
Because of the way the telephone connection to new estates is nowadays many of us only have access to Telstra telephone exchange equipment. Therefore ANY company we use to connect to the internet has to 'lease' the Telstra connection already there. Telstra charges a lot for this lease, so we are stuck with expensive internet costs compared to many others.
For us and many like us we can't wait for the NBN to be come to our area.
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