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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.
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Too bad the caps are suitable for a 56k line though. :(
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 phone system over here allows you to select which carrier you use on a per phone call basis by prefixing with any number with a 4 digit selctor code, eg 1411 for Telstra (I believe).
If iiNet force us to sign up and preselect to their long distance (i.e. you get carried by them by default) can't we just override on a per call setting?
If so, we can still use our preferred long distance carriers, while getting the benefit of 8M broadband...
That's still strange though. While 1MBit upstream is nothing to sneeze at, I'm really curious as to the technical aspect of why we can't have 8MBit full duplex, or even half-duplex, but in each direction. Back in the day you could order 512MBit, and it came with 256Mbit upstream... which was reasonable, since they were offering the 512down/512up to buisness owners for roughly triple what the "home" upstream bandwidth cost, my guess being for website hosting reasons.
Nowadays it's cheaper to buy hosting at XYZ company for $100/yr and do it that way rather than host your own web site, and very rarely do buisness customers (I assume) go through their telco for webhosting, so it would make sense to no longer artifically restrict the bandwidth to home users.
moox. for a new generation.
Do you have any "tech" to back that up? I certianly haven't found any. It's not like the MPAA or RIAA would have any legal grounds for suing them for the files going across their network. Initially warez was a problem, with the limited bandwidth of broadband "back in the day". With 8/20Mbit networks, you could trade everything you have and fill your entire hard drive in a couple of weeks and not really strain the network, as most files should finish not long after you click on them.
moox. for a new generation.
I've noticed that in the US, the speeds are generally lower, but we're fortunate not to have monthly transfer caps. In other countries, they usually have faster speeds, but anywhere from 2-40GB per month (typically "hard" - as in "shut you down") caps.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it! --Longbottle
Actually its not so lucky.
99.9% of australian broadband adsl servers provide download caps. Normally this is between 5gig to 15/20gig and is split into peak/off peak hours. Once that is passed there will be an extra charge or the service will be slowed down to 32-64kb/s depending on the provider.
Also on the story in order to get that you need to bundle with their phone service too ($29.95 per month AU), and you need to be on their DSLAM. Otherwise you are limited to 1.5Mb.
Alot of users are complaining about the bundling in this forum post, as if you dont bundle you will get a higher cost along with half the download quota.
No, there are no hidden download limits in any Australian ADSL plans (that I know of).
Instead there are upfront and well documented (sometimes part of the plan name itself) limits.
Usually fairly small too by North American Cable based broadband standards.
But we know they're there, they're not hidden, and you usually choose your plan based on the right combination of speed vs downloads for you.
Advanced users are users too!
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.
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.
Much to learn, you have.
Let me tell you about telstra.
When I had my internet connection moved from another ISP to iiNet, they had to plug me into the iinet DSlam. Normally this would be a simple thing to do- just move the cable to the next rack and plug me back in.
Telstra, however, turns this into:
1: request disconnection
2. after a few days, tech goes out and unplugs me
3. Telstra sends a bill
4. Pay bill
5. request connection
6. after a few days, tech goes out and plugs me in
7. Pay bill
8. Line doesn't work. Turns out telstra fucked up
9. request telstra to fix it
10. wait a few days, tech goes out and fixes it
11. Telstra sends a bill
12. pay bill
well, you get the point.
Which is why I'm suprised no provider in the US has realised that they could provide better service and get free advertising by allowing unmetered transfer between its own customers.
I use roadrunner in austin, If I wanted to send a file to someone else in austin, it goes at my normal upstream cap of 50kB/s. If I could get a good 500Kb/s or so, they arnt really hurting (The line to my house is easily capable of it, and if it never leaves roadrunners edge, they arn't paying for it..). And then the free advertising kicks in. If your local isp becomes essentially a giant lan thats able to route packets out, wouldnt you be more likely to get your friends to use the same service?
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx