Brought to you by Optus
I love this picture of my kids. We were waiting for my husband to get home from work so we could go out for dinner as a family. The children were sprawled around the sofa with their respective devices, chatting to each other and sharing what they were looking at.
While the Internet can bring some challenges in family life, we focus on being grateful for all the amazing ways the Internet can add value to each respective person and our collective family time. From streaming movies as a family on Saturday night, to hearing my son laugh and chat as he plays with his friends virtually on the Xbox; from the ability to study and work from home and having the opportunity to Zoom into gatherings when we can’t physically be together.
Our family now has four teens in the house and I find we rely on the Internet more than ever. One of my kids is at uni, and the other three are at high school. Both my husband and I study part-time, and I largely work from home. This means, at any given time, there will be a host of Internet usage going on in different areas of our house. To show you what I mean, I did a random snap of what was going on at our place one Saturday afternoon. A bit of a vignette of our modern family life!
1. Two of my children were sitting at the dining table together. The kids often sit in this space to do work because it’s cool and light. My daughter (grade 12) was doing homework on her computer, and sitting across from her, my 15-year old was using her iPad to stream The Hunger Games. She has to write a persuasive speech about the story for school. She was telling me about how horrible some of the parts where – I agree!
2. In the living area, my son was playing the Xbox. Interestingly, I have found that he mostly plays games with friends, rather than on his own. It’s a very social kind of activity for him.
3. My 19-year-old was in her room with her device. She also has a desk in her room and does a lot of her university study in this space.
4. In the main bedroom, my husband worked on an assignment (he is completing a Master’s degree). I pottered around doing washing, and then joined my husband and streamed a show on my iPhone while he worked beside me.
A snippet of a typical quiet Saturday afternoon at our place, where some are catching up on work and others are enjoying leisure time.
At the start of each year, I do a budget and consider areas (such as food, electricity, phone and Internet) to optimise or fine-tune. I find it’s always worth exploring what’s on offer to see if you’re getting the best deal for your family’s needs. Reliable, fast and secure Internet that can handle everything we throw at it at any given time is a key consideration for me. Recently, we switched to the new Optus Family Internet 100 Plan which is designed as an all-in-one package for families like ours who have many people using the Internet at the same time in different areas of the house. We are paying the same as our previous plan, however this bundle has so many more features included at no extra cost.
To help ensure everyone in the family stays connected, the plan comes with a modem with 4G backup, so if the nbn connection falters, it will be backed up by the Optus 4G Plus network. It also includes a booster which you put in another area of the house, extending the WiFi coverage. This is so great for us, because it means we can easily access the Internet from many areas around our home.
We have the modem in the living area, and the booster in another room. I like to work in many different areas around the house, depending on what I am working on, and having the flexibility to do this, even in those black-out spots, is fantastic.
The package also includes a WiFi secure feature which scans and blocks malicious attacks on all WiFi connected devices in the home, so there’s an added peace of mind that all these devices are protected from online security threats.
After using this system for over a month now, it’s working fabulously for us.
The bundle also comes with Optus Sport monthly subscription at no extra charge, so entertainment options are covered too. I’ll put a snapshot of the features of the different plans below and you can read more about it on the website (link). We are on the $99 a month plan.
$79 per month (for the first 12 months, normally $85 per month)
- Base speed pack of nbn 50/20 (Typical busy period download speed of 50Mbps, 7pm-11pm)
- Optus Ultra WiFi Modem with 4G backup
- Optus Ultra WiFi Booster
- Optus WiFi Secure
- Optus Sport monthly subscription at no extra charge
$99 per month (for the first 12 months, normally $105 per month)
- Base speed pack of nbn 100/20 (Typical busy period download speed of 100Mbps, 7pm-11pm)
- Optus Ultra WiFi Modem with 4G backup
- Optus Ultra WiFi Booster
- Optus WiFi Secure
- Optus Sport monthly subscription at no extra charge
We’ve found that the consistency of the speed is excellent. For example, below on the left, are the speeds for us during the peak evening times, and to the right, are the speeds during our morning in off-peak times.
Find out more about the different packages on the Optus website.
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