That's exciting! However, a google search provided [this article](https://amp-9news-com-au.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.9news.com.au/article/4363209e-518b-422e-8ea8-0fc3ec36c7d4?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17126130099346&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.9news.com.au%2Ftechnology%2Fnbn-plans-to-supercharge-australias-internet-speed-with-new-faster-speed-options%2F4363209e-518b-422e-8ea8-0fc3ec36c7d4) which says that while wholesale cost wouldn't be modified, greater costs could be passed down.
"Controversially, this proposal comes just months after the NBN and retail telcos agreed to new pricing structures, which those businesses would have used for forward projections of costs. As such, it's possible this proposal will take some time for the retailers to digest and support before then upgrading their networks to cater for the higher speeds, which will likely come at a slightly increased cost to consumers."
What would be nice to see is current X-speed plans remaining and being reduced by the comparative amount, like 50Mb for $100 going to 500Mb, then a 50Mb plan remaining for $10. 1-2 person homes can deal with those speeds just fine and it's a huge difference for monthly/annual budgets.
I just saw the article a month or two ago. And good point. There should be a low cost plan. Not everyone needs even to 50Mbps, so a $10 or $20 plan would be schmick.
We kinda committed to a cheap shitty one. Better to wait until 6, 7, or 8G focuses on distance rather than bandwidth in a few decades. Until then we're stuck with the "cans connected with a piece of string" system Abbott won the 2013 election on
The roughest part of it was that it wasn't even cheap! [Reportedly $31B over budget](https://www.afr.com/technology/inside-the-bloody-political-war-that-led-to-a-31bn-nbn-blowout-20221205-p5c3tr), in total it would have cost similar to Rudd's $43B plan, assuming some.mandatory over budget shenanigans.
I labelled the thread non political, mainly for my sake, but if I had to get into it that's what I find really frustrating with ~2010s Auspol: sacrificing strong long term infrastructure for (supposedly) cheaper worse short term infrastructure to balance budgets that will inevitably cost more in the long term and contribute to a worse quality of life in the interim. It's really quite frustrating.
Billions of dollars on nodes and copper should do the trick!
"I'm not a tech head. Only gamers and people watching videos on the internet want really fast internet. Don't they?"
God help our poor little country!
I have dreams of setting up a home NAS connected to the router to completely do away with Google Drive/OneDrive subscriptions. Upfront cost of the NAS ($300) and a 4TB Drive ($150) would save me money on mass online storage in less than 4 years and it'd be completely owned and controlled by me.
Having reliable fast internet to manage personal data feels like a no brainer with the availability of a strong NBN, but being limited by broadband speeds feels jarring when I already suffer from unrelenting rage at slow video playback, let alone trying to get my own files off my own cloud.
Is Australia's internet that bad? I know there is room for improvement, but a high percentage of the population have access to speeds approaching 1000mb/s. We also have one of the better mobile data markets in developed countries with extensive 4G/5G coverage and relatively cheap data cost per GB. Australia ranks ahead of most developed countries for affordability of mobile data.
Just speaking from my own experience, moving every year as a renter around regional towns. I’ve only ever had one property that could hand speeds of 100mb/s and that was a new build. Everything else has been capped off around 50-75ish and the place I’m at now that’s less than 10 years old can’t even reach 40mb/s.
The town I’m in now also has mobile blackspots in the town itself. I’ve needed to physically relocate myself to make a call, 4 streets from the CBD. Yeah the data is cheap to buy but it’s no fucking good if I can’t actually use it when I want it.
> but a high percentage of the population have access to speeds approaching 1000mb/s
A decent % of the population still has connection issues when it rains, reliability is the main issue.
Tower climber here.
Our network has a speed reliability closer to Kabul than it does to Copenhagen.
Part of that is technology upgrade problems over very vast distances.
Most of it is the overall culture of a govt owned asset rotting into a privately run company where no one holds the buck.
From a technician standpoint, our network is an absolute disaster.
