TAG | Australia breaks through 1.5Mbps barrier: Telstra launches ADSL 2+ |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Friday, 10 November 2006 | |
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Page 2 of 3 They have all been arguing over who gets to control a next-generation Fibre to the Node (FTTN) project, to connect Australia with fibre optic connections that could deliver much faster network speeds that ADSL 2+ at 20+Mbps could offer. Some have even claimed that a Fibre to the Home (FTTH) project would be an even better thing to do, though it would cost even more. Featured Whitepaper
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So the speculation has raged on when Telstra would announce their own ADSL 2+ project, with compatible equipment reported to have been installed in many exchanges for at least a year, if not longer, with no action from Telstra who were favouring an FTTN project in ADSL 2+’s place. BigPond’s tenth anniversary looks to have been the preferred choice, not only for its significance, but as a perfect complement to the only weeks ago launch of their 3.5G ‘Next-G’ next-gen mobile phone and broadband network, able to offer connection speeds of 550Kbps to 1.5Mbps, with projected speeds of up to 14.4Mbps from March next year (2007). The intial launch of the Next-G network included mobile broadband cards more aimed for business use, although fully accessible to consumers. It is expected Telstra will shortly launch a more consumer oriented wireless broadband product for Next-G users, at prices similar to those charged for the Ethernet and USB 'Minimax' modems offered by Telstra for the still running CDMA EVDO broadband wireless network. The Next-G network, rolled out and complete within 10 months, was not only the world’s fastest rollout of a next-generation mobile phone network, it is 100 times larger than competing 3G networks, yet still offers widespread national 3.5G access wireless broadband. And as a 3.5G network, it is hundreds and even thousands of times larger than competitors 3.5G rollouts in selected areas of selected capital cities, although this will obviously change slowly, as the competition continues rolling out 3.5G equipment. Now Telstra have Australia’s fastest wireless broadband network with the widest Australian coverage across virtually all populated areas, and have backed it up with ADSL 1 at 8Mbps, and for selected users, ADSL 2+ fixed broadband services at last. It’s just a shame that political fun and games are getting in the way of more Australians getting access to the full benefits an ADSL 2+ connection will bring. Faster broadband is the future, and it’s what Australians have been asking for constantly in recent times. An Australian shadow minister in the Federal Labor opposition party complained to the Australian Government that 256Kbps broadband was really akin to ‘fraudband’, with anyone stuck on such a slow connection able to keenly attest to that reality. Telstra BigPond’s Group Managing Director, Justin Milne, clearly knows the benefits of faster broadband speeds when he says that “It means faster downloads, better quality video streaming, lightning-quick web surfing and the ability to send and receive large files quickly and conveniently”. “BigPond Movie Downloads, BigPond TV On Demand and BigPond Games Shop downloads will take only minutes”, said Milne. “For example, downloading Casablanca, a one gigabyte download which would take more than nine hours at 256kbps, can now be fully downloaded in as little as seven and a half minutes with our high-speed plans. So what do the new ADSL 1 at up to 8Mbps and ALDS 2+ at up to 20Mbps services cost, and how much do they allow you to download? |
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