back to article Waiting for 100 Mbps NBN on wireless? Errr, umm, sorry about that

Households hoping to one day access 100 Mbps fixed wireless services on the National Broadband Network got a hard let-down last night, when CEO Bill Morrow said the rollout would not proceed. Delivering 100 Mbps over fixed connections has caused nbn™ and its retailers trouble, to the extent that in January, the company stated …

  1. jonfr

    They got 100Mbps wireless in Iceland (country)

    In Iceland (since I don't have other information) they got 100Mbps to users on both 5Ghz and 3,5Ghz using both 802.11ac and LTE (3,5Ghz). In Denmark, Norway, Sweden and I think Finland they are using LTE on 450Mhz for speeds that are close to reaching 100Mbps (along with other frequency bands if available and that's not always the case). What is limiting factor on 450Mhz is lack of Mhz (frequency bandwidth).

    For that reason I don't understand why this is a problem in Australia.

    1. Phil Kingston

      Re: They got 100Mbps wireless in Iceland (country)

      Technology ain't the issue. There's apparently no consumer demand. And business demand can be covered by the "NBN Business Satellite Service" which launches its first satellites next year (Sky Muster will remain, but be consumer-oriented).

      1. Knoydart
        Stop

        Re: They got 100Mbps wireless in Iceland (country)

        nbn are not launching any more satellites. They already have two above the lucky country and I believe that the business service is a new product, not a whole new bird.

      2. Denarius

        Re: They got 100Mbps wireless in Iceland (country)

        yep , no consumer demand because 25/12 Mbs plans get you 3 Mb/sec if one is lucky. So why waste the money. Even those nearby on landline/copper dont get much service at times. FPOS machines can take minutes to do a simple transaction. So much for the online remote medical support hoopla. I suspect that the incumbent telcos will be screaming if the low earth orbit data or phone services take off. Suddenly government interference to maintain oligopoly will become a free market virtue. If its good enough for negative gearing, its good enough for Telstra, Optus et al. At least the low low speeds offer some protection from DOSsing and IOT threats. IOT just wont work.

        My cynical side expects that by 2045 the telcos will have consolidated into one mediocre company with monopoly profits and political protection. At least it will be easy to nationalise once the civil unrest in China starts.

      3. Phil Kingston

        Re: They got 100Mbps wireless in Iceland (country)

        Sorry, yes, new service, not new satellites.

    2. -tim

      Re: They got 100Mbps wireless in Iceland (country)

      jonfr,

      One of the odd things about Aussie spectrum is that when the commercial and military bands were set up by NATO after WWII, they were split so the US and Canada military used European commercial frequencies and the European militaries used the US commercial frequencies so when NATO was activated, they wouldn't step on each others radios any more than usual. Australia managed to get parts of both and fast forward 50 years and there is a complete mess with things like most of the 4G is following European practices while the rural areas are following the US practices. That means things like half of the 900 mhz band is used for mobile phone coverage even though it is the only cheap frequency to run very rural wireless internet with. By very rural, less than 50 customers within 50 km of the tower.

    3. .Bomb

      ummm... EEA?

      We voted in the Liberals, this is why.

    4. Dagg Silver badge

      Re: They got 100Mbps wireless in Iceland (country)

      What is limiting factor on 450Mhz is lack of Mhz (frequency bandwidth).

      Also distance, if you are in the middle of nowhere and 50k from your base station the latency caused by that distance will limit max speed.

    5. BlackKnight(markb)

      Re: They got 100Mbps wireless in Iceland (country)

      The Australian continent is the size of the USA, with 21 million people.

      NBNco is being run like a business and the profit calculation essentially say no to rural Australians.

      The NBN was originally concieved by Labour, with the concept being everyone pays a flat rate large city consumers that were cheaper to connect would effectively subsidise rollout to less profitable areas. they were never promised 100mbps by labour just a 25/5 service which would be better then most were use to.(people can argue away the effectiveness of the idea but that was the goal)

      Liberals got in, with the philosphy of kill it, or if we cant, run it like telstra. BS.d there way in with performance and cost saving numbers that were unrealistic and this is the result.

      1. Adam 1

        Re: They got 100Mbps wireless in Iceland (country)

        Re size of Australia, if the bottom of Tasmania is in Egypt, Perth is somewhere in Spain, Darwin somewhere up in Sweden, and Brisbane in Turkey. It has a cattle farm that is bigger than Israel (see Anna Creek).

