Telstra ups broadband ante
- 10 March, 2009 15:03
- Comments 4
Telstra will upgrade its Melbourne hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) cable broadband network to increase speeds to 100Mbps by Christmas. The rollout is stage one of the telco giant’s plans to deploy high-speed broadband technologies into its cable system.
Work will start with the immediate installation of DOCSIS 3.0 software and related infrastructures in the city’s cable network. The upgrade will bolster download speeds for up to 1 million Melbourne homes to 100Mbps, triple the current peak speed. Telstra claimed there was potential for further upgrades to increase that speed to 200Mbps. It will invest about $300 million in the cable upgrade this calendar year.
“We are going to be transforming Telstra’s cable network into a super-fast, two-way interactive fixed and broadband network with download speeds that, I would venture to say, are among the highest in the world.” Telstra CEO, Sol Trujillo, said during a media conference.
Despite the claim that the fast downstream speed of HFC service will facilitate two-way interactive capabilities such as video conferencing, upstream speeds will remain relatively low at around 2Mbps. Telstra stated that upload speed was not a pressing issue and cited low customer demands to justify the lack of improvement.
Telstra declined to comment on upgrade schedules for the rest of Australia until the Melbourne upgrades are fully implemented. No pricing information for the new HFC service was released.
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Comments
Craig
1
Telstra Promises
Let me tell you about Telstra promises. I live in a Velocity community with fiber optic to the door. The best upload they can provide is 64 kbps and the service is terrible. I cancelled a cable / fiber optic plan with Telstra because the wireless Internet with 3 was faster and more reliable.
Anonymous
2
So, what geographic scope?
Interesting, if it stretches beyond a radius of 15km of the Melbourne GPO and within 18 months.
The announcement and your report are a teaser. Please follow up with something a little more than blue sky.
Anonymous
3
Japan has had 100Mbps for a few years, for as little as $50/month, with unlimited downloads. Come on Telstra, pull your finger out.
Anonymous
4
Yeah, and a bowl of noodles in China costs me 50c, and a tailored suit in Thailand $100. There's these little things called market and regulatory context, not to mention the extraordinary Japanese savings rate, that makes comparisons pretty meaningless.
So Australia, if you really really want this broadband so badly, how about trying to spend less of your income on consumer goods so that there is more real resources available for investment in infrastructure? Don't blame Telstra because you guys aren't willing/able to do that.