Telstra Wi-Fi 4G Advanced

Telstra NBN issue and it the customers fault!!!! – I am using three devices for Telstra Home NBN plan (had a hard time when it was not connected to the "node" they kept telling me that the NBN is on until another technician found the building is not connected properly). There are frequent drops during early morning and sometimes the green lights are stalled. I have put it in writing, all I get is… Read more

call asking me if my internet is OK. I have time and again mentioned nothing much has improved after they informed that technicians are working to resolve internet issue in my suburb. Worth appreciating, NO nothing much improved. During my last call, I requested that they send a technician to find if the fault is from the distribution box in our building or the supplied gateway (the last one was defective and replaced). Well, they agreed to send one, but the customer pays if they do not find fault.!!!!. Nice way of resolving a technical issue, the customer pays for no fault of customer connection problem. I have mentioned during the conversation if that is how you treat your customer, leave the issue like it is and there are other venues to approach for resolution. Now, waiting to hear from them.

I Approve – this gadget has made my life so easy, I can now travel away from my home and have access to the internet wherever I am. It has enabled both my husband and myself to have access to the internet as we each have our own devices now.

Terrible – Don't believe the marketing hype, Telstra wifi will let you down when you need it most. My experience is the coverage is mildly better than my Optus phone but often has glitches. Right now I can't even recharge as the platform is down.

LOVE IT - Expensive if you need more that 8 GB plans – Support has always been good- ive had mine years. LOVE THE 24/7 chat. It only had a problem when i fiddled with it. I live in the country and usually get 30Mb download and 3-6Mb upload which is amazing as i now have adsl and there i get 3/.3 (yes point 3 or 300mb). Last scan i GOT AN AMAZING 96Mb and 35Mb super fast Problem is when you go from… Read more

the 8GB plan to the next one 15 its over 100 dollars.... so thats why adsl (will write about that under adsl review as its totally c..p compared to this little gem).

This is a great modem it hooks up easily BUT you have to get it out of standby (press the button) to accept a new device- dont know why but thats what you have to do. Once recognised it will go to standby and everything runs great

Good Netgear hardware but coupled with poor Customer Services by Telstra – What a saga! I purchased this device to provide myself with high speed Wifi while travelling on business. There has been a number of issues I have faced mainly with Telstra support for this device. 1. It wasn't working when I purchased it. I had to make several calls to Telstra to get it operational because so much of the required information at… Read more

purchase had been neglected by the staff.

2. It frequently comes up with the message "Data usage info unavailable at this time" which means you can easily go over your data budget without being aware and incurring excess data charges.

3. I went overseas, called Telstra on the recommended number to purchase an International Data pack.

4. Despite informing the customer service person that this was for a Telstra Broadband Mobile device and supplying all the serial numbers, etc. they wrongly provided a Telstra Data Pass not a Data Pack. Big issue so beware!

5. Arrive home and receive the Telstra bill and it shows not only the $45 fee for the data Pass, but it also has substantial charges for Data Usage Overseas and Mobile WAP/Internet Session charges.

6 Contact Telstra customer service and they immediately say that I have exceeded the data usage limit and the charges are all valid.

7 When informed about the Data Pass they then recant and say that I must have exceeded the limit for overseas data and those charges will apply.

8 Telstra Bill actually itemises 75 megabytes of data usage overseas and Data Pass allows for 225 Megabyte.

9 Customer Service then recant their position and decides it must be something else. Telstra then revert and claim I didn't exceed international data limit but must have exceeded data limit in Australia.

10 I explain that the WiFI device quite often shows the Message usage Data unavailable at this time" so that you never know what data usage you have used.

11 They explain that there are other options to monitor the data by using your Telstra MyAccount page.

12. I explain that I have been unable to access MyAccount page.

Customer service rep committs to get back to me by Monday with an answer.

13 Try with another Customer Service rep to get MyAccount fixed.

14 They finally confirm that Telstra has somehow expired my account.

15 Attempts to re-instate my account by Telstra fail.

16 They suggest I try over the weekend myself to re-register an account

17 All attempts fail.

18 Try with yet Another Telstra customer service rep on Monday.

19 This person actually knows what they are doing. Fixes issues for me and creates account.

20 Turns out MyAccount registration won't work with either Google Chrome or Apple Safari. Will only work with Internet Explore.

