back to article nbn™ puts the acid on Australia's ISPs to speed up its NBN

The chief executive officer of nbn™, the organisation building and operating Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN), has told Senate Estimates that retailers need to pay more attention to their networks in order to avoid disappointing customers. In his opening statement, CEO David Morrow told Australia's Senate that “ …

  1. Magani
    Unhappy

    The Need For Speed

    Secondly, Morrow is giving RSPs notice that they'll need to explain themselves to consumers.

    Can we start by ditching the mantra from resellers / ISPs of speeds "Up to xxx MBps/Mbps". Mostly this has as much in common with reality as a fairy story. I dare say that once in a blue moon, my cable performance hits the 'Up to...' performance that I pay for.

    Any complaint is met by things like "Beyond our control", "You must be downloading from overseas", "Someone else must be using your resources". Any references I make towards the fact that their contention ratio might be a bit high are met with a "No comment", or "I don't know what you mean".

    How about having a minimum guaranteed speed instead of a mythical maximum one that's rarely met?

    1. Adam JC

      Re: The Need For Speed

      Fortunately with the advent of FTTC that became a thing of the past. FTTC orders have a 'minimum' speed and a 'maximum' speed denoted when your order is finalised, I think it's perfectly fair for a TV advert to say 'up to' 40Mbps DEPENDING ON LOCATION - Then receiving a tailored speed to expect after you place the order.

      1. Mike Echo

        Re: The Need For Speed

        "Then receiving a tailored speed to expect AFTER you place the order." (my caps)

        Unless there is a way of testing the speed prior (eg a trial), users will not want to pay more money for the top tier speed if it is unattainable at that location.

        1. mathew42
          FAIL

          Re: The Need For Speed

          The last mile is only a small factor in the performance. If your RSP offers unlimited connections then a few people joining the RSP on the same PoI who download significantly above the average (e.g. torrent) can impact on performance significantly.

          1. NBNnigel

            Re: The Need For Speed

            Yes, only a small factors... Oh wait, that's utter horse-shite: http://www.abc.net.au/technology/images/general/blogs/chirgwin/nbn/grafikVDSL2eng.png

            Turns out that VDSL2 (i.e. FTTN) speeds decrease exponentially as you get further away from the 'node'. I'm truly astounded at your ability to be so consistently wrong.

  2. mathew42
    Holmes

    Natural consequence of cheap unlimited quota is slow speeds

    The Tragedy of the Commons means that most people will not use shared resources efficiently especially when isolated from other users.

    As the last mile becomes faster, those on unlimited connections will leave 4HD Stan, etc. running for background sound or simply because they don't care. If a few people do this network performance for everyone is trashed.

    The sensible alternative is quotas which are used to manage other shared resources (e.g. fisheries).

  3. mathew42
    WTF?

    Aussies not demanding speed

    The reality is with 83% (and rising) selecting 25Mbps or slower, Australians are not interested / prepared to pay for faster speeds.

    The second issue is how do you determine the minimum speed and identify the point of congestion? A slowdown could occur because of:

    • Performance of client device (computer, smarttv, phone, etc.)
    • Performance of internal cabling / wireless netowrk
    • Performance of modem / router
    • Performance between premise and PoI - NBNCo could monitor
    • Performance at PoI - NBNCo could monitor
    • Performance on RSP's internal network
    • Performance at RSP's external gateways
    • Performance of network beyond RSP's gateways
    • Performance of server providing data

    Of these, how many does the RSP have direct control over? A poorly thought through decision will result in significant additional cost with negligible benefit. The RSP supplied free modems are typically budget and don't meet the needs of everyone. For example:

    • A person in a large home might require the latest and greatest wireless technology for maximum reach
    • A torrentor will require a router that is able to handle a very large number of open connections
    • A person using it primarily for interactive uses (gaming, remote work, video conferencing, etc.) will require high QoS features

    Should an RSP be expected to provide high quality video conferencing between their customers and someone sitting in Kinshasa when I'm using an early generation Android tablet? If not where does an RSP's responsibility start / end?

    Why shouldn't I be able to choose an RSP who provided unlimited data in the knowledge that peak speeds are likely to be impacted?

  4. Phil Kingston

    Hoping to deflect criticism of his organisation's woeful performance by attacking RSPs isn't very becoming.

    But the RSPs do need a kicking from somewhere.

  5. rtb61

    NBN is just plain crap

    NBN searching for excuses after blowing billions of dollars buying networks that were going to be scrapped and now cost more than doing FTP and they will have to spend half again as much to undo the crap and do FTP.

    Why did they do it. Well, tesltra for one has signifcant tax haven banking accounts with billions in untaxed income and what kind of sales commission would they spend on a ten billion dollar purchase.

    Corrupt as hell and there is no hiding it.

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