So this one was a bit of a no contest considering people just mostly complained about their broadband provider instead of extolling their virtues!
But there was one winner…
Reader’s Choice
iiNet
So there you have it. Someone had to win. Might as well be iiNet!
Comments
24 responses to “Kotaku Awards 2013: Best Broadband Provider”
Does anyone actually like their IP?
Me, i love internode. its not perfect but after being with TPG, i just cant fault internode. At least they have an english speaking customer support base
Aren’t iinet and internode the same company nowdays? Either way I’ve only heard good things about them.
From my/family/friends experience
Telstra is best connectivity-wise but horrible customer service/support and really expensive.
Optus (who I’m with because the price is great combined with the phone and connection isn’t bad) are basically just a worse Telstra – I usually try to defend them but we do get drop-outs a lot more then we should.
And TPG is just horrible all around.
You are correct. Internode is a part of the iiBorg (Their term, not kidding). iiNet workers are told to keep referring to Internode as Internode due to the reputation that the brand has.
Ditto for the rest of the iiBorg….. Netspace, Adam, Westnet, transACT, AAPT. They still all keep the respective brands, and for very good reason!
1) The brands hold value in their name, people have brand loyalty.
2) The illusion of choice/competition. People choosing between any of the iiBorg companies still think they are shopping for a good deal, even though ultimately iiNet get their business
3) Tied into one and two, is people annoyed with one “brand”, can choose another without actually costing iiNet any business.
There’s so many ways that multiple brand names is a good business move for companies. You can then apply all of the above, plus more, for any other big company [woolworths, coles/wesfarmers etc…]
I’m with tpg and every time I’ve ever spoken to their support team they’ve always spoken English. With an accent yes but perfectly easy to understand and quite helpful. Enjoy paying a packet more for your prejudice.
im paying $10 more for the same plan with internode compared to tpg…
i was with tpg for over 2 years and all i got was shitty customer support and having to ring up every few months to complain about poor speeds and drop outs… I know who id rather be with.
With ISP’s, you get what you pay for. Sure you might be lucky and be ok, but many many other people have a lot of issues with TPG
I’ve been with TPG for 5 or 6 years now. Had very few problems, only had to call their support line twice in that time and they were fine to deal with, fixed the issue first time each time. As Indian call centres go, I’ve dealt with much worse.
I’ve been with them 7 years. Only problems I’ve ever had were relating to the line quality of the house, which they tested and informed me of. Sure they’re accented english but much better than a lot of call centres I’ve used and they always offer to call me back when they see I’m calling from a mobile.
$60/month for unlimited adsl2+ and a homephone is pretty hard to ignore, value wise.
Leaving aside the whole racism thing (REALLY doesn’t matter, all the ISPs are off-shoring more and more of their call-centres these days – even iiNet does, though I think they’re mostly Australia, South Africa, and uhm… Canada? Or India), I remember from my time at Telstra we used to deal with faults logged by the wholesale clients such as Optus, TPG, AAPT, iiNet, etc… The stuff they couldn’t deal with, due to using the big T’s infrastructure. (It’s a little different nowadays; most of the big boys have their own DSLAMs in the exchange, but nearly ten years ago that wasn’t the case.)
TPG was one of the somewhat unscrupulous providers in that they stealth-switched their bandwidth through a bunch of different – longer – routes at peak times of day (cheaper to run), resulting in terrible latency for gamers and download speeds, of an evening. We used to get a lot of complaints for related issues which were caused by that cost-shaving. I don’ t know if that’s the case now, but I wouldn’t recommend them first for power-users – only for extremely budget-conscious users who are willing to sacrifice the performance that they’d get from better providers, for a better price.
As far as their service goes, they’re a little slower and not quite as on-point as iinet and co, but you get what you pay for, and in this case, you pay a lot less. They’re one of the more generous in terms of download/price. In my list of recommendations for ISPs, it would go iinet/internode first for people who care about their net, TPG second for the high-volume (but not speed) budget-conscious, then Telstra/Optus for anyone who just wants uptime and doesn’t mind getting screwed on price. The AAPTs/Dodos of the world CAN be good, but if you have a problem with them, you’re in for a rough ride, they don’t give two tugs of a dead dog’s dick about customer service if the problem is one that’s difficult/costly for them to solve, or if they’ve made a billing error.
I hate TPG. Can’t wait to move out so I can choose a new provider
I take it from your comment that you live with your parents. I pay for 100 GB/month for 50 dollars from TPG and always get speeds of 1.5-1.8 MBps on Steam, no matter what time of day. It depends rather heavily on your distance to DSLAM and number of other customers in your area. I’m hardly going to spend another 20 dollars monthly to get a provider with a better reputation for doubtful improvement in speed.
$50 for 100Gb sounds really expensive to me. Including my landline I get 200gb for $80 a month…
I use ADSL from Adam Internet in Adelaide. The speeds are decent, it occasionally drops momentarily (no more than 30 seconds) but I give them props for their price and customer service. I’m always talking to an Australian human withing a minute and they’re always helpful. It’s one of the reasons I won’t switch to Telstra, who recently purchased Adam.
Adam was actually acquired by iiNet in August.
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/08/iinet-buys-out-adam-dominates-sa-broadband/
I used to be with adam until recently. they were great, but i wanted faster speeds. they’ve got to be one of the best.
Mind if I get some details from you?Who did you change to? What speeds, price etc
The one I voted for. They’re always nice when I speak to them, never have service interruptions and don’t mind if I ever want to extend an invoice.
been with tpg like 7 years – havent really had a problem with them and will be sticking with them for a while
I’ve been with iiNet for a few years now and I can’t really fault them. They’re not perfect, but I’ve not no complaints ^_^
Telstra’s billing department is woeful but their technical support is outstanding – I’ve had broadband with them since ’03 and have had nothing but positive experiences with their support teams. It’s a shame their billing department is so inept
Maybe next year, change the award to the worst internet service provider?
iinet is pretty bad.
Glad Iprimus didn’t get it, thanks to them, my internet disconnected intermittently for about to hours per day, while im in the middle of a league match.