I’m about three weeks away from moving house which means I need to start getting serious about choosing service providers for my core utilities: water, gas, electricity, internet access and telephony. I’m happy with my existing electricity retailer so I’ll be taking them with me when I move and the phone is covered as I haven’t had a landline for about five years. I’ll shop around for a gas deal and I have no choice when it comes to water. But the one that has me most concerned is internet access.
Given the NBN isn’t likely to hit my new address for about 18 months and it will most likely be over HFC what do I need to think about?
I’m taking a really simple approach to this. The new property has a choice of either Optus or Telstra cable. I’m simply going to shop on price and avoid any arrangement that attempts to lock me in for more than a year. Given the number of service providers I’ll potentially be able to choose from in about 18 months will grow significantly I can’t see any point in locking myself to a provider now.
I’ve used both Telstra and Optus over cable before and haven’t had experienced any significant issues with either. I assume ADSL is an option where I’m moving to but given the choice between HFC and ADSL I’ll take the coaxial every time. My experience and what I’ve seen with friends is that I’ve got a better chance of the provider delivering on their bandwidth promises over cable.
What do you think? Is this the right approach? What are other people in the process of moving house doing?
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