Slashdot Mirror
Australia Gets 8Mbit/s Broadband now, 20Mbit Soon
danwarne writes "Whirlpool is reporting the 'bad old days' of slow, expensive broadband in Australia might be over, with the large ISP iiNet unveiling broadband internet up to 8Mbit/s, from $29/mth. It has been installing its own DSLAMs into the exchanges of Australia's incumbent telco, Telstra, which limits internet access speeds to a maximum of 1.5MBit/s. iiNet boss Michael Malone says as soon as the ADSL2+ standard is approved for use in Australia (which should be in a month or two), he intends to switch the DSLAMs over to offering 20Mbit/s speeds. It looks like Telstra and Optus, the two incumbent telcos in Australia might have their duopoly on high speed broadband (10Mbit/s cable internet) challenged, with potentially great ramifications for price competition in Australia. The only downside noted by Whirlpool readers is that iiNet is forcing customers to take their long distance phone service as well to get access to the 8Mbit/s speeds, a move which is ironically reminiscent of the tactics used by Telstra and Optus."
Please note that Michael has been sacked. Hopefully, those responsible for the sacking will not be sacked.
This has been a brief public service announcement. Thank you for your attention.
Too bad the caps are suitable for a 56k line though. :(
That might sound fine but in reality there is not enough bandwidth in the IINET network to handle even 100 of these connections at full speed let alone having thousands of users. The price per port for the IP ports (Oc12 or whatever) is still way to expensive to be able to cover the costs in any sort of reasonable time frame.
I just wish there'd be more of a focus on extending ADSL coverage across Australia. I mean seriously, how much longer must we be on prehistoric RIMs and the like?
Now why can't they have that available in the states...
Time Warner just switched us over to 5.0Mb/384Kb and I thought that was great. For $43US a month. Bah! Lucky Australians. When we do get ADSL2+ over here we'll be at the mercy of SBC for $40+ a month.
Now if only they let us get static ip's for home accounts.
iiNet is forcing customers to take their long distance phone service as well to get access to the 8Mbit/s speeds
With speeds such as these, users may be able to avoid the long distance phone service with something by using services such as Skype's paid service, which is bound to be a lot cheaper.
8mbit down / 1 mbit up
I have a mate that works at and he said that they have also been looking at adsl2 and were going to implement it soon. I expect more ISP's to jump on this as well so 1.5mbit ADSL will become like dialup: "you wait overnight for a DVD download...haha"
:)
Its cool how bandwith is going through the roof now
Can your karma go above being Excellent?
I never fully understood this; the hardware is designed for XMB up and down, why do they criple the uplink bandwidth? Is this simply to convince the weak willed people to buy their colocated server space, or to upgrade to a "buisness" grade account?
moox. for a new generation.
Telstra was charging me what iiNet wants for phone rental anyway, and I mostly use Skype for my calls. I'm not far from my exchanges too, so I should get the full 8mbit/s...
I'll bet the Koala bears are thrilled about the possiblity of getting broadband in their eucalyptus trees!
Lucky little dudes!
... but after I RTFA, I quickly had my hopes extinguished. Sure we get fast speeds, but no data transfer to compliment it. 80gb (40gb/40gb off-peak) is good for everyone, but with 20mbit, I'm sure it would take 'no-time' (please don't do the math anyone) to get used to using it up quickly. Although this is good for driving the prices down, so maybe Optus/Telstra will up the ante and remove the the 128k upstream cap at least...
Remember children, all generalizations are wrong.
Most times I connect to overseas, and the latency/window size is the biggest speed issue. Even sitting on a 100Mb/s pipe to MCI at work you rarely see speeds above 2Mb/s to any site overseas especially if using TCP not UDP due to the latency issues and the nature of TCP windowing. OK so it might be fast to connect to other people on IInet, but thats the only bonus. Currently I have 6Mb/s ADSL to home in Australia (only one on my ISP with it from what I understand) and while I reach breakneck speeds to mirror.aarnet.edu.au on the Optus network to whom my ISP's primary provider is, I rarely see anything above 512kb/s to overseas sites. Going to just get unlimited 512k to the ISP I work for. No point getting any higher in Australia if your connecting to international stuff most of the time. And no its not because my ISPs are shit its just how it is being on the other side of the world. Fast to Singapore tho!
meridian at tha.net
The rest of the world is moving to ever faster and cheaper broadband, and I'm sitting here paying $60 a month for comcrap with upload speed equall to 32Kbits modem
I get 5Mbps and it is damn fine enough for all the web surfing I want to do. I can't imagine that anyone would give a shit whether their HTML and images come in at 1Mbps or 5Mbps.
Downloading source code, debs, and amateur pornography is where the speed really shines.
That being said 500MB is good for some light webbrowsing of an individual, but not much else. 4GB is also quite poor, especially if you don't live alone. There is virtually no point in such paltry download quotas. A big pipe is virtually useless if you can realistically eat it up in a week.
Huh? I have had 8 MBit through my telephone wires for two years now via www.bostream.nu, 35 USD per month. Had I lived closer, a few hundred yards, to the switch it would have been up to 26 Mbit/sec.
This is quite spiffy, I must say. Yet another country where data is not hindered (much) by corporate-lobbied government.
Don't get me wrong. This is great news for all the Aussies out there . . I'm just tired of overpriced, substandard broadband being the common consumer link here in the States. Perhaps WiMax will change some of this, but it's still going to be sometime before it is adequately ubiquitous and it's hardly a silver bullet.
It's a shame that by the time US citizens finally do start getting things like FTTP, every other country will be using realtime neural uplinks.
only old people use ADSL2+.
I am 20K ft. I would like to see phone companies reach out more to people like me. :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Thats still only 128kbit/sec. Horrible.
Morphing Software
Probably a troll, but just in case anyone else was paying attention:
Australia seems to have weather very similar to North America, but better. I'm moving to Melbourne in a few days (holycrapholycrapholycrap) and according to the weather websites I read, their summers peak around 27C and winters drop to 7C. I doubt this takes humidity and windchill into effect.
Anyone is welcome to correct me on this, but please provide a link.
