Adam Internet uses WiMAX to cure Adelaide blackspots

bah

"But WiMAX is exactly the same as metro comparable broadband in terms of cost, pricing, data and throughput."

Nice that they have ignored latency in this equation... and 'throughput' they are using is half that of ADSL2+

Given Adam's history of unpolished projects, eg: Mirror server where its reported 75% of its content is out of date/defunct.

Poor network redundancy - multiple large scale outages.

Hosting servers unpatched and unmaintained

Unmetered content, but things just keep being metered or not defined correctly.

Hopefully they can pull this one off, and actually MAINTAIN it.

Define Blackhole based on cost & freedom to choose ISP & plan

In Adelaide, Mawson Lakes continues be the oozing sore of blackholes, but not because wired broadband can't be had there...

Rather, much of Mawson Lakes is a blackhole because its wire broadband is only available via Cable.

(RIM multiplexors - in the Mawson Lakes phone lines - preclude ADSL service, which requires copper to the exchange; exceptional cases - eg, some Delfin (the property developer) senior staff (imported from Queensland?) have ADSL, while many nearby do not & - today cannot get it. At Mawson Lakes, RHIP - Rank Has Its Privileges.)

Many international students reside near UniSA's Mawson Lakes campus.

With no access to the ADSL market (in which some competition still exists), let alone ADSL2+, the ONLY wired broadband service is Big Pond Cable, fast enough, but with an unusably low maximum data allocation of 60 GB.

Of course, Big Pond's largest home plan does NOT shape after the 60 GB allocation is used up; instead, it switches to "penalty mode," in which the 61st GB of data costs more than the preceding 60 GB, as well as all additional GB's of data used.

Although there is a cost-free, Open Source server, which is capable of limiting use of Internet data consumed & even equitably sharing it across several users (ie, SmoothWall), Big Pond FORBIDS servers to be attached to its network, for reasons unclear to most.

We suspect it's goal is to preserve Telstra Big Pond's monopoly position in the Australian market.

So, instead of risking a huge bill for "overuse" of data - unheard of in more civilized countries, where the use of Internet is effectively encouraged ...by a norm of genuinely unlimited data usage plans - students are effectively forced (by Telstra's all-nonsense, legacy pricing) to each sign-up for even more costly mobile broadband.

Thus, many mobile Internet users must share their vendors' "access points" (or nodes), resulting in effective bandwidth closer to dial-up speed than to the speeds that their USB-modems are capable of.

Each pays no less than ~Au$ 6.5 / GB of data, and - if they use more than their meager 1 - 6 GB / month - they drift into "penalty mode" paying at least $100 / additional GB used.

Few "need" or use the "mobile" feature of their costly mobile Internet plans; they just can't get broadband cheaper - as so many Australians can, elsewhere - due to Telstra's anti-competitive pricing & choice of wire technology (cable).

As I write, one can get UNLIMITED ADSL (at 1.5 Mb/Sec) for as little as $99 / month.)

(Compare to: France where Phone / TV / unlimited Intenet (16 Mb/Sec) costs ~Au$ 44; or Stockholm US$ 11 for an unlimited 100 Mb/Sec symmetric Internet service.)

OK, post-9/11 security-oriented folks can say: "It's important for Australian security that Internet usage be tracable to the one who uses it; and sharing a single connection makes it harder to "track" usage to the person. Maybe that's why our Delfin import gets ADSL at home, while International students all around him cannot...?

Anyone living in monopoly-caused blackholes should be considered as if there were NO wired broadband in place.

Minimum per-GB cost of available broadband (NOT the wiring "under the hood") should determine whether one's neighborhood is considered to be an broadband blackhole.

This is another reason why Australia is an embarrassing land to live in, and will remain so - while such undue "penalties" remain in our markets.

I won't even go to the situation in Remote areas, where - even if one pays the outragous per-GB cost of 2-way satellite Internet, one's VoIP quality of service drops below usable levels...

I'd be happy to see all of these issues resolved by a NBN, but I'd also like to see the NBN work more like Stockholm's municipality-owned Internet service, that can offer cost-effective plans, eg, unlimited, symmetric 100 Mb/Sec for $US 11 / mon.

NBN: Ask 'yow much is it? & 'yow much choice do you have?

----

BTW, some of the International live in modified "Mawson McMansions," where they are offered rooms or overpriced roomlets in dirty houses, which have been modified to squeeze in as many students into a house as one or two showers can support (eg, 10 or 11, in one case); in some, a kitchen's family area was modified (with dodgy, unfinished, DIY partitions, that don't reach to the ceiling) to sleep 3 additional international students; some of them (in a room with window(s) that can't be opened) breath-in smoke & cooking odors, & are awakened whenever kitchen lights are switched on or loud conversations occur in the cooking area.

Education & services like housing Internet available for International students have been arranged to pull money, not to be good value for money or - better - to encourage market competition.

This Telstra way of thinking isn't Australian, and - as always...

Telstra's monopolistic practices continues to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Why don't governments spend our money where its really wanted.

Waht as shame state governments cannot look after their own areas of responsibilities like hospitals roads etc. Complain they haven't got enough funds to manage them, yet can waste millions on a temporary scheme which private industry won't spend any money on because Telstra didn't or hasn't done the right thing.

