Thanks for answers.

antoniosk:

 

Rickles:

 

Some clarification please -- as I understand it, Vodafone's FiberX offering is restricted to the HFC network, and that FibreMax is their offering using the UFB network as recently installed nationally by Chorus - yes/no?

 

This being so, why has my friends recently been upgraded to what is described on the Vodafone contract as "FibreXMax"?

 

 

FibreX = A vodafone speed plan of 200/20, offered only on cable network

 

FibreXMax = A vodafone speed plan of 1gbps/100mbps, offered only on cable network

 

Vodafone owns the cable network outright, and came with the acquisition of TelstraClear in 2012.

 

FibreMax = A vodafone speed plan of 1gbps/500mbps, and is only available on UFB connections (Chorus, Northpower, Enable, UFF)

 

Where cable overlaps fibre, voda defaults to supplying cable. The customer can insist on fibre but they need to know to do that, and depending on the call centre it can either be easy or hard to get. For voda it makes sense as UFB connections cost the company $51/month in wholesale charges. Cable only has maintenance and capital investment costs.

 

TelstraClear connected many buildings in their footprint, so in many cases its faster to activate a cable connection than it is to get fibre going, but that is changing as more fibre connections happen of course. 

 

As has been discussed in significant detail on this site, gbps connections are misleading and there are many reasons people don't get anywhere near these speeds, domestically or internationally. Typical average speeds tend to sit in the 500-600mbps region, although i frequently can hit 110mbps up (for the few apps I have that can use that speed).

 

Cable network is 25 years old and suffering from years of average investment; plus if the rubber sheaths deteriorate and water gets in, it can really impact performance. Cable & Fibre are layer 2 networks and can struggle with congestion etc. All the different network types (including A/VDSL) roll into a layer 3 network, and voda is probably the biggest network in the country (wholesale/retail), meaning their ISP is really struggling. During the school hols I've found all sorts of congestion and DNS timeouts.

 

They are running a deal where they will offer FibreXMax and FibreX prices, which is worth $20/month - that's pretty good, although it does come with some unfortunate restrictions (voda TV only/single voip line with limited features/have to use the homehub). 

 

Plus unlimited free national calls and five free best mates. I find the audio quality on VOIP is far superior to my previous POTS line. Plus free twinset of panasonic cordless phones.

 

Plus unlimited free national calls and five free best mates. I find the audio quality on VOIP is far superior to my previous POTS line. Plus free twinset of panasonic cordless phones.

 

Very true, I didn't include that because the question was about internet. voice audio quality is really dependant on hardware too, not sure I'd put panasonic at the top of any list (they always sound tinny to me)

@quickymart: copper+water+electricity. Any network that is looked after will run to it's spec. Cable is 25 years old, and that's a LOT of sun wind and rain - and salt if you're by the sea. Plastic and rubber deteriorate, micro-breaks appear - if it's made by humans, it will fall apart. Water is insidious and gets everywhere. Maintenance means replacements, fixing breaks etc... which I'm sure TCL and Vodafone have spent huge amounts on. 

Fibre will start to delaminate at some point (and let's not discuss what sulphur does to it - looking at you Rotorua) and i expect we will start hearing about the providers not responding to maintenance... but I hope all the ducting and high quality network install will put off how fast the deterioration happens 😄