Great stuff, now I can burn through a patethicly small quota even faster. I wonder how long it would take to get through the 1 GB quota at 20 Mbit for only $29.
What a great deal.
Has anyone seen the TV commercials airing in the US where they claim that US Broadband penetration is suck because of government regulation?
I reflexively call bullshit and assume they just want to kill the CLEC's and are holding broadband hostage for it, but maybe someone here can verify or refute this.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I wonder if they'll impose "Download limits" that are hidden into contracts, and also artificially cap up limits (I know, I should really RTF!)
/month.
In this country- Britain - unless you want your ass capped, your ports blocked, and you very-much reminded of the a part of ADSL, you have to pay for it. £24.99 a month is what I'm paying for a 512kbs service with no blocked ports or limits and a lower contention ratio, as opposed to "consumer" grotty things like BT Broadband for £15.99
I'm not sure how infrastructure could cope with tens of thousands of 20 mbit users- I wouldn't think very well though. Also, at that speed, most of your wait would be for the server you're trying to connect to...
My UID is prime. Is yours?
Melbourne has a few days each summer of 37C or above, but summer average would be low-to mid 20s. Having said that, yesterday it was 33C and today is 19C, tomorrow 16C.. go figure.
That'll just get them to thier 5gb monthly limit faster.
This isn't even newsworthy yet.
It's available to such a small slice of the population with such small data allowances, only the truly stoned and miraculously wealthy will be in line for it.
Picture a pair of cans connected by a string hanging over a cesspool. That is the current Australian "Broadband" situation.
haha, Melb is one of the coldest cities in Oz. It rains a lot there.
I went to the Melbourne cup (a big horse race where the Australian economy freezes for a few mins) and it pissed down right after a morning of "perfect" weather.
Having said that, I would say that Melb is one of the more trendy cities in Oz, so you should have fun.
Can your karma go above being Excellent?
Melbourne sucks, Sydney RULES!
:(
J/K they both suck, I'm just stuck in syd.
If they made a movie of your life, would anybody buy a ticket?
With ADSL being the only readily available broadband technology in :)
Australia, this is a welcome upgrade. I've been rubbing at the edges
of my 1500 account for ages, so in the least, I'm happy
I'm in Melbourne, and the Summer peaks at 38-40C, with usually one week or so of 35C+ temps. Summer mimumums can be low, but it may be 30C at 2am if it's been really hot. And it's dry heat, like an oven, for the most part. The Winter minimums can be as low as 0C, but below zero minimums are uncommon unless you are in the hills. Winter maximums are generally 10C+, with the occasional single digit day. No link for you unfortunately ... too much vodka ;-)
But check www.theage.com.au for daily temps.
Looking at today, it looks like Winter ... cold, wet, windy. No cricket practice tonight!
Enjoy my city ... it's great! apart from weather like today in Summer!
And we're interested in all the US-centric news too? Wow, come out of your tree you idiot.
Alas, the summers can peak to around 42oC in places. Melbourne is often around the low to mid 30s in really bad summers. Western Australia however can go a lot lot lot higher.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie...."
Nimheil
Yeah, and today felt about 13C, in the middle of summer. It's forecast to go as low as 12C for the next 2 days. It's not horribly low, but its the middle of summer ffs.
Have a happy stay in Melbourne, and for god sakes bring the weather with you!
Remember children, all generalizations are wrong.
You just need to tweak your TCP/IP stack. For a 10MB/s transfer over 300ms latency you need a 3MB TCP buffer (window). Most operating systems don't allow the buffer to grow that large.
--
no sig for you. come back one year.
I originally signed up for IInet back a couple of years ago when they offered an unlimited download package. Shortly thereafter the iinet servers broke under the combined strain from users everywhere and they had to revert to shaped bandwidth every night iirc. Sure 8mgb sounds like a great deal but they(isps) can find other ways to limit you.
... who recently (6 months ago) settled down in Sydney, I'm currently stuck with WestNet's (http://www.westnet.com.au/) 1.5/265kbps with 40GB/40GB peak/offpeak quota at A$139/month. Taking this after being on Speakeasy's 6mbps/768kpbs w/ no quotas at USD99/month, I've been suffering. At least I could get static IP even if I have to use PPPoA/E.
... damn. Out of all the things I miss, Speakeasy.net is the one I miss the most, especially when their own page advertises an "enlightened policy" ... aaaah ...
...
When I heard about this, I was ecstatic but when I found out yesterday that I had to subscribe to their phone service as well, I decided not to jump. Any company using such tactic is generally not going to be one that's customer-oriented. WestNet at least just came out as Australia's #1 in terms of customer satisfcation.
Not only is it bundled with a phone service, but as far as I can tell, I'd also be losing my single (and free) static IP that I get from WestNet.
At this point I'm going sit this out for now and see how it develops in the next few weeks and months. Most likely though I'll stick with WestNet (look, after being with Speakeasy for nearly 5 years--I was previously with Flashcomm, yeah, you read that right, FLASHCOMM--I really feel like it's my first day in first grade again if I go sign-up with some ISP with crappy customer service. I survived Flashcomm and have no desire to repeat the experience) because their customer service does rock and would make it justifiable for me to wait.
For all Americans saying "Lucky Australians" -- seriously, you have no clue how fortunate you are. It's true that the US is no Korea or Japan that even offers FTTH, but man, now that Speakeasy has become one of the dominant ISPs in the entire nation
Thank goodness my work pays for part of my DSL monthly fee... I don't feel like I'm getting ripped-off too badly
8Mb is max based on distance, it drops to almost current ADSL speeds after a km or so. It has the same 4km reach as current ADSL, so for many people there is only a marginal speed gain, yawn, which still makes cable faster in most cases. Also at the mubpond was announced that Telstra was looking at equipment that will extend the reach of ADSL, potentialy to 12kms or more, and make ADSL viable in small towns etc.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
and use up your bandwidth limit for the month within 10 minutes of using the thing at full speed.
Second problem: they're rolling the tech out in a limited number of exchanges. I'm on the Tally Ho exchange; that isn't on the list of exchanges to receive the tech (Victorian exchanges to date: Box Hill, Brunswick, Collingwood, Exhibition, Hawthorn, North Melbourne, Northcote, Richmond and South Melbourne, with Windsor and Lonsdale in progress.) Good luck trying to get it outside those exchanges.
