I know several people that have FTTP and it’s fucking brilliant, they got it way back in late 2012, they live in Summer Hill (which is like 5km from Sydney CBD), there area was the 1st suburbs in Sydney to get it under the original NBN (Labor Commonwealth Govt based board and management), the neighbours in the same street but considered a different suburb due to boundary lines got stuck with FTTN because there area was due to start work on September 10 2013, that ended when the government changed hands and they were put back to FTTN (yes this was a rare area where there is no Telstra HFC in Sydney metro) which was RFS about 2 years ago.
I know people on NBN Wireless who will now have to work at home and instead what they have done is bought Boost Mobile prepaid SIM putting the SIM into a wireless modem which allows to be connected to the external antenna, why go to all that trouble? NBN Wireless is speed limited to 12/1 in that region working over 2.3GHz LTE, the local Telstra tower (on the same base station as NBN Wireless) offers LTE 2.6GHz with a CA 700MHz (so dual band) with no restriction on data speeds just data limits, but they should be fine as for day time they can use Boost (Telstra) and evening they can switch to NBN (I think they are with iiNet).
With NBN HFC the issue again is splitting CMTS (NODES) to fit 2500 homes per CMTS, they can split it one more time before SNR becomes an issue as cross fade will happen (yes even on coaxial), DOCSIS 3.0 only allows for 32 channels and NBN use 2 sets (8 downstream bonded channels + 4 upstream bonded channels) while Telstra use 1 set (8 bonded channels downstream but 1 channel upstream) with 4 channel guard (2 on each side) while Foxtel use the upper band similar to UHF bands for Foxtel Digital/HD.
Fuck, is it up to 2500 homes per node? I thought it was 240.
Even then, I can’t stand how FTTP will remain speed restricted when NBN release their new gigabit plans in May with an upload speed of 50Mb rather than 400Mb (which it can easily handle!), all because HFC can’t handle the higher speeds.
the main CMTS hubs (of which there are 3 in Sydney metro, Homebush, Kensington & Sutherland) are supposed to carry signal to around 250 fibre amps which each have to carry signal for 2,500 homes per fibre amp which is about 625,000 homes alone in Sydney for NBN HFC.
NBN HFC Network
NBN POI - RSP NOC - Hub (Exchange) - Light fibre AMP - Electrical AMP - TAP - NTD (Cable Modem) Telstra HFC Network
Telstra NOC - Hub - Light fibre AMP - Electric AMP - TAP - Cable Modem - Gateway (Optional but mandatory for IP Telephone & 4G backup)
All these hubs are still Telstra maintained by Telstra for the moment as they still carry the Telstra version CISCO CMTS (nodes), last time I checked Telstra were using 8 CMTS at the Kensingtion hub, I don’t know how many NBN CTS are in use as I don’t connect via the NBN ARRIS CMTS system.
Just a heads up, it looks like NBN is pausing HFC activation and made a request to Telstra to keep their HFC / ADSL2 side open for a further 3 months.
Not sure if that applies to FTTC / N regions.
Optus has been asked to also not disconnect customer on their HFC network that are due to be switched off in the next 3 months also.
I feel sorry for those on Optus HFC working from home being hard limited to either 1.5MBits (for those using DOCSIS 1.2 / 2 / 3 on standard speed plan) 2.5Mbits (DOCSIS 3 premium speed pack) for upload speed.
Telstra HFC customers with DOCSIS 1.2 modems would be hard limited to 1.5Mbits and those with DOCSIS 3 hard limited to 5.5Mbits.
Abbott, reflecting his 19th-century understanding of the economy, mocked the NBN as a “video entertainment system” and vowed to “demolish” it. Malcolm Turnbull eventually settled on a far slower copper-based network, at just 25 megabits per second. Abbott knew that a faster NBN would help companies like Netflix threaten the Foxtel business, owned by his media sponsor Rupert Murdoch. Their solution is now several years overdue and more than $20 billion over budget.
The consequences for Australia have been real. This coronavirus is forcing millions to work, learn and shop from home. Medicare rebates for telemedicine have also been expanded. Yet Australia’s fixed broadband speeds are ranked 64th in the world and continue to slip down the ladder. The government is now begging streaming services to downgrade their product to relieve pressure on the network. The government’s chickens have well and truly come home to roost.
… 750,000 home connections can be improved for $125 million - or 0.01 per cent of the $92.7 billion in fiscal stimulus announced so far.
Instead of ending up with the first-class broadband network we launched, planned, funded - and by 2013 had partially built - we have ended up with a third-world system unbefitting the needs of the economy and society of the future. It’s time to use the upcoming period of economic recovery to rebuild this most fundamental piece of national economic infrastructure.
I fear Morrison won’t be pushed into actually fixing the NBN, because that would be admitting he & his LNP colleagues were wrong/lying about the wisdom of installing a future-proof fibre-to-the-premises network in the first place.
Optus 4G has been at a minimum 50/5 where I live in recent weeks, it hasn’t missed a beat.
Considering the area I’m in has poor FTTN, I definitely feel like I made the right choice.
Remember mobile will slow down when there’s more than a handful of 5G phones out there (unlike a nice piece of fibre going into each house), and for years there’ll be huge 5G coverage gaps (or worse with weak signals), but 2 Gb/s is a lot of head room.
PS: Fibre can already go to 10 Gb/s (although I think that’d require a new NTU, & backhaul changes too of course).
Shame about the abysmal upload speeds, and bizarre given it’s needed now more than ever with so many video calls, VPN use and files going up and down.
Right now I’ve got unlimited 100 Mb/s down & 40 Mb/s up; 1 Gb/s down would be nice, but dropping uploads from 40% of the download speed to just 5% (50 Mb/s up) is ridiculous, especially during this pandemic.
Given NBN is wholesale, it may take a while for ISP retailers to devise their own plans and costs, as well as whether they need to upgrade anything at their end.
And that there’d only be a lucky few who can access it.
My 100/40 plan is great (93 mbps typical evening speed) and I’m lucky to be able to get that. Im on TPG, Telstra would only offer me a 50/20 plan where I am and that’s with the node right outside my building.
