It's widely acknowledged that Telstra's LTE network is by far the best in Australia.
It's also by far the most expensive.
The 180GB of data used for the tests would have cost them - assuming "BYO device" plans and that Telstra did not give it to them for free:
On the "Large" (50/30GB) home wireless plan:
$150/month + $1300 for the 130GB extra used during peak times.
On the "M" (25/15GB) home plan:
$100/month + $1550 for the 155GB extra.
On a "M" mobile phone plan (10GB):
$45/month + $74,800 for the 170GB.
I'm honestly take TPG's crappy DSL, which is cheaper and has unlimited plans, over high speed connection at prices like that. It's easier to simply queue up stuff overnight.
What's the current state of the NBN network in major cities? What's the availability of Fibre in cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Perth? Are there unmetered plans? Are they affordable?
NBN state is less than stellar, a vast majority of suburbs have no NBN at all, and a very small minority have actual fibre to the premise. Unmetered plans are becoming more common but are only "affordable" ($60-70 a month) at the lowest speed offering (12mbit). If you want unmetered at 25 or 100mbit, you're looking at 80 or 100 respectively, and that's looking at TPG and iiNet.
FWIW (and I know this is a single data point), but my experience with NBN has been positive.
It's also Fibre to the Node (FTTN) which is often maligned in internet/tech circles for being a poor technology choice. I'd prefer FttP, but it's not an option and I'll take what I can get.
I'm now getting close to my plan's speed (50/20), but you're right about the increased cost. It's roughly 45% more. But the speed from the old ADSL2 plan is probably 4-5 times faster.
The only complaint I would have is that speeds during peak are pretty off the advertised plan speed. They fall to around 18-20mbs down at night.
They were the best, and then Vodafone shat the bed and haemorrhaged customers, most of whom (inc. me) went to Telstra.
Their network wasn't ready for an influx of hundreds of thousands of people, and it went downhill fast. Now, that was a couple of years ago and I'd be happy to hear that they've improved. I'm no longer with Telstra - because of the reasons I've outlined above.
Edit: I realised I have work's Telstra 4G dongle in my bag. Totally unscientific test: Speedtest just reported 26ms/8.91Mbps down/5.95Mbps up. I got the iPhone 5(?) on the day of launch, which was pretty much the first 4G phone in Australia. Sitting in central Melbourne I got ~50Mbps up/down. :-/
Wow! Where are you? Local congestion is obviously a massive factor with 4G speeds. I'm at my office in Melbourne's south eastern suburbs, where connections - everyone's, irrespective of telco - seem to be poor.
Heh yep. According to the Nighthawk M1 plans the best is AUD$70/mo for 20GB and $0.0035 per MB after that. So their 180GB would have cost AUD$630. Little more reasonable, but still not a mainstream price yet.
It's also by far the most expensive.
The 180GB of data used for the tests would have cost them - assuming "BYO device" plans and that Telstra did not give it to them for free: