The government has really failed to capitalise on winning over the public and fully explaining both the immediate and future benefits, and prosperity, that the upcoming National Broadband Network will bring to Australians. And now that it’s coming, I wouldn’t be holding my breath too long for the government to educate you on the NBN.

So it’s up to you to find out what you can, because after all, you’re going to be affected by this new broadband network one way or another. Below is a link to four new videos that will assist you in understanding what the NBN is all about and how to connect to it if required.

NBN Explained Videos

• 1. Explaining the NBN – Reasons and benefits (2:25)
• 2. Getting connected to the NBN (1:20)
• 3. Explaining how to connect your phone to the NBN (1.23)
• 4. NBN process explained for property developers (1.56)

In the biggest broadband news to hit the Internet since Telstra was dumped from the NBN process, the incumbent today announced a Cable Broadband upgrade of 100Mbps which will triple existing speeds. Telstra’s timely media release has coincidently surfaced within days of an expected National Broadband Network decision to be made by the Australian Federal Government.

Work on the Telstra cable upgrade roll out will use the latest DOCSIS 3.0 software technology and has been scheduled to start immediately with completion targeted for December this year. The next level of cable broadband speeds is not expected to finish at 100Mbps either, as further upgrade capacities suggest cable broadband potentials can reach speeds of up to 200Mbps.

Although Telstra may be excluded from the Australian NBN process, the Telco still appears to be rapidly releasing upgrades and new features whilst expanding on their already impressive network coverage. It’s almost as though Telstra was seeking to obtain an early ‘upper hand’ against a prospective NBN rival that is due to be announced any day now.

By the end of this year, and provided that all forecasts go to plan, Telstra will have upgraded it’s 2.5 million subscriber cable broadband network to 100Mbps; possibly increased it’s Next G mobile wireless service from 21Mbps to 42Mbps; consolidated broadband Internet access to 99% of the population; and as a result, enabled the potential for millions of people to work from home, improve home automation capabilities and opened the door to an online world of entertainment that includes high definition content viewing.

Funnily enough, this Telstra blueprint could almost deliver high speed broadband of at least 12Mbps (as defined by the Government’s NBN guidelines) to the majority of the population without needing the NBN funding of $4.7 billion? If Telstra was to provide minimum broadband Internet speeds of 12Mbps on both of it’s existing ‘Next G’ and ‘Hybrid Coaxial Cable Networks’, it would only leave an ADSL2+ upgrade to VDSL2 technology in it’s path of meeting the NBN speed requirement.

VDSL2 (Very High Speed Digital Subscriber Line 2) is a broadband Internet access technology that could supercede ADSL2+ services and can theoretically support speeds of 250Mbit/s at the source. However, beyond this distance the speed quickly deteriorates to 100Mbps at 0.5kms, 50Mbps at 1km, then to ADSL2+ speeds (24Mbps) at 1.6kms.

Telstra has already tested VDSL technology and ‘all bets are off’ that this type of technology will be the next in line for a roll out beyond the upcoming cable and Next G upgrades. If VDSL2 does become reality, then Telstra will basically have all the mechanisms in place to compete against an alternative National Broadband Network structure based on the Government’s pre-requisite minimum speed of 12Mbps.

Telstra Media Release.

Australia’s 3rd largest telecommunication provider iiNet has successfully trialled VDSL2 broadband technology with broadband download speeds reaching 85Mbps and uploads hitting the the 47 megabits per second mark.

In readiness for VDSL2 ratification in Australia, iiNet has been testing VDSL2 technology in Perth whilst in preparation to roll out VDSL2 equipment in mini exchanges across the country. Very High Speed Digital Subscriber Line 2 has been extensively trialled by many of Australia’s leading telecommunication providers over the course of the past 12 – 18 months. The likes of Telstra BigPond and EFTel are just two of the Internet Service Providers to have researched and trialled the high speed Internet technology.

