National Broken Network

LIKE many other avid gamers, Ben Wilson was excited to sign up for the NBN and chose a plan that would give him the top speed available.

But weeks later he is frustrated and angry that no one told him it would be impossible to get the “superfast” speeds he is paying for.

In fact he is one of many Australians who feel like they’ve been sold a lie.

Mr Wilson, who lives in Albion Park near Wollongong, will never be able to achieve the current top download speed of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) because his NBN is connected via copper wire through the Fibre-to-the-Node system.

The 100/40 plan is the top speed that retailers like Optus, Telstra and iiNet are offering for the NBN, although higher speeds will hopefully be available in the future.

It means you should get “up to” a speed of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) when downloading, and 40 Mbps when uploading.

Trouble is, Mr Wilson says he hasn’t seen his speed get higher than 49 Mbps when downloading, and 20 Mbps when uploading.

“99 per cent of the time I am lucky to get over 20/20,” he told news.com.au.

“The Australian public have been sold a lie.”

The big lie that NBN customers are being sold

The National Broadband Network (NBN) is an Australian national wholesale open-access data network project with both wired, and radio communication components being rolled out and operated by NBN Co Limited.

The NBN has been a large disappointment in terms of the slow roll-out process, the substantial cost to Australian taxpayers, the abysmal performance of the network for those that already use it, and the lack of communication and transparency relayed by officials of the NBN Co..

While I am not fortunate (or should that be unfortunate?) enough to have access to the network yet, I must say the outlook for the project seems bleak to say the least. Remember, this was first announced in 2007 and the progress so far is below what many would have expected.

a reply to: Dark Ghost

If ever there was something that needed a Royal Commission its this white elephant,this was done despite the CSIRO being a world leader in WIFI technology when the decision was made.Turnbull proved himself incompetent with this pig how the hell he ever became Prime Minister is beyond me he'd allready risen to his level of incompetence as a communications minister.

a reply to: Dark Ghost

As an idea it was stupid, at the very last it should have been FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) not FTTN (Fibre to the Node)

It's implementation was a con job. Telstra got $11bn for a busted ass copper network under the FTTN plan which should have been money spent on FTTP.

In the end it's all going to be obsolete soon when 5G gets rolled out in the not overly distant future.

Im in Aldinga Beach in South Australia, I've had top tier NBN for over a year now.
I just ran the online speed test and it's 40 Mbps, it's still fast but not the promised 100 Mbps.

What do you expect, our energy grid is crap as recent news has shown, we don't even entertain the idea of nuclear energy because of fear mongering, our oil and energy prices are through the roof, our general cost of living is through the roof, the government spends money on socialist programs like no tomorrow and tax the crap out of us so they can afford it, in the last few years I've seen more business close in my area than new businesses being opened. It's making me very much consider moving to the U.S. at some point in the future, but I have a feeling a may not get through, lol.

Do you realize that in order to hit those speeds the content provider you are downloading from must support above those speeds in upload rate? Are you sure you're testing a capable download node?

Meanwhile in Africa...

What a farce! Labor' s FTTP plan was miles ahead of the current MTM incarnation of turdbull. Australia was promised 25mb/s to all by 2016. Its now 2017 and here i am still on a less then 3mb/s connection and no crappy FTTN NBN untill "H2 2018". I wont even bother going into the monetary side of things. When there are rice farmers in Thailand with better connections then most of Aus, you know there is problems. If it wasnt for a 2 storey house and a tree, I would have 100mb/s wireless never to have to worry about copper again.

Then you get the "Transparent NBN" where everything is commercial in confidence so cant be released. Its so transparent, anyone with network knowledge can see straight through their BS. Bill Morrow (NBN CEO $3.3M PA) has said some of the stupidest things i have EVER heard from a government employee/poli.

“Even if we offered it for free, we see the evidence around the world that they wouldn’t use it (gigabit speeds) anyway."

The next big problem with MTM (apart from the lack of speed, reliability, old copper etc) is congestion. The backhaul to each node just simply isn't sufficient, neither is the whelesale pricing structure. People are paying for 100mb/s speed and getting less them 1mb/s in peak times (not to mention packet loss and latency).

The sooner we have a royal commission and these idiots out of office, the better!

I am not sure how ISP's and telco's work in Australia, but I think that fiber to the premise has more issues than just money. Right of way and easement laws make doing that particularly troublesome and any business has to know for sure if they make such an investment it is going to pay itself off once placed into production.

a reply to: Fools

Its easy as most of the infrastructure is aleady there. Just with failing, corroded copper instead of fiber.

a reply to: orgncpndmc

I had a similar problem here in the USA. AT&T actually came and dug up my yard and repaired the copper. That is vastly different than them tearing up the yards of several property owners to get fiber from the CO to the hub. It would cost millions and you would have to KNOW that every resident would be a potential customer.

Anyway, if your telco's refuse to repair existing copper - that is some BS.

More encouraging news on the NBN

a reply to: Dark Ghost

Just checked the new NBN tracker tool - my area was due for upgrade to Fixed Wireless by the end of this year now it's been pushed back to 2020.

What an absolute joke. Between this, the Centrelink debacle and numerous other reasons, the Coalition LNP is going to get wiped out at the next Federal election.

a reply to: myselfaswell

In the end it's all going to be obsolete soon when 5G gets rolled out in the not overly distant future.

I rue the cost of 5G though.

Roughly $10 per for 4G gig is already pushing the friendship.

originally posted by: Chadwickus
a reply to: myselfaswell

In the end it's all going to be obsolete soon when 5G gets rolled out in the not overly distant future.

I rue the cost of 5G though.

Roughly $10 per for 4G gig is already pushing the friendship.

I barely get 4G on a good day where I live. I doubt 5G will be any better.

a reply to: Kryties

At my old place I'd be lucky to get 1 bar, had to change the settings on the phone to only use 3G...In the city though...4G is amazing.

a reply to: Chadwickus

Yep, once again regional areas get screwed - and they wonder why people like Pauline Hansen are gaining more and more power.

a reply to: Dark Ghost

Everything National is Broken...

Nothing New..

Australia continues to slide down global Net speed rankings despite NBN broadband rollout

THE nation is so behind the eight ball with internet speed that we now lag behind Kenya, Latvia, Romania and Estonia — and New Zealand.

Despite the NBN broadband rollout, Australia has slipped another place in the global rankings of Interent connectivity and is now 51 on list as revealed in the Akamai State of the Interent Report released today, down from a ranking of 48 at the end of 2015.

While the Top 10 is dominated by countries in Asia and Scandinavian, it is the other countries not known as hi-tech centres in the top 50, that sit above Australia, that cause a double take.

Kenya, Lithuania and Bulgaria have average connection speeds about 50 per cent faster than we have in Australia and Latvia is more than 70 per cent faster.