21. Finally have MyAccount registered, but customer service rep informs me I probably cannot access details for yet another 3-5 days.

21 No call back on Monday from the Original Telstra Customer Service Rep, so I send them an email reminding them of commitment they made to resolve billing issue by Monday.

22 They send me an email back saying give me another week and I'll get back to you.

23 I send the Telstra Customer Service rep an email reminding them they committed to resolve the billing issue by today, not another week.

24 Telstra rep calls and we go through the whole thing again.

25 They agree to refund the overseas data charges as they sold me the wrong Data Pass instead of a Data Pack, but refuse to refund the excess data charges.

26 I had already sent them an email with screen shots showing how I was unable to access the data usage. Error messages come up so that you can never gauge how much data you have used.

27 Customer Service rep says there are other means to monitor data such as by Telstra MyAccount.

28 I explain what I have been through for last few days trying to get Myaccount re-instated and that it will be yet another 3-5 days before it is fixed by Telstra.

29 Customer Service Rep Refuses to credit my account for the excess data charges even when I explain I have multiple cell phone accounts with data allowances that have not been used. Optus allows sharing of data allowances. Telstra rep states that isn't possible with Telstra and they will not refund the charges.

30 Advise customer service rep that because all mechanisms provided by Telstra to monitor data usage had failed and that I had other data allowance that they should take this into account because it costs them no more to deliver the service.

31 Rep refuses to provide refund stating that it is not possible with Telstra

32 I advise rep that unless this is resolved I will be referring to Telecommunications ombudsman.

33 Rep rings back 2 minutes later advising that refund has been processed.

The device which is actually a Netgear AirCard 810S actually works fairly well. However unless you are aware of all these Telstra issues, billing failures, account failures, inability to work with several of the most popular browsers and the difference between a data pass and a data pack then you will be up for excessive charges.

Pice of crap that doesn't last – I resent having to give this one star - it doesn't deserve it. Have had this less than 18 months and constant drop outs, limited service messages. Telstra support just keep suggesting rebooting anything and everything and changing random settings. Now despite a range of 30-90 metres, only works if within a foot of the computer. Telstra's final… Read more

suggestion is to buy a new one, as the warranty is only 12 months, even after agreeing that it should last longer - I guess they don't know about the Aust Consumer Law in the Phillippines.

Very Unreliable – We live in a rural area where we cannot get ADSL and will never see the NBN. So we installed an external antenna and were told by Telstra that their new 4g Advanced wi-fi modem would do the job. After having it for about 8 months, all I can say is that yes, it does do the job, but only sometimes. The screen will show that we are connected with 5… Read more

bars, but internet downloads are either so slow they time out, or we can't connect at all. As a matter of fact it has taken me four attempts to get into this site as it kept dropping out on me. Sometimes the laptop can connect, but not the desktop. Sometimes the TV connects to the web, sometimes it doesn't. Constant calls to Telstra's help desk have had little impact. The tech guys and girls are very helpful and polite and get us going again ... for a very short time. We have been told to disconnect everything and re-boot. We have been told to remove the battery from the unit and leave it for a few minutes. We have been told to alter our account settings. We have been told to switch from 4G to 3G ... which did the job for about a week. We have been told everything except "Sorry, you have bought a poor quality product." The "solutions" as stated above work sometimes and not others and quite frankly, we shouldn't have to keep doing these things.Telstra shop, where we purchased it, for a very hefty price, doesn't want to know about it because "It's a tech problem so they are the people you need to speak to". It's not the antenna causing the problems because we can still use the web via our mobile phone which is on a different plan. When this modem works, it works well with fast and instant downloads and uploads, but these instances are far and few between. I have been reading other review sites on this product and it seems there are many other frustrated, disappointed and angry customers out there. Do yourself a favour and give this unit a wide berth.

Easy to use but has its drawbacks – I'm reasonably happy with this device. It's quite easy to use and it works well even in my 3G area. The 24 hour delay on data usage is annoying, but my main issue is that the backlighting on the device failed less than 2 months after purchase. This means I cannot check reception and data usage without starting my laptop and logging in to the… Read more

Aircard Manager. Telstra tells me that because the device is paired to the SIM card they cannot replace it, instead the device has to be returned for repairs under warranty. This would leave me without internet access for my small business for several weeks. Not an option really, so I will just have to live with it. (Not happy!)