ACT internet access at brand new property

Hi all,

We are preparing our first ip for renting and plan to manage it ourselves targeting international students as tenants. It's a brand new townhouse and nbn is not ready. We contacted a few isps and were told adsl isn't an option either. So the only option we have left is home wireless broadband. It's more expensive than other options and there's no way to get unlimited data.

We are quite concerned that this can affect the renting: students might be reluctant to rent it because they are limited in how much data they can use.

Has anyone else had this issue? What's your experience?

Thanks in advance.

 

As the internet charges are uncapped, you are leaving yourself exposed to massive costs which may outstrip the rent collected. Simply don't offer internet or go for a standard long-term tenant.

Compare the rent that a normal tenant will pay vs your additional costs, it should be an easy decision.

 

Is this the same interstate ip you plan on getting relatives to manage? Seriously?

 

Go for a normal tenant.
They sort out their own utilities.

 

I have lived with International Students when at Uni. Depending where they are from some have servants at home and house cleaning is a skill they lack.

No fast NBN would be a deal breaker for many I suspect.

I am not sure new build and students belong in same sentence.

 

New builds are meant to have telecommunication access. Not necessarily NBN if its not in the area. Is this a building issue ? The building may need to be connected - Strata may assist the enquiry.

There are loads of low cost providers who do offer capped price plans or uncapped use (with a speed limit) but wifi isnt typically more than 250GB. So thats the tenants problem to manage ?? Give a $69 reduction to ONE tenant and its theirs to connect and manage. When their co-tenent blows it out they need to sort it between them. Routers can be configured with a data limit eg 120GB a month so two people can share it. etc

Other option is prepaid. Then they have to top up ? Usually only small GBs. 50 / 100

Whistleout.com.au is a great comparison site but not too many wifi options

 

It's a shame that when Optus took over Vivid that they stopped their unlimited Wireless 4G account type. It was available up until late last year for around $80-90 a month depending on when you started.

I have 2 tenancies on those accounts and it's great.

Although Optus stopped the unlimited account they do still have a 500Gb data allowance for $80/mth which is a very generous data allowance.

 

Have you contacted Telstra why a phone line isn't possible? Teltra has a Universal Service Obligation (click HERE) that requires them to make sure telephone lines are reasonably available. It's not foolproof, but the general premise is that all properties which aren't in highly regional areas should have access to a phone line, and by extension, ADSL.

 

Thanks everyone for your replies. Sorry it took me so long to report back...We ended up signing a home wireless broadband with exetel. We tried signing up adsl with Optus and Belong prior but they had to cancel our contracts because they both found out that ADSL wasn't available either at the address, as the newly built property was only ready for nbn (in the future of course). So far everything goes well. The tenants understand the situation and are happy with it. Just hoping that it doesn't take too long to get nbn because this wireless does have a 250GB monthly limit. I made the setting to cut off internet when the limit is reached so we can keep our cost under control. I update the tenants of the usage every now and then and it's been well within the limit.