Dear mac Users,
I have been playing with the Telstra next G USB dongle (7.2) , I 'm really impressed with it,however it's not mine so I had to give it back . I would like one myself although I don't know enough about them other then (as a regionally based Victorian) I will need Telstra as they seem to offer the best coverage.
Perhaps a dumb question but here I go!
Must I purchase a Telstra branded unit on will any do and then can that be used with Telstra "pay as you go"option?
I see one for sale on Mactalk ("3 " brand),could I just whack my next G sim card in or is it more complicated than that?
Helpful advice is always welcome.
m

Mulquemi,
I recently bought a Telstra prepaid USB Wireless Broadband dongle.
I wanted one for use on the road / out of the office and for holidays.

I was interested by a 3 partnership with iiNet, where $99 got you a dongle and their charge was $15 for 500MB with 30 day expiry. However, when I checked the coverage, I discovered that their Broadband Zones did not cover several of the family holiday locations we frequent. And that they roam onto Telstra's NextG network in these areas, but there is a premium surcharge of $0.50 per megabyte for downloads in these areas.

So if you are talking about rural and small town Australia, Telstra, despite their high charges (13.3c/MB $20-40, 8c/MB $50 etc) is the only way to go. I have found the connection / download speed to be OK, about 20-50 kilobytes per sec., which is fine for casual use, browsing and collecting / sending email. The Telstra prepaid modem is a white 3.6 MBit per second device, not the faster blue 7.2 model.

I suggest anything that is set up to automatically download, like virus defs (if you use it) or a heap of widgets that talk to the web, might cut into the allowance a bit, so when using the wireless broadband dongle, I intend to close down a few of these things. Similarly, if people send you email with large attachments / photos, set the advanced preference in mail to prompt you before downloading. Also turn off file sharing access to your public folder, someone might find your machine on the Telstra network and stick a large file in there, eating up your credit !

It also provides your machine with an IP address on Telstra's network, so it is probably worth firewalling your Mac when using the wireless broadband. At home, most people are behind a router nowadays, not directly connected to their modem, so are not as exposed to directly being part of a large public network.

The terms of use suggest that if you don't recharge the prepaid within 6 months of the last credit expiry, you lose your account. So provided you at least stick a $20 recharge in every 6 months, no problem.

I haven't eeded to recharge mine yet from the initial $10 included credit, and have not been able to verify if the recharge vouchers sold at newsagents for prepaid mobiles are in fact the same thing. - so would like to get this verified.

I didn't want a monthly account option, as I'm likely to use only about $80-100 per year. This is just a holiday / out of office / away from home option for me, that beats dial up hands down for speed, and works virtually everywhere. - And I prefer to use a laptop rather than an iPhone type device for non voice stuff.

It would be good to get a few more responses in the thread about experiences with these services.

Edit: 4 July 09.
I have successfully signed up to Telstra's My Prepaid, which appears to work exactly the same for prepaid wireless broadband as it does for mobile phones. This gives another recharge option,- online using a web browser.
I am guessing that the prepaid vouchers are therefore identical for both mobiles and wireless broadband.