Internode launches Naked ADSL2+ service, with extended reach

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 26 August 2008 13:40

Your IT - Home IT

Internode has launched 'NakedExtreme' - its ADSL2+ service delivered on the unconditioned local loop from its own DSLAMs - saying it is able to connect customers up to 7.5kms from the exchange, in contrast to the 4.1km limit with services delivered in conjunction with an analogue telephone service on the same copper pair.

Internode product manager, Jim Kellett, said Internode was finding that customers at this distance were getting service at about 512kbps downstream and 256kbps upstream. This is well above the specified performance of ADSL2+ at this distance, and Kellett attributed this to Telstra using thicker copper (0.64g) in its network for subscribers remote from the exchange, rather than the standard 0.4g used as the basis for ADSL distance/speed calculations.

However the main contributor to the extended reach is that, on the ULL, the available bandwidth does not have to be shared with the analogue telephone signal. Also, Kellett explained that with shared lines ISPs such as Internode are not able to push the limits: when they request access to a pair from Telstra, algorithms in Telstra's systems extract information on the length of the copper pair, and the gauges of the wires used to determine suitability for DSL services. If the pair does not come within predetermined parameters the request is rejected. Generally this happens if the distance is greater than 4.1kms for a 0.4g copper pair, Kellett said. However in the case of the ULL, the requested pair is simply transferred to the ISP with no such assessment being made.

Internode launched Naked ADSL2+ earlier this year by reselling the Optus broadband service delivered over the unconditioned local loop, so was not able to go beyond distances determined by Optus. Kellett estimated that increasing the reach of DSL services from 4.1 to 7.5kms would give Internode access to about 100,000 additional premises from the 100 exchanges in which it has installed DSLAMs.

It has launched NakedExtreme nationally, with the exception of Tasmania, where there is a lack of competitive backhaul services. It is priced at $10 above the cost of the equivalent Internode Extreme ADSL2+ service (provided on its own DSLAMs using a line shared with a standard telephone service. However customers do not have to pay a voice line rental fee. Internode is able to offer a VoIP service with NakedExtreme, but users cannot port in the number from the PSTN service that they will lose when switching from service on a shared line.  For customers only two or three kms from the Exchange, Kellett said ADSL2+ over the unconditioned loop would not provide any bandwidth gains over a service delivered on a shared line.