VDSL2 has been touted to have the capacity to deliver broadband access up to 250 Mbit/s (at source), although speeds significantly decline after several hundred meters to 100 Mbit/s at 0.5 km, followed by 50 Mbit/s at 1 km after which it degrades much slower until it equals speeds of ADSL2+ at 1.6 kms. Still, most Telephone Exchanges housing VDSL2 should support broadband speeds of at least 12 Mbit/s (NBN defined minimum) that will deliver triple play services (Broadband, Phone, Digital TV) to the majority of households within a 4 – 5 km radius.

Check out iiNet’s current Naked DSL Plans right here. http://broadbandguide.com.au/iinet/naked-dsl/plans 

High speed broadband internet has been heavily debated in Australia over recent times, especially in conjunction to the upcoming new National Broadband Network project. It’s been established that super fast broadband internet will become a valuable and useful tool in the future for our individual needs and business prosperity. The question is, how fast is fast enough and what type of upgradeable, efficient and environmentally sound Broadband technology should we adopt?

Internet speed and technology leaders, on a global scale, appear to have always emerged from Asia, such as Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Other countries currently researching potential broadband technologies for future use could possibly look toward these respective nations for the lead . After all it’s these countries who, for years, have previously developed and utilised the likes of FTTN & FTTH broadband networks over a national coverage to achieve speeds in excess of 100Mbps.

One of these technological leaders, Japan, is reaching for the stars by currently trying to harness the potential of satellite broadband technology and is making substantial progress. Forget about wired, fixed or wireless internet because according to the Japan Exploration Agency and the National Institute of Information, a 1.2 gigabits per second satellite speed was achieved in a recent test which is believed to be a record for satellite communications.

In the test conducted back in May this year, a combined up and down satellite speed transmission was recorded at 1.2Gbps (1244Mbps)! In actual terms this figure equates to a whopping 622Mbps each way! Although speeds of this magnitude might not be available to us mere peasants anytime soon, Japan, nonetheless, is intending to offer satellite broadband services to homes and businesses in remote areas (in the event of disaster) along with providing satellite broadband speeds up to 155Mbps by this coming July. This invigorating news makes Australia’s plans for a FTTN network already look outdated. A satellite network of this type appears to have the potential which would be ideal for Australia’s conditions and it’s vast regions whilst providing an ‘environmentally friendlier’ and ‘wire free’ environment that would sufficiently meet all our personal and business requirements. However the underlying issue here could revolve around network (load) sustainability. Could the future mean satellite broadband? Didn’t we kind of already envisage this the whole time?

In the tests done on May 2, data was transmitted on two 622 Mbps channels, both up to the satellite and down to a receiving antenna. Together, the combined data transmission speed was 1.2 Gbps, according to PC World. Japan launched the Kizuna satellite in February and plans to use it to offer broadband services to homes and businesses in remote areas in the event of disaster. The aerospace agency said it should be able to provide homes with speeds up to 155 Mbps by July.

source: Japan tests super fast satellite broadband

Telstra has announced that it’s been conducting upgrade tests on its Cable Broadband network which may see the Telco capitalize on it’s own network in the not so distant future if the Federal Government’s fibre-to-the-node decision does not go its way. Telstra stated that recent experiments with pre DOCSIS 3.0 (hybrid fibre upgrade) on their cable network had delivered Broadband speeds up to 100Mbps.


The experiment is so far providing 75Mbps in Sydney and 100Mbps connectivity over the HFC cable network in Melbourne, Bradlow said.

“We’re about to enter the video-on-demand era, we know that in an IPTV environment to deliver standard definition [needs] 12Mbps. Very soon high-definition will require the doubling of speeds again [to 25Mbps].”

Read the entire article at ZDNet.com.au

However, the service is only available to the 1.8 million households passed by Foxtel cable in Sydney or Melbourne. The other million or so people in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth who can get it will be limited to 17Mbit/s speed.

“At 30 Mbps, theoretically you can download a Hollywood blockbuster from BigPond Movies in less than five minutes, or stream it instantly,” BigPond MD Justin Milne said.