This strikes me as being more of a marketing exercise than anything else. It'll take at least a year or more before it reaches even a reasonable proportion of the metropolitan population ... and then there's the rural users to worry about. To put this into perspective: Australia is the size of the forty-eight continental states, but has the population (roughly) of the state of New York. We're very sparsely populated, and much of this technology is geared towards densely populated areas...
Australia seems to have weather very similar to North America
Well, there's nowhere as cold as New England, but Northern Australia would get as hot as Florida. And both countries have sizable deserts (although Australia has a greater proportion of desert).
I've never lived in Melbourne, but I love visiting there. It's a wonderful city.
Download limits are specifically advertised, extra data amounts/month adds $$$.
The smallest data allowance is a mere 500MB/month @ $30(requires phone bundling). The largest is 80GB/month @ $90 - again after switching your phone across.
no, no it is not.
.iso in a few minutes.
it is 8Mbit/s.
No one in Australia is ever under the misaprehension that they have unlimited downloads, so they always look at both the speed and the download allowance, and therefore choose a plan that has the right combination of download size and speed.
Leechers are probably always better off with slower plans with larger allowances (and unlimited ones do exist at a lot of ISPs, but obviously cost a little more than capped ones), but the rest of us are quite happy to be able to download the occasional
We have better things to do with our time than spend all day, every day downloading DVDs we'll never watch.
40GB is more than enough for most mortal uses.
Complaining about caps simply DOES NOT APPLY to Australian broadband, because apart from the very early days when barely anyone used it and Telstra and Optus cable were the only way you were going to get it anyway, ISPs have always capped the plans, and always been very clear about the capping.
Because in the ISP business, upload bandwidth is a commodity. You can have your download dirt cheap. But you gotta PAY for the upload. So unless you want to pay through the nose, fogettaboutit!
Life is not for the lazy.
- Melbourne International Airport
- Mentone (roughly on the coast of Port Phillip Bay, halfway to the peninsula.)
- Moorabbin Airport (about 5-10 km north of Mentone, a bit further inland)
- Kew (northern suburbs, about 15 km north-east-ish of the CBD)
- Essendon Airport (northern suburbs, about 10 km north of the CBD)
- Dandenong (south eastern suburbs, roughly 30-40 km south east of the CBD)
- Bundoora (north-eastern suburbs, about 20 km north-east of the CBD)
Distances are very rough and ready, and are probably wildly inaccurate; still, it gives you some sort of an idea. Hope this helps.As a rough guide, our winters (in Melbourne) are similar to Canada's autumn (eg: Toronto, Vancouver) heat-wise; humidity is usually not a major problem. Wind chill can be a concern, but it's not a major one.
There are various plans at various rates - one provider offers 512/128 for $70/month with no restrictions, not sure about the cost for higher peaks. I wouldn't look for any vast improvement over this sort of capped plan for at least another 5 years, and that's only assuming the standards don't improve the peak speed even further.
iiNet have spent $10M on installations, and only have customers numbering in the tens of thousands of dollars. They obviously can't give the service away, but the rates are still reasonable especially compared with the telco offerings. As I understand it, there are still per Mb costs from at least some of our international trunk providers too. Anyone who can refute that, or that has details?
I have just changed to the new plans and am getting about 7mbit connection. Loving the high speeds and the ability to download heaps and still surf the net without noticing.
There is also an error in the above summary
The only downside noted by Whirlpool readers is that iiNet is forcing customers to take their long distance phone service as well to get access to the 8Mbit/s speeds
iiNet are not forcing you to take their long distance phone service, you need to sign up with their complete phone service, not just long distance. My local calls and line rental charges are all through iiNet now, not just long distance.
(\(\
(^.^)
(")")
*This is the cute bunny virus, please copy this into your sig so it can spread
Melbourne is COLD!!. one of the few states in australia to have 'snow' *mainly in blue mountains tho.
Sydney is ok, but is the 'gay' capital of australia.
Australian Capital Territory has Canberra and all the politicians... nuff said.
Quensland has great weather but cane toads.
Northern Territory is HOT but has KAKADU
Western Australia has Fremantly Harbour and is a magnificent city.
South Australia is a boring old hole *I live there*
Tasmania is full of inbreds *jokes*
I was banned from iinet (WA) in 2000 - back when they were 'small time' - the reason: I asked them (politely) not to send me their monthly 'spam' advertising filled with added services and features they were offering. They responded that I was the 'only' one across the entire country that had a problem with this, and that I should just put up with it. Use the delete button.
I asked them once more not to send junk mail else I would go to the ombudsman. They did, so I fired off email to the ombudsman, got a few telephone calls from Perth, then Canberra, then Sydney - their spam STOPPED.
So did my account. I was suspended. After a telephone call I was told that I would never be able to connect with them again - I was a problem client apparantly. I was sent overseas so I never had the opportunity to make lots of money from it all.
Their service is actually quite good though! Or at least it was for me. Connected with iinet in Geraldton Western Australia. Never had any trouble other than that.
The only downside noted by Whirlpool readers is that iiNet is forcing customers to take their long distance phone service as well to get access to the 8Mbit/s speeds
I live in the USA. For an 8Mbit/s line, I would not only gladly accept having to use their LD, I would also turn over my liver and owe them some unspecified favor involving dead bodies.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why Dont you come up to sunny old Queensland where the temperture is in the mid 30C in Summer and in the low 20C in Winter. Beautiful one day and great for the next
I used ot have an unlimited plan in Australia. with TPG. I had 512kb downstream and 128 upstream for AU$79.95 per month. I then gave my connection to a friend when I moved out of Australia and it was too much for her price wise and she'd never use more than 1GB traffic a month.
"I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
My ISP says he's offering 20 Mbps, but he's cheating with the difference between ATM and IP bandwidth, so it really isn't serving anyone more than 16 Mbps. Think about that...
/. that will get me flamed for having started a poll)... so I propose to compare our bandwidth, based on ISP and location. I'm really curious to see what high bandwidth japanese readers can get...
