freitasm:

 

 

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says that, in hindsight, the National Broadband Network project was a mistake and blamed the former Labor government for setting up a new government company to deliver the mammoth infrastructure project.

 

And Mr Turnbull, who was previously the Communications Minister in the Abbott government, admitted the giant project might never make back the money invested by taxpayers.

 

 

The love this quote from Malcolm Turnbull "If you want to look at a country that did this exercise much better, it's New Zealand" ( http://www.zdnet.com/article/turnbull-question-mark-over-nbn-commercial-viability/ ). Tonight's episode of ABC TV's Four Corners is all about the failings of the NBN.

freitasm:

 

Also, I'm currently in Sydney. Broadband here is painful.

 

Serious question - what options are available there? ADSL? VDSL? Cable? Fibre? Wireless? All of the above?

quickymart:

 

Serious question - what options are available there? ADSL? VDSL? Cable? Fibre? Wireless? All of the above?

 

Pre NBN, your options were ADSL2+ or dial up.

With NBN, there are a few options. Those in the middle of nowhere can use NBN satellite, which is capped at 150GB per month (half peak, half offpeak). Those in remote areas get wireless (much like NZ's RBI connections). Those in the cities and major towns get NBN. Depending on where you live, it could be FttP (like UFB), Fibre to Node (VDSL, but the node is closer than in NZ), or HFC (like Vodafone FibreX). Most NBN connections post 2013 (when the coalition completed f..ked up the NBN) are FttN or HFC.

What a crazy setup. One of those videos said that NBNco has to pay Telstra AU$1000 for every premises that they disconnect from Telstra copper and swap to NBN. And that they are aiming to deliver 25mbit speeds to everyone by 2020.

SMH link

I read an interesting article yesterday as I was sitting at Sydney airport awaiting my flight home.

Basically it says that as it stands right now, the NBN collects $43 per month from retail service providers for each home they sell into. In order to recover costs they need $52. Plus they have to pay Telstra $1000 for every copper connection they disconnect in the process.

And then (in another article) there's the NBN's own connection costs for remote properties - in one case spending more than $90,000 when it was compelled to provide fibre to a property near Townsville in Queensland

The NBN is also facing a huge threat from wireless technology - in April this year TPG spent $1.3 billion on wireless spectrum in what is widely interpreted to be a move into mobile data.

NBN is struggling to compete with mobile 4G unlimited plans. This will only get worse with 5G.

and

This will affect NZ UFB as well.

I'm heading to Melbourne next week to stay with a mate in a new house/new estate in the outer suburbs.  His connection is ADSL @ the full 8mbit, connnected to a copper backhauled cabinet 100m down the street that gets the link saturated at peak times.  When we're gaming using voice, his voice goes all robotic whenever his wife loads FB on her phone and the videos try to autoplay. The NBN plan for his area has changed several times but currently shows FTTC in June 2018 (but I believe they are still trialing FTTC as it doesn't appear as an official connection type on the nbnco website).

The way the system has been setup over there with CVC charges mean that all ISP's under-provision their links so even when a user wants a higher speed plan sometimes its no faster.

One of our branches is located in Dandenong South a very large industrial area. We are sitting on ADSL with 2 Mbit/s download speeds. Our only other option is to go Wireless for 10/10 with prices around 6 times higher than the ADSL connection. Here in Auckland on Vodafone we run around 800 Mbit/s download. Brisbane is much better than Melbourne.

I've had comments from employees at our Melbourne branch that some people have changed their home over to NBN and it is slower than the ADSL they had, so a lot of them are holding off now.

And here is the Australia Four Corners report into it:

BarTender:

 

And here is the Australia Four Corners report into it:

 

And if you want a legal stream of it, you can do so at http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/whats-wrong-with-the-nbn/9077900 

stinger:

 

quickymart:

 

Serious question - what options are available there? ADSL? VDSL? Cable? Fibre? Wireless? All of the above?

 

 

Pre NBN, your options were ADSL2+ or dial up.

 

Or cable.

Not that it was worth it if you wanted upload... It maxed out at 125/2.4 (advertised as 100/2)

HFC is "OK" now if you pick the right RSP (Aussie Broadband). You'll actually get close to advertised speed (100/40).

blakamin:

 

stinger:

 

quickymart:

 

Serious question - what options are available there? ADSL? VDSL? Cable? Fibre? Wireless? All of the above?

 

 

Pre NBN, your options were ADSL2+ or dial up.

 

 

 

 

Or cable.

 

 

 

Not that it was worth it if you wanted upload... It maxed out at 125/2.4 (advertised as 100/2)

 

 

 

HFC is "OK" now if you pick the right RSP (Aussie Broadband). You'll actually get close to advertised speed (100/40).

 

You mean NBN connections over HFC.  The only non-NBN HFC retailers are Telstra (expensive) or Optus (congested) and neither of them offer HFC connections for non-residential customers.

Aussie Broadband would be the only RSP I know of who actively, and very publicly, manage their network capacity, preferring to not sign up new customers until network capacity is increased if their connection to a NBN POI is becoming congested.

stevenk:

 

blakamin:

 

stinger:

 

Pre NBN, your options were ADSL2+ or dial up.

 

 

 

 

Or cable.

 

 

 

Not that it was worth it if you wanted upload... It maxed out at 125/2.4 (advertised as 100/2)

 

 

 

HFC is "OK" now if you pick the right RSP (Aussie Broadband). You'll actually get close to advertised speed (100/40).

 

 

 

 

You mean NBN connections over HFC.  The only non-NBN HFC retailers are Telstra (expensive) or Optus (congested) and neither of them offer HFC connections for non-residential customers.

 

Aussie Broadband would be the only RSP I know of who actively, and very publicly, manage their network capacity, preferring to not sign up new customers until network capacity is increased if their connection to a NBN POI is becoming congested.

 

No, I mean cable* was an option.

Before NBN, your options were dial up, adsl (1 or 2 varieties) or cable.  

The question was "what were the options". 

Besides Telstra and Optus, Foxtel sold cable, Transact cable was available in some towns, TPG and iiNet did it in some places too (now they're all the same company).

And Telstras fastest cable price was the same as NBN is now thru Aussie Broadband. $100 a month. You could try another RSP with HFC, but I don't like your chances of getting near advertised price.

I don't know what non-residential has to do with anything.

*When I say "cable" I'm talking HFC, but all ISPs called their offerings "cable" so I'm keeping that term for pre-NBN HFC connections.