Browse all the BigPond High Speed Cable Broadband Plans right here at Broadband Guide. 

Read the entire article at APC.

While the two major Australian political parties are at logger heads over high speed Broadband for Australia, one thing is for certain, a new fast Broadband network will have a major positive impact on our nation. To reiterate on a article I recently wrote titled ‘Broadband Future’ back on Aug 10 2007, it appears that more and more people are starting to see the potential positives that a high speed Broadband network will have on Australia once it’s established.

A recent Nine MSN article and expert government executive ‘Matt Healy’ have stated that very fast Broadband will give people more than just IPTV, Video-on-demand and High definition TV, it will give the nation the ability to work from home – even from regional and remote areas. However, even the fastest Broadband network will need to be affordable in order to make these predicitons reality.

According to Matt Healy, napredictionstional executive regulatory and government with Macquarie Telecom (a member of the G9 group competing with Telstra for the right to build the national fibre network), it’s not the sexy services like high-definition TV on demand that will have the biggest impact, it’s the ability for people anywhere – even in remote areas – to work from home.

Video-conferencing is another area that holds great promise, especially in healthcare and education. Doctors in city hospitals could assist with the diagnosis of cases in remote areas via a video link, providing treatment recommendations long before a patient could get to a specialist.

Read the entire Nine MSN article here

Australia needs a very fast Broadband network now, there’s no doubting that! While the Australian federal government spends $4 billion annually on our roads,  in comparison, it’s quite amazing really, to understand why they’ve elected to only allocate $4.5 billion on a new Australian Broadband network? Some of the guidelines stated in their new network prospectus show that ‘it should be upgradeable’. Why then develop a slower Fibre-to-the-Node network only for it to be superseded down the track by a possible faster Fibre-to-the-home network? We all know that new technology is being developed almost as frequently as it becomes obsolete in some case, so could it be probable that Wireless or Satellite Broadband may replace fibre at some stage too?   

Considering the various factors that are vital to Australia’s future economy and prosperity which partially sit behind the IT & Telecommunication industry, some of us are left dumb founded. This includes various Broadband experts who are continually sending out warning signs that suggest that it may already be too late unless Australia acts intelligently.

Below are some quotes and statistics taken from The Age article ‘Broadband expert warns Australia’.

if that situation is to change, the Government has to encourage investment in taking optical fibre cables not just to street corner nodes, but all the way to homes

The broadband speed available to Australian home owners can be as low as 256 kilobits per second although 1 mbps or so is becoming more common for users within a few kilometres of Telstra telephone exchanges.

“If we all want the line rates currently delivered to office desktops — namely, 100-1000 mbps, then a fibre to the home (FTTH) network will be required,” Mr Campbell says.

Read the entire article at The Age

Telstra BigPond has announced a 30Mbit cable network upgrade toward the end of the year which will eventually be made available to 2.7 million Australian households. The upgrade could eventually witness broadband speeds of 50 – 100 Mbit/s be implemented as an alternative to a FTTN in metro areas.

Mr Trujillo indicated Telstra was working on alternatives to a fibre-to-the-node network in metropolitan areas, such as an upgrade to the Foxtel cable, which could eventually provide broadband speeds of between 50 and 100 megabits per second to 2.7 million homes.

Telstra is expected to ramp up the cable’s speeds – used to deliver pay TV and next-generation broadband technology – to 30 megabits per second by August, before launching the upgrade a month later.

Read entire article at SMH

The relatively small jump in speed
(17Mbit/s to 30Mbit/s) indicates that Telstra is indeed using channel-bonded
DOCSIS technology rather than the newer DOCSIS 3.0 standard that Optus is
considering. 

He was tight lipped on other details,
refusing to discuss why the reach of the 30Mbit/s cable broadband was smaller
than the overall footprint of Telstra’s HFC, which covers 2.7 million premises.
Presumably, though, Telstra’s engineers have found that 30Mbit/s is only
attainable over certain distances.

Read the entire article here
at APCMag.

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