I'd like to start a poll (I hope there isn't some good-manners-principle here on
Please tell your *actual* bandwidth, in Mbps (megabits per second).
Let's start with me.
ISP / Location / down / up
Free / Paris(fr) / 11.5 / 0.85
War doesn't prove who's right, just who's left.
I'll believe it when I'm using it. "As fast as your line can go" can mean many things, and in my opinion this may last as long as TPG's unlimited 1.5mbit conns.
However press like this can only be good, even if it is a bit shifty.
Australia is a BIG country, expect huge variations in temperature. Tasmania is cold as is Melbourne and you'll freeze your balls off. I went to Melbourne during their winter in 2002. Dull dull dull. I moved to Brisbane in September 2002, their spring, and it was hot. In fact it is almost summer clothing all year round. If wear a sombrero in Cairns during Spring, you may look out of place, but it's a smart move. To be fair, even Melbourne summers can reach 35 deg C.
"I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
I'm in Australia, and currently on a 128k iSDN account, unless I fork out extra cash on Satelite, I can't get anything better.
When Broadband comes available to me...if it does, I will not upgrade until the capping of downloading limit is gone. I have 128k unlimited, and I chew 30-35gb a month alone for only $40. What's the point of paying $100 a month for a download limit that is usually much less than what I do?
You can get unlimited, but it's hard to find, and usually the company quickly changes there plans after too many people sign up.
?
.au ISP supporting unlimited 8mbps let alone 20.
I don't see any
No, I did not read the f***ing article!
too bad all the cool stuff is on the other side of the big pond, and australia is connected to it over an ISDN line.
I can only get dialup.
Yep I am to far away from the exchange to get Adsl.
I need the wifi network rollout or even better Adsl 2. Adsl 2 most likely will not be upto the job to far ie 750 metres more will not help.
Yeah, well most people won't be downloading constantly, and if you are, then they won't want you as a customer. International bandwidth is still expensive here in Australia, in fact until recently we had to pay for all traffic both ways between here and the US.
If the plans are made unlimited then the ISP will go bankrupt from the traffic fees.
It's "you're", not "your", when you mean "you are".
Well, in Italy we have this ISP Fastweb who gives us a 10 Mb/s connection. I have fiber right up to my desk! I found it *does* work up to nearly 900Kb/s when connecting to a fast site, even overseas. For instance, when downloading from Microsoft or Adobe.
The downside is that we Fastweb users are behind a NAT firewall, and can't accept incoming network connections. Unless you pay quite a bit more...
-- http://matteo.vaccari.name/
As most people have said, one of the big problems with Austrlian broadband is its availability (Or much lack thereof). Without getting into the headaches outback people must have, I live in a suburb just outside of Brisbane and can't get cable OR ADSL - I'm stuck on 128k up/down ISDN (Only 64k when the phone is being used).
Before we moved about 6 months ago we were on the several megabit cable, when we called Optus (Our ISP at the time) they told us that we couldn't get cable at our new place (Underground power lines and the companies are too lazy to put the cable tv/internet underground) but we could get ADSL.
After we moved we put in an order for ADSL, then a few days later got a call telling us that they didn't realise our estate was on pair gain and couldn't get ADSL either - oops. Note that this is AFTER we moved - so we switched to Telstra and now have the aforementioned ISDN connection. It makes me sad.
In case anyone wonder, and since we did not have a slashdot article to promote this (but i don't care anyway), the frenchies can get an ADSL2+ (20Mb/s max), unlimited phone calls (mobile call for .19 cents () a minute -charged by second from the 1st second-) and TV through ADSL (when your close enough of the DSLAM) for 30 a month.
Sure, the country is not as wide as Australia (people are more concentrated), and only half the population is covered (others can get a 512k. the providers should yet reach 80% of the population by the end of 2005), but the broadband is getting quite common here.
For those who wonder, i'm 5km from the DSLAM, got a 61dB loss on my line, and still get 1,5kb down and 1kb up (phone service running fine, but no Tv)
ADSL 2+ is already available... in France for 29 Euros/month ...plus TV over ADSL + free phone service (http://adsl.free.fr/)
Two major problems they face, the first is lack of capital for infustructure development. You'd be lucky to find them with equipment in your local exchange.
The second problem is telstra has a lot deeper pockets than they do for price wars. If they are seen as a threat telstra could raise its caps or lower its pricing and remove them from the market without actually having to invest in faster lines.
as they say, technology is pushed foward by pr0n ;-)
from Cablevision in NYC has been rated at 10MBit/s for a few years now ($50 a month), which has enabled me to download literally a TB (or close to it) of movies/p0rn/software. :)
Once again overlooked! We all need upload after getting bored of p2p!
http://www.iinet.net.au/broadband/
256k is useless to me. I don't even need 2mbit download.
What would be perfect would be a cheaper connection at say,
- maybe half the price
- maybe even only 256down
- but 1mbit up
A blog I run for the wealth
Any proof for this claim. Remember Australia has UK style libel laws.
Its 42c out in the sticks here in W.A here. ..i think
Perth is a good city
You have to sign up with their iiPhone bundle for the faster speeds.
iiPhone consists of:
line rental
local, long distance, mobile and international calls.
These plans haven't been meet with much enthusiasm as only a very small number of users can achieve above 1536/256 (iiSlam users), and unless your ADSL phone line is only used for ADSL most people are worse off then on other providers, due to the iiPhone call charges.
8Mb ADSL is nothing new, iPrimus has been offering it for quite some time, and they have much greater DSLAM coverage.
You have a sick, twisted mind. Please subscribe me to your newsletter.
Took 3 minutes, and my account can max out on 7.7MBit.
Nice work, finally!
Melbourne has been described as having 4 seasons a day. Large temperature and weather shifts are relatively common. (It can go from sunny/cold -> storm/cold -> humid/cold -> sunny/hot).
It can be a challenge to dress appropriately.
