VDSL2 - worth it?

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sheppy

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#110228 5-Oct-2012 14:10

I'm within a km of a cabinet and currently have ADSL2 and wonder whether it's worth giving VDSL2 a try. Currently on ADSL2 I can get 50GB and a phone with caller ID from Telecom for $87.55pm and if I moved to Orcon with their Voip phone I pay $89 for 60GB. 50GB is enough for me and I currently get sync in the region of 14meg and a speedtest result of 12.73meg down and 0.97 up.
Having spoken to Orcon a lot today I'm put off by the poor English of some of their call centre staff and the long wait times so I'm not convinced it's worth switching to them.

Is it worthwhile looking at VDSL2 or is it just an expensive way of speeding things up a little which isn't really worth it unless you are downloading 500MB+ files?

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#696793 5-Oct-2012 14:19

if you are using only 50GB a month then you dont really need VDSL2 , and with those stats for ADSL2 then VDSL2 will only be helpful if you want faster upload speeds , because the download speeds wont be much better.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

sheppy

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#696795 5-Oct-2012 14:23

Thanks for the reply, sounds like I should stay as I am.

Zeon

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#696804 5-Oct-2012 14:37

Hazarding a guess it may be borderline whether you can even get VDSL2. Also Orcon does not offer VDSL2 you will need to check out Unleash, DTS, Kiwlink etc. and get them to do a no obligation, no cost Chorus pre qualification to confirm.

Speedtest 2019-10-14

JohnButt

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#696808 5-Oct-2012 14:40

I changed to VDSL and now find Dropbox works as it should, rather than the slow <1Mb/s of ADSL. My download improved a bit from 18 to 22Mb/s, but the real difference is upload.

My upload is ~6Mb/s.

sheppy

47 posts

Geek

#696809 5-Oct-2012 14:41

Spent several hours on it looking at who's offering what and it looks like a marginal luxury at best. The online checker lists the whole area shaded in but I guess just because it's available doesn't mean it's any better in the real world.
I think I'll stick with ADSL2 - just need to work out whether Telecom v someone else which I've started another thread for.
Cheers

nakedmolerat

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#696843 5-Oct-2012 16:14

Go for VDSL and believe me, you will be very very very happy.

DonGould

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#696872 5-Oct-2012 17:40

nakedmolerat: Go for VDSL and believe me, you will be very very very happy.

Yes, all this talk about download speeds, but seems to be little talk about the impact of upload speeds on applications. It upload latency is improved then even simple web browsing is going to improve as each web page comes in and the browser has to request all the uncached content such as scripts and ad graphics.

Also, what's the performance difference of a new VDSL modem v's an older ADSL2+ modem?

When doing a speed test it's always interesting to watch how quickly the test ramps up and how long it is before it hits the max speed and stays at that level.

If your existing router is slow to process DNS requests (which new pages from a Google search will often require) then your entire experience could be impacted.

You really have to be very careful when looking at DSL layer 2 line sync rates and speedtest.net results, and properly understand what they're telling you... the almost endless chatter on the tubes suggests that most people simply don't get what the data means that they're seeing.

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ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#696875 5-Oct-2012 17:47

Absolutely.. upstream is underrated. At my last office we had 5Mbps u/d fibre, and it was much more responsive for browsing, downloading than ADSL2+ at 20Mbps down/ 800kbps up. Not to mention the difference when uploading stuff (of course).

Now VDSL2 lets you have up to 10Mbps up assuming you're close to the cabinet, that's more than 10x ADSL2+ max upstream. That combined with up to double the downstream... it's a big difference.

vexxxboy

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#696882 5-Oct-2012 18:12

have you seen his ADSL stats, he wil be lucky to get 18000Mbps down and 5000Mbps up , and if you are going through only 50GB a month , then your aren't uploading large chunks of data and you will end up paying $30-40 a month extra just to load web pages a couple of seconds faster, is it worth it, to some people maybe but i tried it and it wasn't and im back on ADSL and dont really notice any difference in everyday speed.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

DonGould

3892 posts

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#696887 5-Oct-2012 18:17

ubergeeknz: Absolutely.. upstream is underrated. At my last office we had 5Mbps u/d fibre, and it was much more responsive for browsing, downloading than ADSL2+ at 20Mbps down/ 800kbps up. Not to mention the difference when uploading stuff (of course).

Now VDSL2 lets you have up to 10Mbps up assuming you're close to the cabinet, that's more than 10x ADSL2+ max upstream. That combined with up to double the downstream... it's a big difference.

Agreed.

It also occurs to me that we have to consider the speed at which a new router processes new connection requests.

A router for a 5/5 fibre connection is probably rated for a 1Gbit service, so expecting to do at least 300 to 400mbits/s. So it's PPS (Packets Per Second) processing rate is probably higher as well.

I'd also like to hear from others what they think about p2p on a VDSL modem. With a faster processor and more memory, is the modem capable of holding up more peers at once?

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nakedmolerat

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#696888 5-Oct-2012 18:18

DonGould:
Yes, all this talk about download speeds, but seems to be little talk about the impact of upload speeds on applications. It upload latency is improved then even simple web browsing is going to improve as each web page comes in and the browser has to request all the uncached content such as scripts and ad graphics.

Spot on.

sheppy

47 posts

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#696918 5-Oct-2012 19:22

Given that I've decided to stick with ADSL2, is there any point swapping the Thomson TG585 V8 out for something else?
I would only do this for browsing speed as the wireless range is fine. I have a Netgear WNDR3700 that I could use if I just got an ADSL2 modem, and if I could find something with Voip capabilities allied to a POTS backup I could junk my echo ridden SPA3102 which would solve another intermittent problem.
Granted I'm unlikely to get a leap in connection speed but I may get less latency.

nakedmolerat

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#696929 5-Oct-2012 19:57

sheppy: Given that I've decided to stick with ADSL2, is there any point swapping the Thomson TG585 V8 out for something else?
I would only do this for browsing speed as the wireless range is fine. I have a Netgear WNDR3700 that I could use if I just got an ADSL2 modem, and if I could find something with Voip capabilities allied to a POTS backup I could junk my echo ridden SPA3102 which would solve another intermittent problem.
Granted I'm unlikely to get a leap in connection speed but I may get less latency.

VOIP! there, another reason for VDSL2!

DonGould

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#696931 5-Oct-2012 20:02

nakedmolerat: VOIP! there, another reason for VDSL2!

Why? My SPA122 uses 24kbits/s, a fraction of 500kbit upload.

What's different about VDSL that you fell is important?

(And please understand that I'm interested in your comments, I'm not suggesting that you're not 100% right. I have a VoIP client on ADSL currently and their service is not working well, so I'm very interested to know what you think might make an improvement if I switch them to VDSL).

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sheppy

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#697081 6-Oct-2012 11:11

Voip works fine on my line as it is and worked fine back in the UK on an ADSL1 line running at around 3.5Meg one way and 512K the other. It didn't work that well on the cable line however which had 256K uplink and 10Meg downlink, probably due to a combination of latency and packet loss. Browsing was faster on the ADSL line due to its lower latency whereas downloads were faster on the Cable line due to its faster downlink

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