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Friday, 10 August 2007

Ouch!

I have to admit – thankfully – that the quality of the NextG wireless connection I'm using has stood up pretty well so far. In most instances I'm getting 4 – 5 bar signals, which is definitely good enough to work with. And ever since I received the new modem (the one I was told didn't exist when ordering a replacement... it just turned up in the mail), I haven't had any reoccurring problems with drop outs. And I haven't even plugged an antenna into it yet. If it holds up like that I'll be pretty pleased.

Having said that, holy mackeral, the damned usage costs are inhibitive. I started out on this trek with the rather optimistically selected 500 'superfast' plan, which cost a 'mere' $85 per month. It didn't take long for me to breach that download limit, so I upgraded the plan during the current billing cycle to a 1G plan. Sure enough, I breached that within another week.

I don't know where all these megabytes are coming from, but it looks apparent that I'll have to go for a 3gig plan, which will only set me back a 'modest' $185 per month. And no, thats not a misprint. Right now I am unable to change my plan until the current bill cycle ends (on the 13th) because you are limited to one change per cycle. And I'm already about 50 MB over my new limit! Telstra, ease the squeeze dammit!

So this means my web presence will be minimal for a few days, unless I can find some alternative connectivity. I'm thinking I might just spend the next few days looking for fish instead, and updating with the results as soon as the new billing cycle kicks in.

The weather looks fantastic today - clear skies, calm waters, no wind... perfectly cued for my planned trip into the ocean beach off Bribie Island today. Tonight I'll drive to Calloundra where I'll stop to formulate my next few moves.