Melbourne can get VERY hot. I have been here for 3 summers now, and each year we've had a few days that hit 42-44C. I am from New York/Boston originally. There is a saying in New England that if you don't like the weather, wait a minute. Well, this is so much more true for Melbourne than it is for New England. We have something called the "cold change" here. A shift in the wind can come and the temperature can drop 10-15 degrees C in 30 minutes. Its amazing. Melbourne is a fantastic city. I absolutely adore it and you are very lucky to be moving down here.
Peak at 27?
You wish. Try 37.
Stinking hot one day, pissing down the next. Thats Melbourne.
Being someone who is too far from an exchange to get ADSL under the current system, the promise of extra range is good for me! 56k barely cuts it now-days, and with four other Internet users, it's useless for anything but Instant Messaging! Hopefully they will enable all the exchanges in Melbourne, and we can get ADSL2+ on it.
where the temperture is in the mid 30C in Summer
and the humidity is 99.9%, don't forget that. It can be really uncomfortable if you are not used to it, like me.
Why not use http://www.no-ip.com/ or dyndns?
You have a sick, twisted mind. Please subscribe me to your newsletter.
According to the article, people using the service no longer have free access to the local peering service amongst the WA Internet community, i.e. where downloading that linux ISO on your iinet account from 3FL (on Westnet) wouldn't contribute to your monthly usage for the cap before, it does on this new account.
So you get faster speeds, but can download less before the cap kicks in. Plus, you have to take their phone service. Blah.
A phrase you'll soon become familiar with is "Four seasons in one day". This is Melbourne.
Summers can get over 40C in some parts. You don't want to know about windchill. I thought Canberra was bad (with a direct path from the Snowy Mountains) but that's nothing like an antarctic blast that can hit any southern town. And being in Melbourne, you can be standing in nice warm sunny little bourke street and a few seconds later its freezing and about to bucket down. But Melbourne is a very nice city, I love visiting it, and I'd consider moving there if they played real football *wink*
Matt
Its simple maths. iinet often attracts higher users than many other ISPs because of thier high speed pipes. The usage of the traffic / quota isnt that high compared to many other ISPs but the PIPES around australia still cost a fortune leased line, dedicated ATM/WDM etc all costs alot of cash because of the huge distances that are covered to get around the country for the small amount of population.
Having just spent two days testing DSLAM equipment and various consumer CPE at a laboratory in Sydney, I can say with great certainty that the majority of people will be lucky to get ADSL1 speeds on their ADSL2/2+ connections. Unless you live 2km or closer to an exchange, 8Mb/1Mb max speeds are what you will get. Oh, and make sure you use decent CPE. The cheaper brands often completely fail to sync at higher speeds or distances.
I was originally on a 256/64 plan for $49 a month. i then tried the "feel the speed offer" of 1500/256. That trial plan was upgraded, due to the rolling out of their DSLAM. I was told that I could change back to my old plan after the trial period, and keep paying $50. The main reason I dont want to get one of their new plans, is the fact that they have turned off free peering. This is a bummer for me, as most of my downloads come from WAIX (Western Australian Internet Exchange). The other problem with the new plans is that you dont get the full speed unless you bundle your phone line with your DSL. I used to get a $10 discount on my monthly bill for having iinet as my long distance and mobile call carrier from my land line. Now you need to have the full package with them in order to receive the discount. I mean I'll probably get one of the new plans, but I'm kinda pissed that my "free" downloads are gone.
Very sad and totally unprofessional for them.
I guess they are trying to accept the lost of customers that are running towards Skype.
I somehow have gotten the impression that the AUS Government is very computer hostile unless it is at the behest of large corporations or pressure groups, could anyone living in AUS give the low-down on some of the problems that plague internet users there?
Upto 8mb/s down WITH bundled VOIP.
Hmmm, looked at the pricing of the iinet voip plans - pretty crappy considering its a voip phone.
Sounds to me like they are giving you 8mb to IINET so the voip works without shaping for home users and maybe they give you 8mb for webpages you pull from their proxy but I can't see them giving everyone 8mb/s international. Imaging 100 monkeys with bittorrent at full speed..... the international links would be totally saturated.
I smell a rat!
As a CLEC, it's all about the footage. Unless the clec is willing to spend thousands on putting a dslam in your area, which won't hapen unless then dollars make sense, you're looking at the availability from the c.o.
Or maybe a clec will come along and dump thousands on putting a dslam in your area. Or not.
Agreed that the commercials are probably aimed at killing off the only breed of competition local telco service can ask for.
The FCC is reversing 1995 acts. The ILECs have more cash than us. *shrug*. What can we do, except die off gracefully.
I was until recently a french citizen and basically left the country when they started to put 8Mb DSL everywhere (they are now deploying ADSL2+ which goes up to 20Mbs).
So I am now in Switzerland. Beautiful country. However, the bandwith situation is pretty bad: 786kbs up / 128kbs down dsl for a monthly cost of 32 euros (US$42).
Basically it seems that the historic operator (Swisscom) controls the lines and there is no competition. The situation was the same 4 years ago in France, until under the pressure of both Europe and a governmental agency (the ART) real comptetion could emerge.
--
Go Debian!
Lucky sods.
You've got a pair of cans.
Fran
:):):)
1st 1st Poster of the new Millennium!
.. but I'm addicted to the speed already. I switched over last night from a 1.5mbps plan last night, and as my exchange has had iiDSLAMS in it for a while, I'm able to get some _real_ broadband speeds now. I can't quite believe how fast it is.
iiNet should be congratulated for dragging the rest of Australia's Telco industry kicking and screaming into the modern day of broadband.
It's a Bagel.
In france we can get full uncapped ADSL2+ (that's about 20 mbit/s down) with unlimited national phone calls and TV over DSL for less than 30 / month ... check it out here : free.fr.
...
It's been some time this has been available ant I didn't see any story on the slashdot frontpage about this
in France, we have switched to ADSL2+ last november and had uncapped ADSL connection for at least 1.5 year now. : :
Yes 6Mbps (at that time) is truly way above what the net can provide you, even using P2P networks (I managed once to DL debian ISO @ 600kBps).
But the TRUE meaning of the oversized connection is for added value services
- internet access
- phone (1 or more lines)
- TV over DSL with
* video on demand
* TVHD
French currently most active ISP (http://www.free.fr) can provide up to 16 000 channels thru its network, reaching 500k customers.
