back to article Optus cable can't connect 500,000: NBN CEO Bill Morrow

nbnTM, the builder of Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN), says it now does not expect to make the 500,000 connections it's previously said would be made on the hybrid fibre-coax (HFC) network for which it paid Optus AU$800 million. Under questioning from opposition senator Stephen Conroy at a hearing of the Senate …

  1. Bubba Von Braun

    About right

    I am with SkyMesh as my RSP on their 100/40 plan and I see about an average of 80ish day to day.

    Still allot better than the old copper dsl, but sadly seems hard to find a real RSP that gets a small business needs, SkyMesh is best placed for home users.. Good plans, no longer term commitment and from my own experience that works both ways.

  2. mathew42
    WTF?

    83 Mbps average download speeds on FTTN?

    > Morrow told the committee the company's data suggests fibre-to-the-node customers are getting 83 Mbps average download speeds, and that any shortfall is more likely to be because retailers aren't buying sufficient connectivity virtual circuit capacity (CVC is the shared backhaul capacity that connects customers to retailers' infrastructure).

    The average on FTTP is 34Mbps after speed tiers are applied. It is possible that FTTN connections are only from early adopters and so the majority are choosing 100Mbps plans. However this does prove that if NBNCo chose to remove speed tiers on FTTN for the majority of Australians (79% choosing 25Mbps or slower on Fibre) that their connection would be 3-7 times faster!!!

    1. Jasonk

      Re: 83 Mbps average download speeds on FTTN?

      Lol Mathew the average speed currently on FTTP is 1Gbps as there is no limit on the speed it can deliver.

      As that same speed teir applies for FTTN lol

      1. mathew42
        FAIL

        Re: 83 Mbps average download speeds on FTTN?

        NBNCo started offering 1Gbps speeds to RSPs in December 2013, but currently zero RSPs offer a 1Gbps plan. 100Mbps is the fastest that I'm aware of. Hardly surprising when Labor predicted that in 2026 less than 1% of fibre connections would be 1Gbps.

        .The reality is that 79% on fibre have chosen to connect at 25Mbps or slower. Compare that with Google Fibre which is 1Gbps symmetric.

        This is the difference between a good idea, FTTP, and implementation botched so inconceivably badly that currently the average speed on FTTN is more than twice as fast.

  3. rtb61

    So the Australian government paid $800 million for something that was going to be scrapped at a loss. So at a guess something $80 million ended up in offshore tax haven accounts. The Royal commision into the purposeful mishandling of the NBN should prove interesting. Especially now that it will be scrapped at a loss on the tax payer dime.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Damn straight. Turnbull and his buddies in telecoms are engaged in what has got to be the worst and most blatant example of cronyism in Oz politics this century. I hope that when the inevitable Royal commission does happen there will be recommendation of jail terms.

    2. mathew42
      Facepalm

      I'll be interested to hear Labor's answer to this question: "How could you build a 1Gbps network where only an elite tiny fraction (less than 1% connected at 1Gbps in 2026) experience the benefit and the vast majority connect at 25Mbps or slower? When you looked at the estimates of take up, did not you not get some inkling that the plan would create not a digital divide, but a grand canyon of digital inequality for the socio-economically disadvantaged?"

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