back to article If you live in a network lab, you'll get gigabit NBN over HFC soon

If you build a hybrid-fibre coax network in a lab, nbn™ says it can support 1 Gbps down / 100 Mbps up performance. Never mind that the actual HFC networks nbn™ will use have spent years hanging off poles and have to deal with real-world problems like contention, nbn™ wants us to know it's made HFC go very fast so it can show …

  1. -tim

    So, progress?

    Would this be the same NBN HFC that can't provide static addresses and IPv6 from any* provider? Our shiny new HFC NBN connection gets 70%^ of the bandwidth we are paying for and it only costs slightly more than the naked DSL that was providing double the download speed and 4 times the upload speed.

    *Aussie Broadband claims to be planning IPv6 and may do IPv4 static today. Telecube is working on IPv6 too. Internode will migrate IPv6 ADSL plans to HFC where they don't support it.

    ^70% on IPv4 traffic. 0% of IPv6.

  2. Mark 65

    Great. So in a few years time we may be able to see speeds near to what South Korea and Finland have had for quite some time. Before anyone mentions Australia being a much larger country over half the population exists in three cities so there's no good reason why it'd be uneconomical for them to have faster internet.

    1. julian.smith

      Go Aussie go

      In the meantime Kenya, Russia and the 50 other countries currently ahead of Godzone will have moved further forward than the NBN's glaring example of Aussie mediocrity.

    2. BlackKnight(markb)

      In a very limited footprint area of the telstra HFC network. because they've already thrown out the optus cable.

  3. mathew42
    Headmaster

    To be accurate if you live in a HFC area you are likely to have a calbe running to your house which will be cable of 1Gbps but just like FTTP, RSPs will not sell you a plan faster than 100Mbps.

    1. -tim

      They can't sell a 1gig plan without a gig of backhaul which current costs more than $1,400 a month. With a 20:1 contention ratio, the link from the NBN POI to the ISP is $70/mo. That means an ISP needs to have at least 20 willing to sign up in the same area before it is economical to turn it on.

      What I would like to see is the ISPs use the 1gig NBN plan but offer something smaller like 233/100 and raise it as they add capacity to their backhaul from the NBN but I don't think they can offer that.

      1. mathew42
        FAIL

        > They can't sell a 1gig plan without a gig of backhaul which current costs more than $1,400 a month.

        Not sure where the $1,400 figure comes from. CVC is currently $17.50/Mbps, so $17.50 * 1000 = $17,500. If you have a 1:20 contention ratio that is $875 per customer in CVC wholesale fees. An RSP will need to have significantly more than 1Gbps to prevent congestion turning into contention.

        What I would like to see is NBNCo remove speed tiers. The reality is at that at the moment for many providers congestion during peak periods means for the 14% on 100Mbps their speeds drop significantly making it hard to justify paying a premium for faster speeds.

        1. Jasonk

          MyRepublic said it would supply 1Gbps connections to a limited number of new customers - the number was not specified - in Wollongong for $129.99 per month on a 12-month term.

          1. mathew42
            Happy

            MyRepublic 1Gbps is marketing expense

            MyRepublic cannot be making a profit on these services because the AVC wholesale charge is $150 (ex GST). On top of that you need to add CVC costs and backhaul. It is a marketing ploy to put pressure on the government. $50,000 is a cheap marketing exercise.

            If Labor had structured the financials for the NBN differently everyone within the fixed footprint would have had 1 Gbps and FTTN would no longer be a topic of conversation.

        2. BlackKnight(markb)

          Speed teirs made sense with FTTP, because NBN could gaurentee, from client to NBN infrastructre a connection at that requested speed.

          With the MTM model. anyone on this HFC crap and FTTN gets what there given. however you can still sign up for 100/40 even if your line only gets 20. theres plenty of rats out there that will take people for a ride.

          1. mathew42
            FAIL

            > Speed teirs made sense with FTTP, because NBN could gaurentee, from client to NBN infrastructre a connection at that requested speed.

            The guarantee is untrue. In fact in the NBNCo Corporate Plan it specifically describes the speeds as peak speeds. GPON has a maximum throughput of 2.5Gbps. A single GPON could service 32 premises each with 4 separate connections. This is a theoretical maximum of 128Gbps. Obviously the CVC revenue would easily cover any upgraded.

            > With the MTM model. anyone on this HFC crap and FTTN gets what there given

            82% of Australians on the NBN have chosen to order 25Mbps or slower. The majority of performance issues with the NBN have been caused by RSPs not provisioning unlimited plans with sufficient CVC.

            What a small shrinking minority are asking for is the government to build a network with a digital divide with only a few ever experiencing the true benefits of fast broadband (100Mbps and faster).

            Speed tiers are the single reason that FTTP changed to FTTN, because the evidence was clear that a growing number of Australians are prefer unlimited data to fast speeds.

            1. Jasonk

              My republic is offering it to Woolongong users to show that people are willing to pay for 1Gbps services contay to nbn claims no one wants it.

              Oh and there is the old matherw back again how about 65% or useing picking the min speed or faster that the nbn is supplying now. BTW how many on 12.1 is it close to what they where expecting on FTTP?

              But then half of the country wont see fast broadband as nbn cant deliver it as its only required to deliver up to 25Mbps.

              currently NBN expecting on HFC segment of 650 users so 1Gps per segment is 1mbps.

              Lol speer teirs are the single reason that fttp changed FTTN. So lets all go back to unlimited dialup

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If you live in a network lab, why wouldn't you take 100Gbps fibre?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    HFC Fantasy World

    The NBN over HFC is a figment of Malcolm Trumbull and Bill Shortening's fevered imagination. It will never work in the wide brown land...

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