June 2011

In this month's Prim-E-dition we will be focusing on iPrimus' range of products and services and to help you get acquainted (or re-acquainted) with them we will be giving away a $250 "Coles Group & Myer gift card" to the most creative reply to this question:

“What iPrimus product/s best suits you and why?”

To enter, email newsletter@iprimus.com.au from your iPrimus email address.

For inspiration, have a read through the articles below and read up on some of our products on our website. The iPrimus customer with the most creative, interesting, intelligent and appealing entry will win. It's one entry per customer and if your entry is not emailed from your iPrimus email address, be sure to include your username or iPrimus email address in the email.

(Competition ends 5pm EST 22/07/2011)

Read here for full terms and conditions.

Products summary from an iPrimus staff member and customer

My name is Charlie Brown, editor of the Prim-E-dition and like many of you I have been a long time customer of iPrimus. Through my seven-plus years as a customer I have been staggered at how quickly the internet has evolved. From Dial up to ADSL2+ and analogue to Android it’s hard enough for the most Tech Savvy of us to keep up! Working out what products are best suited to our needs can be even more of a task.

But, as a self confessed “Technical Dummy” I have been pleasantly surprised at how quickly I’ve adapted to the internet and how it has helped myself and my family stay connected. This edition we explain some of the different types of Broadband and Telephony products and hope to shed some light on making the right product choice for you. The products below are what my family and I have personally acquired through iPrimus and although everyone’s needs are different I’m sure this will give a better guide to making product choices for you in the future.

I hope you enjoy!

The Platinum 25 is the plan of choice in my family

Internet usage

I'd never thought I'd hear myself saying this but I use the internet regularly!

Personal favourites include streaming sport (to my wife’s chagrin), music videos and catching up on my favourite Fantasy sport websites.

My wife mainly uses the internet for email however finds very useful information about her impending pregnancy on the web too. She had lost her pregnancy book which she referenced regularly for our first child but was pleasantly surprised with the raft of information about pregnancy on the internet.

My 6 year old daughter regularly visits ABC reading eggs where she has fun and learns how to read in the process.

We can also browse the internet at the same time with our wireless connection on our smartphones and laptop, which does make it handy (read Wireless router to find out more). Reading the news, checking the weather and looking for things to do out and about are some of the many things we use the internet for and ADSL2+ Broadband makes it happen very quickly.

Telephone usage

Unlimited local and National calls are ideal for our family. We stay in touch with our extended family most days and a large portion of them are either in rural areas or interstate. So when I pick up the phone, I don't need to watch the clock, knowing that it's all included in the fixed price of $89.95 per month. Trying to get my wife off the phone to her friends each night is another matter!

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT iPRIMUS' PLATINUM 25

Why Wireless? Why not!

For several years we had the computer in the study hooked up to the phone connection. Everyone had to take their turns at using the Internet making it very time consuming. In fact it took my 72 year old Father in law to teach me about the wonders of a Wireless connection within the home. He was boasting to me about purchasing a Laptop for $50 at a garage sale, but I didn't believe it would work. To prove me wrong he went into the study and came back with a "perfectly working laptop" and it was fully connected to the Internet! I couldn't understand how he did this but it all made sense as my modem was a Wireless ADSL Modem/Router.

Within minutes he had me connected to my Laptop in the kitchen, his laptop in the bedroom and his Smart phone in the lounge room all done wirelessly through my home broadband connection. Days later I was sitting out on in the backyard surfing the web in the sun sipping on a coffee. When questioned by my wife with "I thought you were doing the gardening" I replied "Just researching Better Homes and Gardens website right now", genius!

FIND OUT MORE

Broadband, Broadband everywhere!

With my new found thirst for the web and an impending trip to Queensland on the horizon, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to update photos to the iPrimus Movember charity team that we had set up. I wasn't excited at the prospect of running around internet cafes to update my "Mo-space" page whilst on holiday and don't even ask me how I was supposed to upload my photo's! So I bought a Mobile Broadband dongle and took my laptop with me on the trip.

I'm happy to say that those days of running around searching for an internet café when I'm holiday are gone thanks to Mobile Broadband. As well as updating my Movember photos I caught up with the daily news in Melbourne, searched for Restaurants and activities for the family in the area, checked the weather, downloaded local maps and maybe the occasional spring racing carnival update, all without leaving our apartment!

