With advancing technology, you could even forgo your landline, David Potts writes.

If broadband internet is all mega-whatsits and giga-thingos to you, I take it an upload download experience won't be your cup of tea.
Mine neither.

Still, as any teenager will tell you, broadband is cool because you can download movies and music in no time at all.
Forget that. The real news is that broadband prices have dropped so far that it could pay you to switch from a dial-up service, or even start from scratch if you don't use the internet.

The savings on offer
or a start, you'll probably be able to do without your home phone altogether.

Since broadband doesn't need a phone, you could save up to $30 a month in line rental while paying $19.95 for the cheapest broadband connection. Some broadband plans even give you free local calls on the side.

And soon you'll be able to use the internet for phone calls anyway or, in broadbandspeak, "voice over IP". (You plug a special phone into your computer's USB port, in case you were wondering. I was). True, some broadband services use the old copper phone line (ADSL, for example), but that doesn't mean you need the phone. Or the rental. It's the socket that matters. And yes, in every case you need a gadget to plug in a modem, just like dial-up services. The going rate for a modem seems to be $129, although you can buy your own.

So instead of a phone, a mobile and broadband combo could be the go.

Mind you, wait a little longer and mobile phones will have broadband anyway.

Apart from not tying up the phone line did I mention teenagers before? the other unsung advantage of broadband, especially if you're a heavy internet user, is the savings in calls.

Although you pay for an internet service provider (as you do for broadband, too), the phone connection is extra. Dial-up services are notorious for dropping out, so a single session checking your email might cost two or three phone calls. They add up.

Download on downloads
Fortunately, intense competition has mostly removed the biggest broadband nasty. Broadband comes with a download limit which means, usually, you can only use up 200 megabytes a month.

In the bad old days, fees were charged when you went over the limit. Most providers now speed-limit you, so that once you hit that, you may as well be a dial-up service again, only without the phone calls.

This, by the way, has led to claims of unlimited downloads. On a technicality that might be true, but it's hard to argue that something is unlimited when there's a point where the conditions suddenly change.

How do they get away with this? Imagine the hue and cry if the banks said an account was fee-free, when the fine print showed that after five withdrawals there's a charge. Oh, they do?

If you already use the internet, you'll have a pretty good idea of how many megabytes you need a month. A guide provided by AAPT suggests 200 megabytes is enough if you just need broadband for emails and a bit of internet surfing. You'll need 1000 megabytes (which most providers call 1 gigabyte just to confuse you) if you want to download a few music or video files, and if more than one person is using it. If you're a heavy user, 3000 megabytes might do. As you go up in megabytes, you'll probably want a faster connection as well. The slowest broadband offering is 10 times faster than the typical dial-up.

The next step is 512 kilobits per second (kbps), but the broadband equivalent of breaking the sound barrier is twice that again.

This speed, incidentally, is what countries that don't have Telstra call broadband it's fast enough to be indistinguishable from watching TV. Most providers, including Telstra, offer this speed if you want it, but you pay for it. Even these high-speed options have a 10,000 to 20,000 megabyte limit that isn't a limit. TPG offers 1500kbps even on its cheapest plan, but the download limit is more stringent. Its $49.95 a month plan gives you 20,000 megabytes.

Product comparison
Like mobile phones, you get a better broadband deal by signing up for 12 or 24 months. But unless you're in a desperate hurry, it might pay to wait a few months. New offers seem to be coming up all the time, and Telstra has hinted that there are more deals in the pipeline.

Alternatively, you can join OzEmail at $29.95 with no contract, making it easy to move when a better deal comes along.

Optus and Telstra have been heavily advertising packages, or bundling deals, where signing up for broadband gives you cheaper mobile or fixed phone rates, or both.

Telstra gives you 50 free local calls if you join its BigPond broadband.

Add a mobile and you get 125 free local calls.

Optus is offering four months of broadband a year for free that is one-third off if you sign up for a home phone and a mobile.

AAPT, on the other hand, only offers its broadband service to its phone customers.

Primus is offering a package in which the broadband component is just $15 a month. For a monthly $55, you get the broadband service (with a 200 megabyte limit) and free local phone rental and calls.

Oh, one more thing. While telcos are generally upfront about fees and charges, the fine print is the help desk. Computers being computers, you want a provider with a 24-hour help desk.

Jump on the bandwagon to make profits as telcos fight it out for market share

Broadband is the new battlefield between the telcos, so even if you're not using it, you may be able to make money from it.

True, Telstra was written off long ago by most analysts, who have somewhat condescendingly criticised it as a high-dividend-paying mums and dads stock with few growth prospects.

Never mind it has the upper hand in the fastest-growing telecommunications area broadband.

It owns the most phone lines and cable, for one thing. But get this. It owns the lines of most of its competitors as well. The exception that proves the rule is Optus, and even it uses Telstra's copper wires for some of its broadband services.

In fact, Telstra is in a stoush with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for apparently selling its broadband service to its customers at a cheaper rate than its rivals, as you would expect it to.
It means its rivals are automatically selling at a loss if they match, or discount Telstra's prices.

Clearly this can't be good for long-term competition if they all go broke.
The main broadband rival to Telstra is Optus, owned by Singapore Telecommunications which, although well regarded among analysts, is more expensive than Telstra on the basis of price-earnings ratios.

Other listed broadband telcos are Telecom NZ, People Telecom, SP Telemedia and Unwired. OzEmail is also listed, but on New York's Nasdaq exchange. Of these, SP Telemedia and Unwired have their own broadband systems.

"It's a toss-up between SingTel and SP Telemedia," Scott Marshall, of Shaw Stockbroking, says. "SingTel has stronger profit growth than Telstra."

SP Telemedia, which has built its own broadband network from Cairns to Melbourne, is more opportunistic. "It picks up a lot of failing telcos at a good price. And it has merged television [NBN in northern NSW] and telecommunications," Mr Marshall says.

"It's like Telstra and Foxtel."

NetComm, which provides broadband to OzEmail, "is one up from Unwired in terms of its technology," says Michael Heffernan of Patersons.

It also produces modems and other broadband paraphernalia.
Unwired has its own wireless system and backers such as Trevor Kennedy behind it, but has been dogged by reports of a weak signal in some areas.