Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Starting new thread to not derail the New Car Thread.
Most of it is held back by local Telco's not wanting to speed money on infrastructure... A few years ago, when the federal government announced the NBN (National Broadband Network, which would be completely run independent of Telco's and would bring fibre to home for 90%+ of the population), pretty much all ISPs and Telco's stopped spending money on infrastructure, as NBN Co was essentially rolling out a complete brand new fibre network (to replace the current copper network, which many will tell you is in dire need of maintenance).
Part of the whole NBN deal, was "NBN Co" would run the network and would only act as a wholesaler of the network. All current Telco's and ISPs could then buy from the wholesaler at the same pricing level, which basically meant that most people would pay the same irrespective of who they were through. (A good thing here, so each company had to compete not only on price but service).
Telstra (the current owner of the copper network and all exchanges here in Australia) would both wholesale their services to other ISPs/Telco's, and at the same time offer the same services to end users. The problem being as a consumer, I could get ADSL2+ direct from Telstra, but only ADSL1 services from other ISPs, as Telstra would wholesale their ADSL2+ infrastructure at or even above the rate they would sell to an end-user, or make it difficult for other ISPs to install their own infrastructure in the local Telstra owned exchanges.
Fast forward 3 years since NBN started, and they (NBN Co) have only installed approx 20% of the target number of houses with direct fibre connections by Jun, 2013 (based on their 2009 estimations), and now the new federal government changing the core components of the NBN (from FttP to VDSL services), most ISPs are reluctant to do anything... (Which leads the ISPs paying Telstra to use their infrastructure leading to high costs for the consumer).
And as for cost issues, ISPs pay fairly high fees per MB of traffic that cross different infrastructure boundaries (Telstra, Optus, PIPE and a few other companies run the Internet Backbone here), and ISPs have no choice to pass on the costs to the customer...
As I've mentioned, I pay $50 pm for ADSL2+ service w/60GB allowance (both up and down counted) with iiNet. (I'm on a phone/mobile/internet bundle, so that amount is not the true amount, but would be if I didn't bundle). The low 60GB allowance is because my local exchange only has Telstra equipment, so iiNet pays additional to lease their equipment. Will iiNet (or any other ISP) install their own infrastructure in my exchange, not likely due to the forthcoming NBN. If iiNet had their own infrastructure in my exchange, that 60GB allowance would become a 250GB allowance... (since iiNet wouldn't be leasing equipment from Telstra and also paying data transfer fees for my connection).
If you move more towards the cities centres the situation becomes better with wider availability of ADSL2+ (and cable services, which IIRC for the majority of users is either 30Mbps or if lucky can get 100Mbps in certain areas and are willing to pay $$$), but due to costs most people get ADSL2+ (or only ADSL1 if ADSL2+ is not available)...
In some respects, I here a lot of issues like we have are the same in the US when you get away from the larger cities, either the choice of only 1 provider or dial-up service if DSL hasn't made it to your area...
Most of it is held back by local Telco's not wanting to speed money on infrastructure... A few years ago, when the federal government announced the NBN (National Broadband Network, which would be completely run independent of Telco's and would bring fibre to home for 90%+ of the population), pretty much all ISPs and Telco's stopped spending money on infrastructure, as NBN Co was essentially rolling out a complete brand new fibre network (to replace the current copper network, which many will tell you is in dire need of maintenance).
Part of the whole NBN deal, was "NBN Co" would run the network and would only act as a wholesaler of the network. All current Telco's and ISPs could then buy from the wholesaler at the same pricing level, which basically meant that most people would pay the same irrespective of who they were through. (A good thing here, so each company had to compete not only on price but service).
Telstra (the current owner of the copper network and all exchanges here in Australia) would both wholesale their services to other ISPs/Telco's, and at the same time offer the same services to end users. The problem being as a consumer, I could get ADSL2+ direct from Telstra, but only ADSL1 services from other ISPs, as Telstra would wholesale their ADSL2+ infrastructure at or even above the rate they would sell to an end-user, or make it difficult for other ISPs to install their own infrastructure in the local Telstra owned exchanges.
Fast forward 3 years since NBN started, and they (NBN Co) have only installed approx 20% of the target number of houses with direct fibre connections by Jun, 2013 (based on their 2009 estimations), and now the new federal government changing the core components of the NBN (from FttP to VDSL services), most ISPs are reluctant to do anything... (Which leads the ISPs paying Telstra to use their infrastructure leading to high costs for the consumer).
And as for cost issues, ISPs pay fairly high fees per MB of traffic that cross different infrastructure boundaries (Telstra, Optus, PIPE and a few other companies run the Internet Backbone here), and ISPs have no choice to pass on the costs to the customer...
As I've mentioned, I pay $50 pm for ADSL2+ service w/60GB allowance (both up and down counted) with iiNet. (I'm on a phone/mobile/internet bundle, so that amount is not the true amount, but would be if I didn't bundle). The low 60GB allowance is because my local exchange only has Telstra equipment, so iiNet pays additional to lease their equipment. Will iiNet (or any other ISP) install their own infrastructure in my exchange, not likely due to the forthcoming NBN. If iiNet had their own infrastructure in my exchange, that 60GB allowance would become a 250GB allowance... (since iiNet wouldn't be leasing equipment from Telstra and also paying data transfer fees for my connection).
If you move more towards the cities centres the situation becomes better with wider availability of ADSL2+ (and cable services, which IIRC for the majority of users is either 30Mbps or if lucky can get 100Mbps in certain areas and are willing to pay $$$), but due to costs most people get ADSL2+ (or only ADSL1 if ADSL2+ is not available)...
In some respects, I here a lot of issues like we have are the same in the US when you get away from the larger cities, either the choice of only 1 provider or dial-up service if DSL hasn't made it to your area...
