Gulf widens for ADSL and ADSL2+ users

As we've noted before, the increase in ADSL2+ competition is great news if you're close enough to a compatible, port-free exchange, but for the many Australians still on ADSL, the gulf is widening, and even wireless data is starting to catch up with some plans offering around 6GB of data.

Following iiNet's recent announcement of new plans - including increased download quotas such as the massive 100GB Naked Home 5 ADSL2+ plan - we took a look at how they compare to standard ADSL plans. As a comparative point, iiNet's Naked Home 5 ADSL2+ service would give you 100GB of download capacity (40GB/60GB peak/offpeak) for $89.95 all up.

Including a $30 phone rental (which gives you $50 effective to utilise), the most data-rich nationally available plan with a speed of better than 1.5Mbit on Whirlpool.net.au we could find for ADSL-only customers was Aanet's $45 Kickstart 2 plan, which would give you 15GB of downloads at a 1.5Mb speed rate. It is possible to get comparable amounts of data for $50, but you start dipping down into the barely-broadband world of 256Kbps accounts to do so.

The changes in plans do make iiNet an attractive proposition, especially for heavy iTunes users, as it's the major ISP in the country that doesn't count iTunes data against caps. It also benefits from a more generous "off-peak" timing schedule, between 2am and 12 noon; competitors such as iPrimus and TPG do offer more data-heavy plans but load most of the data into a compressed 3am to 9am time period.