Although I originally purchased Mobile broadband for my trip to Queensland it has become really handy for my day to day use. I take my laptop and surf the web on the train and take it to the cafe when I'm researching for my favourite hobby "writing film scripts". The one thing that is taboo is taking it to restaurants as my wife doesn't want me checking up on footy scores, that's what my smartphone is for!!! WHOOPS (note to self don't always write what you are thinking)!

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MOBILE BROADBAND

Important: Mobile Broadband is only available to approved customers in areas covered by the Optus 3G/HSDPA mobile network, subject to network availability. Call us for more information.

Things you should know

2 New subscribers to the Smartphone revolution!

The final product my family have recently acquired is our Android smartphones. Smartphones are essentially Mobile phones which have access to the internet, touch screens and clever applications commonly named "apps" which have a range of uses from games to social media (Facebook and Twitter) and even services such as iPrimus' tool to check your broadband usage.

Both of our phones are on the Android Social Plus cap plan and we are really seeing the benefits. Our mobile phone bill with my previous provider was over $200 per month for both my wife and I. Now that I'm on the Social Plus Cap 29 ($19 per month with bundle discount) and my wife's on the Social Plus Cap 49 ($39 per month with bundle discount) we are saving over $140 a month in calls and text alone.

As an added bonus we have 2 flash new smartphones to which we can email friends with, browse the web and play Angry Birds (it's very addictive). There's also unlimited access to Facebook, Twitter, eBay and many other site's, with more than enough data for my usage. I must admit that these phones have so much capability that I'm finding it hard to keep up, so I will make a point of writing articles on the smartphones capability in future editions.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR SOCIAL PLUS CAP MOBILE PLANS AND ANDROID SMARTPHONES

Terms & Conditions
* Standard charges apply for external links accessed via these sites and for social media alert/SMS services.
# Bonus Offer: 2 Months Free Access Fee will be applied as a credit to the 4th bill after the service is activated. To be eligible for this credit the customer must pay the first 3 bills received from iPrimus (in full) by the due date.
1 Early exit fees apply. 24 month contract. Bundled price available when you combine the Social Plus Cap with an eligible iPrimus service on a 24 month contract. Direct debit only. Available to credit-approved, residential customers only. Max 3 services per customer. See www.iprimus.com.au for coverage details.
2 Includes standard national voice calls, standard national SMS/MMS and VoiceMail ONLY.
Exclusions include 13/1300, 1800 numbers. Premium calls/texts barred on activation.
3 Excess data charged at $0.275 per MB. Uploads counted.

Got an inquiry? Let us call you!

Not everyone has the same needs and the product information I've provided is based on my experiences. However I hope that my family's product and service range give's some insight not only to the web's capabilities but the products that link it all together.

To be better informed on the right plan and products for you, submit your inquiry to…

www.iprimus.com.au/informer

…and our team will field any inquiry you have and help give you the information required to make sure you have a plan or products best suited to you.

Whether you use the internet regularly or not, if you don't currently have ADSL2+ you will definitely benefit from upgrading. In the coming weeks our friendly staff will be calling all Customers not currently on ADSL2+ to ensure all of our customers who can receive the higher speeds are experiencing the benefits of high speed ADSL2+.

Alternatively you can submit your upgrade inquiry to www.iprimus.com.au/informer and one of our friendly staff will call you back.

Trying to explain the difference between dial up and ADSL1 compared to ADSL2+ is not always easy. However this advertisement from Japan is a very funny interpretation if not a little bit weird!

In the last Newsletter we received some feedback regarding our call centre wait times. All feedback has been taken on board and we would further like to clarify that these times are an average taken from a period of one month. The call queue often depends on the time of day. At times when we are experiencing a spike in calls the wait times will be higher than average. However, at certain times of the day there is no wait time at all.

If you have waited longer than expected, please contact us at…

www.iprimus.com.au/PrimusWeb/ContactUs

…and advise us of your wait time and we will investigate. We will endeavour to make sure you wait is as little as possible when calling through to our call centres in future.

We'll discuss some more products such as Naked DSL and Lingo (VOIP), explain what WIFI is and give out more information on smartphone's (I just found out mine has a built in GPS!).

If you have a suggestion on any articles email us at: newsletter@iprimus.com.au

See you next month,

The iPrimus Team

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