        All with the population of California.

        But we don't each get our own mountain range. Rather, that population is largely collected in a few cities in the south and east with almost nothing in the middle (except big spiders and drop bears obviously). Serving remote communities with infrastructure of any sort is not without challenges, but nbns problem has always been political. The current mob needed a 'the previous mob are clueless wasters of money angle', a classic case study of not invented here syndrome. History won't look kindly on what the current mob have done to the project.

        1. mathew42
          FAIL

          Re: They got 100Mbps wireless in Iceland (country)

          > History won't look kindly on what the current mob have done to the project.

          I expect history won't look kindly on Labor either. Labor planned to build NBN with FTTN, but were thwarted by Telstra, so chose FTTP as a face saving option. Labor designed the financial model with opaque cross subsidy model, instead of transparency. Labor chose to implement a monopoly to replace the previous monopoly Telstra. Labor chose an optimistic financial model with a cowardly compromise between access fees and usage charges.

          The result is demand for speed is significantly less than Labor forecast. On a 1Gbps network, >80% were on 25Mbps or slower when Labor lost government. The costs (particularly overheads) have blown out and the build was well behind schedule. The reality is for the vast majority limited by speed tiers, the physical medium doesn't matter as long as it supports 25Mbps.

  2. David Kelly 2

    Big Government

    No surprise government fails to deliver on promises. That government has little idea as to what is possibke or what things cost. The career path in government rewards the amount of money one spends, not the value one gets for money.

    1. Denarius

      Re: Big Government

      David, really ? There was I thinking it was who can get the biggest funding for re-election. especially if it can be done surreptitiously via "foundations". Vacuous sloganeering ability helps too.

  3. OffBeatMammal

    I'd settle for an unlimited 4G hotspot ... my Pixel2 on Telstra does a good job of consistently delivering my 35Mbps at home, where otherwise I can only get 12Mbps ADSL2+ (and no NBN until this time next year apparently). Sadly the cost for that right now is prohibitive (and while Optus do offer an unlimited wireless hotspot solution it's unclear if we'd be able to get the 3Mbps or 12Mbps coverage - you'd think they'd be able to tell given the address - so it's not much better than ADSL2+, and more expensive).

    1. Denarius

      4G hotspot ???

      @ OffBeatMammal

      You might for a while get adequate performance. It wont last. Unlimited always becomes over-subscribed. ie slow. Where is the Marvin icon ?

      1. OffBeatMammal

        Re: 4G hotspot ???

        @Denarius, I'm with you on the cynical.

        While I hated their customer service, since I've moved back to Melbourne I really miss Comcast (consistent 100/25 for less than I'm currently paying for 12/1 and lucky if I get reliable 5/1)

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can't get wireless NBN at all

    I am in the rural area outside Darwin on a 2 hectare block. Zoning laws dictate that blocks can't be subdivided, planning laws state that no more than 1 hectare can be cleared without planning permission. The result is that I am surrounded by blocks with tall native trees.

    When the NBN tech came to do the install, he couldn't get line of sight to the mast which was only about a km away. The only way I will get NBN will be if I go on a midnight rampage with a chainsaw. The resulting cleared path between my house and the mast may be a tad suspicious though.

    The annoying thing is that my area was originally shown as being FTTP. This changed after the election to fixed wireless.

  5. mathew42
    FAIL

    Labor's speed tiers bite again

    > stop us if you've heard this one – “there's not mass-market demand” for services at that speed.

    ACCC NBN Wholesale Market Indicators report indicates only 14% on fixed NBN connections are ordering 100Mbps very few are ordering faster speeds.

    RSPs are reluctant to serve the 100Mbps market because these are largely power users who put greater demand on the network and are more likely to monitor the performance of their connection.

    NBNCo have bundled CVC with 50Mbps AVC making this speed the most appealing.

    1. BlackKnight(markb)

      Re: Labor's speed tiers bite again

      https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-says-one-in-four-fttn-lines-can-go-over-100mbps-481152

      so in january NBN co expect 25% of FTTN Premise to be 100mbps capable FTTN which is the majority technology now. maybe people arent paying for 100mbps because they cant get it.

      I mean its not like the ACCC has recently been fining RSPs for charging people for services they couldnt possibly provide over the NBN.

  6. This post has been deleted by its author

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