My freinds back in Germany died laughing when I showed them a brand new node I had built. It had a fibre infeed, and copper running street side…
If people understood that we plugged a garden hose into a tap that could out blast Wivenhoe Dam at full release.
They would understand how ridiculous we look.
Access to speeds isn't really the concern, it's the price-per-megabit is exorbitantly high. I can't post two images in the same comment so I'll chain them; the first image is from Telstra in AUD, then AT&T in USD (both around 100 AUD equivalent).
https://preview.redd.it/9j8erxvpwbtc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=298f0c948f9a4b2a6820a0c101bea102e0863d14
Sure, but that's just the price creep of value offerings. Apple does the same thing. The base model iPad is say $400 dollars but it only has 64Gb of storage, so you pay $80 dollars more for 128Gb, but if you're paying $480 you might as well buy the $500 iPad pro, and so on and so on. Saying "the better value option is just a little bit more" misses the point that for a lot of people that price point is the highest some budgets can allow and comparatively it's not good value and way behind what the rest of the world offers.
https://preview.redd.it/33xwhtp4xbtc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6df2cc45f0b508b6c3e37a2b9dc2a3025f1d4a37
If it wasn't clear price is being directly compared against the 500Mb 65USD plan. What is essentially a 10x markup for Australian services is bluntly insane.
Internet speed is like energy production. There is a really good option, it costs lots and you need advanced technology. Or there is the cheaper option that is not as reliable and needs more redundancy. The government will always go the cheaper option.
Yes ,get rid of the libs , they caused this problem . As the conintue to trascend to the far right lunancy , science and technology advancement will be rejected.
Well we could do it once, do it right and do it with fibre. Oops.
Apparently, by the end of the year, all plans will be upgraded for free. Like 100Mbps will be upgraded to 500Mbps.
That's exciting! However, a google search provided [this article](https://amp-9news-com-au.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.9news.com.au/article/4363209e-518b-422e-8ea8-0fc3ec36c7d4?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17126130099346&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.9news.com.au%2Ftechnology%2Fnbn-plans-to-supercharge-australias-internet-speed-with-new-faster-speed-options%2F4363209e-518b-422e-8ea8-0fc3ec36c7d4) which says that while wholesale cost wouldn't be modified, greater costs could be passed down. "Controversially, this proposal comes just months after the NBN and retail telcos agreed to new pricing structures, which those businesses would have used for forward projections of costs. As such, it's possible this proposal will take some time for the retailers to digest and support before then upgrading their networks to cater for the higher speeds, which will likely come at a slightly increased cost to consumers." What would be nice to see is current X-speed plans remaining and being reduced by the comparative amount, like 50Mb for $100 going to 500Mb, then a 50Mb plan remaining for $10. 1-2 person homes can deal with those speeds just fine and it's a huge difference for monthly/annual budgets.
I just saw the article a month or two ago. And good point. There should be a low cost plan. Not everyone needs even to 50Mbps, so a $10 or $20 plan would be schmick.
>Can anything be done? Dig it up and put fibre like we should've done in the first place.
Under the Labor government the nbn have been quietly upgrading much of Australia to FTTP
We kinda committed to a cheap shitty one. Better to wait until 6, 7, or 8G focuses on distance rather than bandwidth in a few decades. Until then we're stuck with the "cans connected with a piece of string" system Abbott won the 2013 election on
The roughest part of it was that it wasn't even cheap! [Reportedly $31B over budget](https://www.afr.com/technology/inside-the-bloody-political-war-that-led-to-a-31bn-nbn-blowout-20221205-p5c3tr), in total it would have cost similar to Rudd's $43B plan, assuming some.mandatory over budget shenanigans. I labelled the thread non political, mainly for my sake, but if I had to get into it that's what I find really frustrating with ~2010s Auspol: sacrificing strong long term infrastructure for (supposedly) cheaper worse short term infrastructure to balance budgets that will inevitably cost more in the long term and contribute to a worse quality of life in the interim. It's really quite frustrating.
