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?