For TV ovr DSL, there is no data travelling on the internet because the video feeds are dispatched only to the DSLAM and there multicasted to the client. Only the currently viewed channel is feeded to the client.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
Does this mean that our aussie friends won't be able to complain anymore?
No more "you americans whine about your crappy broadband but here in australia, we won't get internet for another 30 years" ?
Thank god.
In Sweden there is rarely a hard cap on allowed up/down traffic. If you generate insane amounts of traffic you might get a letter saying something along the lines of "please stop abusing our generosity" or something like that. A 24/1 *DSL line costs around $50/month. If your house is connected to a fairly widespread fiber network (widespread atleast in the larger cities) you can get a 10/10 connection for $50 or a 100/100 connection for like $80.
And the whole state is as mad as a bad full of cut snakes. Its weird what happens when too many old people move to one place.
Sure, I'll sign, can anyone spell VOIP? ... ...
You have a 10mbit connection, sue you can sign up for thier long distance, and then make all you own VOIP calls. Heck use Skype. The real problem is many companies are geared up to make money off providing packet switched network telephony, but every man and his dog can easily use free voice (voice to landline is like 2 cents a minute intl. over Internet)
That is like saying, we will give you this hydrogen car for free, but you must buy your petrol from us (that is gasoline for the lexically challenged)
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
Bullshit. This is extremely newsworthy. 80gb/month is MASSIVE for Australia, particularly at that speed. Do you actually live in Australia, or do you just have some half-arsed idea of what Australia's actually like?
Hell, applications exist now that can take advantage of that much data (videoconferencing, MMORPG's, etc). Nevermind the fact that at 8Mb/s, that 40 grand is gone in less than half a day.
As an Australian broadband customer, I find it baffling that people like yourself excuse these companies, by derisively referring to people who actually *use* their services 'leechers'.
The broadband market in Australia is catching up, but blaming consumers for taking advantage of it's benefits is sheer arrogance. Increased download capacity is as legitimate a concern as speed, yet some people seem to wet themselves with guilt over it.
Although I'm reasonably happy with both telcos services (Telstra and Optus). I welcome more competition. I feel that Australia is a bit slow on improving their communication networks because of the cost of running cables on the street per signups. And Australian cities are not very dense, which means a lot of cables. I hope that a little extra competition will not only lower prices but also force telcos to compete for areas where their broadband is not yet available.
This rumor?
No, a tier 1 telco won't pay for bandwidth. They pay for ports in an exchange and that port cost is a fraction of the very expensive router they get to use. The cables between the US and Australia carry the same number of bits every second if they are all zeros or warez. The problem is most Aussie telcos think they are tier one when they are 2 or even 3.
I have an unlimited plan (it cost me over 1 grand a month) but I can pump hundreds of gigs over it every month. I fought with every telco offering service until a few gave in. It can be done but its getting cheaper and cheaper.
A general comment is fine, but you (whether literal or not) stated that iiNet couldn't handle 100 users at 8Mb. Which they certainly can, seeing as how they have thousands of users on 1.5Mb.
Over-subscription is the norm for the industry, it all depends on how well the ISP manages and upgraded their bandwidth where necessary, and so far there is no evidence that iiNet are not managing bandwidth properly.
well, for the same price in Italy you'd get a 640!
(to say in a low voice: 640.. KB/sec... damn...)
will work for bandwidth. (c)
-- There are two kind of sysadmins: Paranoids and Losers. (adapted from D. Bach)
I'm on an iinet, 256kbps down and 64kbps up plan. I get, 12G peak and 12G off peak downloads which it is caped at. Once peak or offpeak download limit/cap is breached, downloads are slowed to 72kbps, for that zone (peak or offpeak) expect for downloads that are from the PIPE Networks servers or iinet servers or other ISP related to iinet in some way.
I pay 40 dollars for this plan. Yes, i have iiphone packaged with it which means i get $10 dollars off the original price of $50.
For a similar price, this is what i get with broadband2.
The starter plan, with iiphone
1500 up to 8000 - down
256 up to 1000 - up
2GB peak + 2GB offpeak
$39.95
As you can see, SIGNIFICANT decrese in downloads just doesnt cut it. However, a friend of mine who had a 512Kbps down and 256kbps up plan without iiphone would do well to get the 1500 to 8000kbps up with iiphone and 10G downloads each way for the same price.
Also, peering dosenot happen on broadband2 apparantly. So there are NO free downloads from pipenetworks and possibly other iinet users, so what you are getting for the same price is significantly LESS if you use these services, which i would think all iinet users would!!!
And i suggest, if you only download 2G or 4G a month, do you really need broadband? Wouldnt dialup be just as good?
Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
I live in melbourne and have done so for the last 11 months. You hear from other areas of australia that melbourne can have 4 season in one day. You dont actualy realise how true it is until you live here.
Not as an example of the above, but to give an example of what summers are like here. Yesterday, it was around 35 degrees celceus. Infact, that would have been the average for the last week. Late yesterday sometime it started raining.
*looks out the window*
Fuck!!! Its still raining.
This is the first time it has consistantly rained in melbourne for a day, since i've been here.
As for humidity, melbourne doesnt get a lot of it, but we've had a few days where it was very shitty hot, muggy, sloppy weather. But nothing like NSW or god forbid, QLD!
I advice, find yourself a very cheap heater for winter, unless you like covering yourself in your doona's or blankets you'll be ripping of your bed! Winter is freezing, but prolly not as cold as it would get in most places of America. But for good old OZ Melbourne is as bout as cold it would get. (minus alps/canberra and tassy/and the deserts during the night).
Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
Im living in Sweden, and got 10Mbit/s for about 40$/month, for 60$ I could get 100Mbit/s.. but I ready do not see what for.
In the U.S. Comcast is giving 4M down, 512K up for $40/month. There is no "stated" download limit, although rumor says there is a 60G/month download limit.
That sounds a lot cheaper than this plan!
I'm watching in anticipation as Verizon is doing FTTP outside my house and down the road for the last 2 weeks. That means within 6 months, I'll have fiber right to my house. Those speeds *start* at 10M down and go up from there.
