NBN Co doubles wireless, satellite speeds
Summary: The maximum download and upload speeds for fixed-wireless and satellite services on the National Broadband Network have been more than doubled to 25Mbps down and 5Mbps up, the Australian government has announced.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has announced that the maximum download speeds on offer on the fixed-wireless and satellite services on the National Broadband Network will be more than doubled from 12 megabits-per-second (Mbps) down and 1Mbps up to 25Mbps down and 5Mbps up.
The two services are scheduled to be up and running in 2015, and will serve the last seven percent of premises not covered by the NBN fibre rollout.
Conroy told ABC's AM program this morning that, following a series of tests, NBN Co would offer the 25Mbps/5Mbps service on the fixed wireless service in June this year, and on the satellite service once it has launched in 2015.
"This is a quantum leap for broadband services in the most remotest areas of Australia. It's currently at 12 meg down, 1 meg up. But what we're able to confirm now following all the testing is that we'll be deploying 25[Mpps] down and 5[Mbps] up for our fixed wireless network," he told AM.
"And what's very exciting is that our satellite network will also be able to deliver to the most far-flung Australians a 25 meg download and 5 meg upload speed is about the best in the world — a better service than ADSL 2+ in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and the metro centres."
Currently, NBN Co has an interim satellite service in place that has a maximum of 6Mbps down speed.
As of the end of December 2012, a total of 23,100 are on NBN Co's interim satellite service, while 1,000 are connected through the fixed-wireless long-term evolution portion of the network.
We will update this story when more details are available.
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Talkback
Excellent news
No, no, no, just no.
Hes trolling you
Wouldn't work
No good Sparky
Thanks.
Not that simple sparky_l
What about the lag & quota
The only negative is the lag - however there is no cost effective way of reducing this and this outcome is great news for the 3%ers.
Im still of the view that spend the money on the 3%ers (Satellite - as above) and the other 4% (rural/almost urban areas), the surplus could go into education and hospitals also out in the bush - and let the private sector fight over the main metropolitan areas.
I run a IT business not too far out from Brisbane (less than 1hr)- and most of my clients are on wireless - (NextG to be precise) and struggle with lag, bandwidth, pricing and quota and all, including me, will not get FTTH.
Lag is a major concern & once everyone else has FTTH this problem will increase exponentially - seen it happen out in the bush 10 years ago when metro got ADSL2+ - ninemsn is still a pain in the backside to load using 256k Sat.
As I do a lot of remote assistance work my only option was to buy ISP grade wireless gear ($5k secondhand) and find someone in the nearest town to "host" my ADSL connection.
Remote assistance is almost impossible to do over Satellite due to lag.
The NBN isn't going to help these 4%ers - But glad to see the last 3%ers are getting the bare minimum that they deserve - and hopefully better in the near future.
Pity
Yes - so fiber where possible
As for letting the Telcos sort it out - No! that has failed miserably and would continue to do so.
I am now on a Telco's 100mbps service and I get upload of 1.5 mbps which is laughable. Download peaks at 92 mbps but often is much lower. The issue isn't line speed it's channel sharing for cost reasons.
I think the NBN should be extended to fill in the wireless and hopefully satellite regions - but cost is very high. May take a long time.
If the coalition stopped trying to cripple the NBN to something that can't support even the TV technology arriving now and worked on how to make it better we might get this issue sorted.
Lag, maybe not so bad
However it's my understanding that the wireless component on the NBN (point to point LTE?) has been geared specifically to minimise latency compared to what people experience on 3G/4G services. So they may not be so bad off.
LTE-TDD Latency
Its not point to point LTE, the point to point is in the microwave backhaul.
Good to hear
What is sad
Telstra has the premium Mobile Networks (service and price ) and a large and growing 4G customer base, for reasonable pricing and quotas bundled plans are the only solution which includes an unnecessary phone line amd locks in a 2 year contract.
This discourages NBN takeup, especially rural as there is no other reasonable for their needs choice
Great news for Satellite & Fixed Wireless users
Now lets settle in to watch the usual suspects argue against the laws of physics, claim that the whole project costs too much and in the same breath vent their spleens because fiber isn't being run to every doorstep in the land.
Correction