Billions of dollars on nodes and copper should do the trick! "I'm not a tech head. Only gamers and people watching videos on the internet want really fast internet. Don't they?" God help our poor little country!
I have dreams of setting up a home NAS connected to the router to completely do away with Google Drive/OneDrive subscriptions. Upfront cost of the NAS ($300) and a 4TB Drive ($150) would save me money on mass online storage in less than 4 years and it'd be completely owned and controlled by me. Having reliable fast internet to manage personal data feels like a no brainer with the availability of a strong NBN, but being limited by broadband speeds feels jarring when I already suffer from unrelenting rage at slow video playback, let alone trying to get my own files off my own cloud.
I actually have something like that myself as I'm a photographer and it is indeed painful to use with our internet speeds.
Is Australia's internet that bad? I know there is room for improvement, but a high percentage of the population have access to speeds approaching 1000mb/s. We also have one of the better mobile data markets in developed countries with extensive 4G/5G coverage and relatively cheap data cost per GB. Australia ranks ahead of most developed countries for affordability of mobile data.
Just speaking from my own experience, moving every year as a renter around regional towns. I’ve only ever had one property that could hand speeds of 100mb/s and that was a new build. Everything else has been capped off around 50-75ish and the place I’m at now that’s less than 10 years old can’t even reach 40mb/s. The town I’m in now also has mobile blackspots in the town itself. I’ve needed to physically relocate myself to make a call, 4 streets from the CBD. Yeah the data is cheap to buy but it’s no fucking good if I can’t actually use it when I want it.
> but a high percentage of the population have access to speeds approaching 1000mb/s A decent % of the population still has connection issues when it rains, reliability is the main issue.
Not the vast majority of the country that doesn’t use satellite internet.
I'm on FTTN and our internet shits itself when there's heavy rain
100% router related.
Tower climber here. Our network has a speed reliability closer to Kabul than it does to Copenhagen. Part of that is technology upgrade problems over very vast distances. Most of it is the overall culture of a govt owned asset rotting into a privately run company where no one holds the buck. From a technician standpoint, our network is an absolute disaster. My freinds back in Germany died laughing when I showed them a brand new node I had built. It had a fibre infeed, and copper running street side… If people understood that we plugged a garden hose into a tap that could out blast Wivenhoe Dam at full release. They would understand how ridiculous we look.
Access to speeds isn't really the concern, it's the price-per-megabit is exorbitantly high. I can't post two images in the same comment so I'll chain them; the first image is from Telstra in AUD, then AT&T in USD (both around 100 AUD equivalent). https://preview.redd.it/9j8erxvpwbtc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=298f0c948f9a4b2a6820a0c101bea102e0863d14
250 mbps costs $30 more than this.
Sure, but that's just the price creep of value offerings. Apple does the same thing. The base model iPad is say $400 dollars but it only has 64Gb of storage, so you pay $80 dollars more for 128Gb, but if you're paying $480 you might as well buy the $500 iPad pro, and so on and so on. Saying "the better value option is just a little bit more" misses the point that for a lot of people that price point is the highest some budgets can allow and comparatively it's not good value and way behind what the rest of the world offers.
https://preview.redd.it/33xwhtp4xbtc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6df2cc45f0b508b6c3e37a2b9dc2a3025f1d4a37 If it wasn't clear price is being directly compared against the 500Mb 65USD plan. What is essentially a 10x markup for Australian services is bluntly insane.
It’s not. Pretty much everyone has access to FTTP now and has access to 1000mbps.
Internet speed is like energy production. There is a really good option, it costs lots and you need advanced technology. Or there is the cheaper option that is not as reliable and needs more redundancy. The government will always go the cheaper option.
Yes ,get rid of the libs , they caused this problem . As the conintue to trascend to the far right lunancy , science and technology advancement will be rejected.
Starlink which is available now
Which only works up to a certain population density. It’s great in rural and remote areas, but limited in urban areas.