The biggest problem that I see is that even at 4M/second, its only really good for Usenet access and the occaisional ISO (I'm getting Solaris 10 right now).
For most people? 1Mb/s would be fine. Me? I'll take as much as they give me and use every bit of it.
Nationally, the issue is population density; I can't see this kind of thing ever being profitable in the middle of wyoming, and the costs would be unbelievable.
Which is probably the issue for Australia. The country is huge.
Then why on earth would you need 8Mbits/sec if in reality it's capped at 40GB to give a "real world" speed of 128Kb/s? If you don't download a large amount of data then 1.5Mbits/sec or even 384Kb/sec is more than enough for checking mail or browsing the web. The only reason fast broadband took off is the large scale software, music, and movie piracy that is going on with a silent wink and a nod from our ISPs.
Im an Aussie that lives in Vermont USA and it gets colder than a witches tit here .At the moment we are having balmy wather during the day of 0 to 5 degress C (32-40F) .A few weeks ago it was -30C so give me a cold Aussie winter any day .
One big difference is the humidity wet damp cold makes you feel colder than frozen snow type cold as most of the moisture is traped.That said we get temps into the 30s-40s (90-100f) in summer and a average day time temp of 25 but the stday starts of about 5-10 degrees c Ill take that any day then 3 days of heatwave weather in Sydney.
Tell that to the poor people who live in the newer estates (est 1996) with RIMs in the ground. Telstra, who owns them, refuse to replace them unless enough people that are effected (affected?) by a RIM request to be removed from it. I have been in three houses in the last 4 years, each one I was stuck on a RIM.
The biggest problem is that all these suburbs have some copper so it is impossible to determine before you move in if your phone line will be on a RIM or on copper. Before moving into my current house I checked with Telstra if there was any copper available that could go to my house; There was 4 lines. Three weeks later when I moved in I was put on a RIM. I requested that I be put on copper, but according to Telstra, all the copper was used, but they would gladly put in a second phone line and install ISDN for only $120 per month.
In conclusion. I called my local member, called Telstra again and told them that I have "gone to the press about it" and a day later I get a phone call from Telstra stating that "your phone line has been placed on copper and I should have no problems connecting Telstra broadband". I thanked them for the connection and then went with a MUCH cheaper ISP.
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
Yahoo BB here in Japan offers ADSL in a variety of flavours from 8Mbps (¥3000-ish/mo) on the slow side to 50Mbps (¥4000-ish/mo) on the fast side, which is great for using sites within the country, but for outside of Japan connection overseas is the limiting factor, so you really don't get 50. You do have bandwidth galore for downloads though.
What I think many of the posters here are forgetting is that these plans have download limits. You can see them for yourself at http://www.iinet.net.au/broadband/, but the $29.95 plan comes with a ridiculous 500mb per month.
Also, it is not just long distance calls, but your entire telephone service. Their telephone service can be significantly more expensive than the many other options in the market, including Telstra which is known for its poor value.
Hmm, nothing new here for me. We here in Iceland have had this since November. Even tho it was a new company, not affiliated in any way with the incumbent state telco, nor their wireless/cellular competitor. Same rates, 8Mbit/12Mbit/20Mbit,and no capping (or so they say). No need to purchase any other services either, but their routers (Zyxel) come locked and if you want to forward ports and stuff like that, then you will have to call their tech support staff.
Cablevision's cable modem offering is rated at 10mb/s download and 1mb/s upload for ~$45/month. Granted if you use too much upload bandwith they may cap your connection at a lower speed. But as long as you are reasonable, it won't happen.
I must say 1Mb upload makes your torrents fly in.
My home Cable Broadband Supplier here in Singapore just upgraded me automatically from 3 Mbps to 6.5 Mbps. http://www.starhub.com/online/maxonline/index.html
However, I am not sure how fast I can really fly since the underwater cable and satellite connectivity between Singapore and the Rest of the World is still limited.
The other day I got an offer to sign up for "premium" broadband internet, with somewhat higher bandwidth than I'm getting now, and of course a higher fee. I don't know what my "guaranteed" bandwidth is, but now I'm waiting for it to get capped.
OTOH, DSL just became available to me.
Adelphia or Verizon?
Freddie or Jason?
Abbot or Costello?
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
is it just me or do iiNet really seem to be treating their customers well of late? I have NEVER been a subscriber to a service that significantly and proactively upgrades their offering 3 times in a year without raising prices. Somehow I can't see the telcos doing this.
Also has anyone seen the ads Telstra are currently running in Victoria stating that ALL Victorians now have access to broadband? I don't mean to be sceptical but this is an outright lie! I know people who live about 20 minutes from myself who can't get cable or adsl yet they still have the gaul to make statements like this.
Please explain:
What is ILEC?
What is CLEC?
What is footage? (i always assumed that was photographic/filmed material but apparently it can be other stuff as well)
What is DSLAM?
What is C.O?
What 1995 act is the FCC reversing?
Sorry for these questions, but it appeared as if you were just throwing obscure abbreviations around randomly.
Why is it so big news to just have 20Mb line in Australia?
It's been like that for quite a while in Japan and Japan provides faster lines at very reasonable price, like FTTH (100Mbps)
The line may be slow to overseas, because they have the bottleneck, but it does make concurrent sessions run very smoothly (like load many webpages, download multiple files at once etc)
was when he was called out for lying by another editor.
Seriously...how could they keep someone that asinine unethical around this long?
It did warm my heart after Katz vanished after the whole "Junis in Afghanistan" thing though - that was fricking brilliant. It's sad that he had to screw up that badly to get canned though.
"very large contingent of immature young kids who love to jump on the groupthink bandwagon, and a very large group of gun-loving Red-Blooded 'Merkans who love their Country"
Those are the same people you're talking about. Often united in their love to hate Michael. Too bad their country exists only in their mind.
--
make install -not war
What's the bandwidth of Australia's Internet connections to the rest of the world? I remember when .au meant something like 5Mbps total for the entire country, only about 10 years ago. If Australians are getting 20Mbps each, how is that reflected in their connection to the rest of the Net?