It just proves governments throughout Australia have little idea of what their role is society. No doubt these so called (ADSL) black spots are well services by 3G technology, which cost the taxpayer nothing (through their taxes).

You don't need to wait, this Service is here now

People in the northern suburbs of Adelaide have access to a reliable Wireless broadband provider now.

Do a Search for the company Nuskope

They have been connecting people with a fixed point wireless solution In Mawson Lakes, and all the way to Uleybery and one Tree Hill.

Why people say they have no options when there are options out there just not covered in the mass media.

From the Whirlpool Forums they have a very good reputation and many positive comments about their services ect.

People should be made aware of existing options instead of having to wait.

The service provided by Nuskope is hardly comparable to ADSL2+. Slower speeds & low data cap make Nuskope really only competitive in the mobile broadband market, which one could argue is more widely available and transferable.

Mawson Lakes needs a provider like Adam to step in, in order to provide the sort of services that other suburbs take for granted.

finally

does anyone remember the sound of their internet 'dialling up' - i do, its a constant pain. Anyything faster than 36kb/s will be much appreiciated.

even if its only half as fast as adsl2

ADSL Black spot providers

Hardly comparable to ADSL2+?

I take it you don't rely on a 3G broad band service!

How can you compare a mobile broadband service that drops out, bad latency and continues slow speeds?

After searching the net I think Nuskope is currently an excellent option for a Adelaide wifi or is it Wimax provider.

I'm all for both company's and interesting to see what Adam will have to offer?

My Telstra fixed ADSL2+ only archives about 2 Mbs and ping times are through the roof, so go figure!

Mawson Lakes is the black hole because Telstra refused to upgrade the Gepps Cross Exchange beyond 60's technology. Now future ex telstra customers in the Bridges Estate have pair gain hanging off of a Rim so Telstra can only offer dial up (but won't guarantee 56k!).

BP Wireless is equally useless because they won't direct the signal towards the area because it is on the edge of parafield airport so welcome to the black hole of Adelaide.

The shame is, Telstra, Delfin and the Labour Government of the day took great pleasure in telling all and sundry that the Multi Function Polis that was to become Mawson Lakes was to be the technology hub of Australia!

Bring it on Adam and soon. Focus on the Bridges estate and you will have 400 ex telstra customers lining up for service.

Nuskope

I have engaged nuskope with a handful of customers in the mawson lakes and surrounding areas, and have found them to be more than just an average wireless ISP. Although a small team comparitively, they get things done, they are technically capable, customer focussed, their performance is more than enough for a mid size company at a decent cost, and that includes dedicated VPN services, handling mail servers and the like. In my opinion, Adam have a benchmark to strive against in the likes of nuskope..

I have just waited for 7 months to get this new service and filled out huge amounts of paperwork, dozens of follow up calls and numerous delays in building the tower and having it operational, only to have the installer turn up today and say there is no clear sight to the tower from my house (on a main road) so it won't work!!

I too had alot of Trouble with the so called Adam Max service in Mawson lakes. I ended up going with Nuskope as they where recommended In the Mawson lakes community website.

I can only say i wish i did this to begin with, they had me Connected within a week, its fast, mostly reliable (i have had a short outage but you get that with all internet providers) and the service is fantastic.

they released new plans just a few days after i signed up and offering more data for the same price and i was able to change over my plan without any hassles. Try do that with any other ISP in Australia.

@Anonymous (5): are you sure about that? I'm in Mawson Lakes and about 5km from the exchange. I was with Adam, but now I'm with Nuskope and the speed is about double what I could get on ADSL.

I'm was with AdamMax at Paralowie and found the service to be extremely unreliable. Frequent drop-outs and poor speeds (I couldn't even watch youtube!!) made it frustrating as hell.

I was less than 2 km from the nearest tower.

3 months after I first reported the problems to Adam Internet the issues were still not fixed, so I switched to Nuskope.

Nuskope have been fantastic - service was installed within a week, support calls/emails have always had a prompt response. They are a small team but one that cares and always goes the extra mile to help out.

Dont go with Adam Internet - you're just signing up for a big headache. Go with Nuskope instead - no need to thank me, just trying to help :)

Another with the same story here. I went with Adam -WiMax at first because it was free install. Service worked well for a week, then nothing but problems for 5 months until i did what my neighbors told me to do originally and go with NuSkope.

have never looked back, i get some amazing speeds, my speeds are up around 50Mbit/20Mbit and I am only on a 12/1mbit plan. Their whirlpool thread is full of people stating that they are getting the best service from any ISP they have ever been with, and I agree.

"Adam Internet will receive $2000 from the Australian Broadband Guarantee for every eligible customer that has been denied a broadband service in Adelaide’s metropolitan area."

More taxpayers money wasted by Conroy & Co.

Where is the $43 billion NBN and it's fibre to the premises now? LOL. THEY could be using this yet-another-subsidy to deploy high speed wireless internet NOW as an interim, and alternative, measure to fibre to the premises, because it's quick to deploy, just as Turnbull advised.

When you allow politicos to dictate technology solutions you end up with a Rolls Royce solution to a Postie Bike problem, because it's someone else's money they're spending.

Re:
"The service provided by Nuskope is hardly comparable to ADSL2+. "

very true... i would never see speeds like this on ADSL2+
speedtest.net/result/2076901825.png

According to the Speedtest Archives, Nuskope is now the fastest ISP in South Australia.