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BigPond Broadband

About BigPond

Launched in 1996, BigPond has the honour of being Australia's largest ISP; although as a subsidiary of Telstra, the country's very own telecoms giant, that's hardly surprising.

The sheer size of the organisation means that wherever you live in the country, it's likely that one or more of BigPond's internet services will be available to you - whether that's broadband via ADSL, cable, satellite, or wireless; or just plain old dial-up.

As of March 2009, BigPond's ADSL2+ service reaches 80 per cent of the population, and offers speeds of up to 20Mb, although of course actual speeds vary. Meanwhile its wireless broadband network is over twice the size of any of its competitors' 3G networks, covering an impressive 99 per cent of the population, and capable of speeds of up to 21Mb. In reality this translates to around 3.5Mb in rural areas and 7Mb in cities.

Around 2.5 million homes in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth are able to access to BigPond's cable offering, with 8Mb standard connection speed, 'extreme' speeds of up to 30Mb in some areas of Sydney and Melbourne and up to 17Mb elsewhere. In March 2009 Telstra announced a $300 million investment in its cable network which would take it to peak speeds of 100Mb - with Melbourne first in line for an upgrade.

The company uses its size and its status as a subsidiary of Telstra as a selling point, saying "you can count on our advanced technical expertise for a great internet experience and relax in the knowledge that this ISP is here to stay"; and it's true to say that metropolitan broadband users probably won't experience too many problems with BigPond as an ISP. However, for many people BigPond is the only game in town, and there's evidence that this lack of competition impacts on customer service, with the company repeatedly receiving dismal scores in customer satisfaction surveys.

Customer reviews

unhappy

by greg
at 04:17 on 29 Dec 2009

telstra what i complete joke i have spent nearlly 10hrs on the phone and got chuked from pillar to post ,there staff tell you different things each time ,they do not keep records of what is happening with your account .sorry i cannot see this there was never any contact that day it is so frustrating .i had a buisness broadband account that was to be changed names to another account i wasnt so it was disconnected that was when it started we still have not got it back on7 days later and now .well i can go on.if there are vstaff sackings i will certainly not be feeling bad about them as they dont deserve there jobs Report abuse
neutral

by bigpond
at 17:02 on 23 Dec 2009

Website v confusing, was difficult to understand what we'd actually be paying for each package. Once I'd actually worked them out though, the service was reliable and never goes offline. Cost seems steep overall, may consider going elsewhere.
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Unless you are a verified user, comments will be moderated before they appear. Comments submitted entirely in capital letters, containing advertising or excessive swearing will be rejected; please try to be polite. The best comments are relevant, factual and balanced; think about all aspects of the package, such as speed, connection quality and customer service. We reserve the right to edit comments.

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