--
make install -not war
You know what this really means?
Slashdot headline:
"Australian boffins clobbering porn servers with 8mb download speeds, hardware sales skyrocket, as smut peddlers struggle to keep up.."
bloody hell, obviously it's so that when we do want the odd movie, we can get it quicker, jesus.
Roadrunner just upped their bandwidth to somewhere over 5mbit. Peaked higher than that recently, too.
-- Liberalism is a mental disorder.
I went visit my girlfriend's family in Japan last month. They have 12M ADSL in their house for about $35 per month(Wireless AP included). And for $5 more you get a 50M ADSL line. That's heaven right there.
Sure. I only gave up my 300 baud modem because I wanted to be a pirate.
You can also get a phone line installed faster than most Western countries.
They can make you take their service, but they can't make you use it. If the prices are too high, get a phone card for cheap calls. What can they do? Cut off you access to 1-300 numbers?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Do australian sites also count against the bandwidth limit?
It seems like it might not be worth the bother for them to figure that out, but there have to be a lot of sites within Australia that people would actually want to visit...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The fact that Michael Malone is the biggest arsehole in Perth (and thats saying alot) and iiNets infrastructure is a joke. This is a company that thinks running multiple Cisco 7200's at 90% load as their core routing is a good idea. This is the company who's boss forced everybody to a badly (I mean really) run Windows office infrastructure including the engineers because despite excellent arguments to the contrary could not ever admit he was wrong. This is a company who even a lot of the people still working there think is evil, it buys east coast businesses closes their offices then offers them jobs in the most boring and isolated city in the world (Perth) so they get stuck there and their wages can be lowered . This is the last sort of company you want to see become a bigger player in the Australian ISP market.
And Bredbandsbolaget in Sweden is selling 100 Mbps for SEK 595 (roughly US$85.32).
Here's their page. (sorry, just in Swedish)
on a cable modem.
Bah!
I hate our #$#&@ monopolist telecom carriers!
Australia is a BIG country, expect huge variations in temperature. Tasmania is cold as is Melbourne and you'll freeze your balls off.
I'd expect most people from north-eastern US or southern Canada would find Melbourne or Tasmania quite nice. (As an example, it doesn't snow in populated areas in Australia - only really the mountainous areas.) It's cold in winter, but great in summer. As opposed to Queensland, where its great in winter, stinking hot in summer - how is that any better?! Just depends what you're used to I guess.
(To tell the truth, many people south of Brisbane would find Tasmania quite nice, but they haven't actually been here, they just listen to the weather jokes..)
- Chuq
Yeah and then there are the "Unlimited" plans where you only get to download say 12GB before they shape your traffic down to modem speeds. I overheard a conversation between a sales guy at the telstra shop once, the sales guy said all the right things like "with the unlimited plan, you can download 12GB ... and we won't charge you any extra", and the n00b goes "Unlimited... cool, so I can download as much as I want". Then the sales guy didn't correct him... ....
So while it is true that the geeks check the fine print, most people getting broadband for the first time just listen to the "Unlimited" quote.
Mind you it's better than it used to be, where ISP's used to charge by the MB when you went over without warning you, and later when the $4K bill comes for the month
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
However, transfers are still made at your upstream bandwidth limit - e.g. with 1536/256 ADSL like mine, I get around 25 KB/s to upload to others, whether on the same net or not.
Best link I had was in the Bad Old Days of early Telstra cable... up to 30 Mbit/s down and 768 Kbit/s up. This was rather drastically offset by the 100 MB (yes, megabyte) monthly volume cap, which I could exceed at the so-reasonable price of 35c/MB...
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
80GB with 8Mb data rates, you are kidding of course.
Here we do 40-50GB with only 512Kb ADSL in a reginal area of Queensland for only $79.95.
I would expect at least 200GB allowance with such a large pipe.
Why would you expect a faster connection AND a 200 gig allowance for only ten dollars a month more?
It would have to be oddly that odd movie too, since once you've downloaded 3 or 4 decent quality copies, you've almost blown the limit.
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
Well, I should probably start this off by mentioning the download limits and the shaping that comes into effect. With this plan, you get 500mb, and after that, you start paying extra, up to the $59.95 cap. After you hit that cap, your bandwidth is slowed to 64k/s. You hit that cap after 500mb over the included data. This means you get 1gb of data at the speeds advertised before you have, essentially, single channel ISDN. That's two minutes and five seconds at the theoretical maximum, or eleven minutes and six seconds at the much more likely 1500k/s. Gee thanks, iiNet. I can't wait to sign up.
Even now, Optus still make a point of calling their accounts "unlimited" even though they are clearly not unlimited, and haven't been for years. Furthermore, their phone staff feel no problem in calling the plans unlimited when speaking to the customer.
This was in fact the case just the other day when I was cancelling my account. I told them that I was moving to an ISP which had unlimited downloads, and the woman on the phone claimed that Optus had an "unlimited download plan" (in those exact words.)
So I guess it depends. If customers believe anything their ISP says, then yes... they could well be under the misapprehension that they have unlimited downloads. Those of us who read the fine print are within our power to move to some ISP who doesn't use the fine print as part of their marketing strategy.
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
We were getting latency of 4000 to 8000 over the weekend to WoW, apparently in part due to the SingTel router outage
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
The 'trick' is the ISP's definition of excessive downloads, read the fine print of most "Unlimited" TOS, and most will say that unlimited downloads are not acceptable. We called our ISP before switching to an unlimited plan, their definition of Unlimited was 100Gb or so.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
I have Truly unlim no shaping no AUP 1500/256 ADSL
No Australia does have unlim broadband, its just costs abit more.
Here in Tokyo I have 100mbit fibre connection with 5 global IP's for only 50 bucks a month. Quite amazing since only 5 years there was only dial up with timed local calls at 10 cents every 3 mins.
Because some of us have a real life, but when we *do* use the internet, would like it to be faster than 128kbits/sec... Downloading movies and MP3's doesn't really have much appeal.
Picture a pair of cans connected by a string hanging over a cesspool. That is the current Australian "Broadband" situation. ... with a sign hanging from the string that says "Telstra 0wns j00!"