NBN Discussion

[prozac]

What is your service class?

Premises technology	HFC
Premises service class	20

Yes it’s good, 2nd best to fibre. We currently get 300Mbs from our telstra cable HFC.

But that would be expensive with AB. 99MBPS is $99 per month

 

[SYD]

Yes it’s good, 2nd best to fibre. We currently get 300Mbs from our telstra cable HFC.

Ditto. I’m on 50mb HFC and we’re just off a TPG complimentary 6 mth boost to SuperFast (200-250mb). We routinely got 250+ mb over the existing TPG supplied modem/router wifi (5GHz channel). They’re offering me $84.99 p/m to continue on a 200mb plan - which looks like pretty cheap by comparison. But I’m actually happy with the existing 50mb plan service - we generally get 50+ mb during peak hours and I can’t say I noticed the higher bandwidth (other than the Speedtest wow factor).

 

[Quickstatus]

Premises service class

20

That means the HFC is in the street (which fits in with what the NBN people told you), and if you wish to be connected to HFC NBN, the NBN people will bring a HFC cable to your house for free, install a HFC socket for free and give you a HFC modem for free

But that would be expensive with AB

Depends on what you want out of internet. I have a house of 5 - including 3 uni students and 100Mbps is more than enough.
If one person and just surfing the internet and a movie or two you could easily get by with 25Mbps.

 

[Quickstatus]

2nd best to fibre

In one sense yes. Except there is no current pathway to fibre.
I am FTTC and cannot get the speeds of HFC. However the latest NBN corporate plan (released today) suggests by 2023 i can get a "free" upgrade to FTTP (just needs a commitment to buy a 250Mbps plan). There is no upgrade path from HFC to FTTP without paying lots of money - which for the vast majority of people is not necessary.

 

[TheRealTMA]

In one sense yes. Except there is no current pathway to fibre.
I am FTTC and cannot get the speeds of HFC. However the latest NBN corporate plan (released today) suggests by 2023 i can get a "free" upgrade to FTTP (just needs a commitment to buy a 250Mbps plan). There is no upgrade path from HFC to FTTP without paying lots of money - which for the vast majority of people is not necessary.

I believe it will come in the end. May take a change from the prevalent model. In most area, HFC “can” provide quite high speeds of 250Mbs+ with the new DICIS technology.

 

[prozac]

So this plan (nbnTM 50/20Mbps) costs $79pm. Supposedly it provides 49mbps speeds at night. This does not sound like alot. Anyone have experience with this plan? Is it fast?

To get 99mbps will cost $99pm.

 

[Quickstatus]

Is it fast

Perceptions of “speed” does not necessarily depend on Mbps. Mostly depend on latency which for most NBN technologies is about the same (except for satellite)

What do you want to use it for? 49 is actually plenty fast. You can actually watch a 4K Netflix with it and concurrently do other stuff

 

[serfty]

So this plan (nbnTM 50/20Mbps) costs $79pm. Supposedly it provides 49mbps speeds at night. This does not sound like alot. Anyone have experience with this plan? Is it fast?

To get 99mbps will cost $99pm.

"Fast" is not the question, it is more "Fast enough for my needs".

@Quickstatus's summary regarding speed is to the point. We have a 25Mbps FTTC plan with 500GB plus "landline" with unlimited domestic calls for $75 per month.

We may stream up to 18 hours a week and never had an issue In the 26 months we have had it.

Currently we have been "given" a promotional 50Mbps util the end of the year. It had made little difference to our overall experience.

2 empty nesters in house.

 

[Quickstatus]

Fast enough for my needs".

Exactly. I would ignore the speed freaks who spend their days doing speed checks and moan about how their connection is unable to reach 1000Mbps.

@prozac
When you get NBN remember that most providers sell NBN plans month to month - that means no contract. I would start off with 25Mbps for a month and see how that goes. You can always go up.

 

[prozac]

Exactly. I would ignore the speed freaks who spend their days doing speed checks and moan about how their connection is unable to reach 1000Mbps.

@prozac
When you get NBN remember that most providers sell NBN plans month to month - that means no contract. I would start off with 25Mbps for a month and see how that goes. You can always go up.

So something like this is likely to give a decent browsing speed and allow me to watch Netflix movies?

 

[Quickstatus]

@prozac
Most Netflix movies speed only requires 5Mbps for a high definition movie.
Only A few movies are in 4K and that requires 25Mbps.
Unless you have a 4K TV, 25Mbps will be plenty

Give it a go for a month and see how you go.

 

[SYD]

$69.99 should get you 50nbn/unlimited download with TPG (and I think iiNet is much the same). A 6 mth contract includes the modem/wifi router.

As per my previous, the SuperFast trial was good but the standard 50mb was more than adequate for streaming across multiple platforms.

 

[RAM]

"Fast" is not the question, it is more "Fast enough for my needs".

@Quickstatus's summary regarding speed is to the point. We have a 25Mbps FTTC plan with 500GB plus "landline" with unlimited domestic calls for $75 per month.

We may stream up to 18 hours a week and never had an issue In the 26 months we have had it.

Currently we have been "given" a promotional 50Mbps util the end of the year. It had made little difference to our overall experience.

2 empty nesters in house.

What is worthwhile doing is to go into your account and look at the monthly data usage history.

Most people I mention this to then end up downgrading their monthly plans due to even dividing the monthly total by 30 reveals they're paying for speed they just don't need.

Just as worthwhile doing for your mobile phone plans - one friend on a $30/m plan had over 260GB in the 'databank'.

 

[SYD]

What is worthwhile doing is to go into your account and look at the monthly data usage history.

Most people I mention this to then end up downgrading their monthly plans due to even dividing the monthly total by 30 reveals they're paying for speed they just don't need.

Just as worthwhile doing for your mobile phone plans - one friend on a $30/m plan had over 260GB in the 'databank'.

That’s probably true for mobile phone/internet plans for an individual.

But probably shouldn’t confuse bandwidth (speed - how much throughput you can get) with download limits/caps. A single user home might be happy with 12 or 25 NBN plan but a home with multi-users, streaming, gaming, and/or WFH might struggle on a slower bandwidth. You’d also expect Home NBN (or other broadband) to use more data than mobile. Depending on the provider and plan, a download cap might apply but rather than charge you more, they throttle your effective speed.

 

[RAM]

That’s probably true for mobile phone/internet plans for an individual.

But probably shouldn’t confuse bandwidth (speed - how much throughput you can get) with download limits/caps. A single user home might be happy with 12 or 25 NBN plan but a home with multi-users, streaming, gaming, and/or WFH might struggle on a slower bandwidth. You’d also expect Home NBN (or other broadband) to use more data than mobile. Depending on the provider and plan, a download cap might apply but rather than charge you more, they throttle your effective speed.

If your monthly usage is not above 150GB (for example) then most unlikely to need 50 or even 25 plan.

If its over 200GB then perhaps 25 - just depends on when it gets used.

The easiest way for not-too-techheads is to simply look at the monthly usage



Guess when we entered lockdown?

At just over 12GB per day with several working from home - 25 more than sufficient for us even with 4 streaming at the same time - using HFC NBN.

 

[SYD]

It appears that most ISPs have moved to unlimited data on plans 25MB and over I’ve just noticed. You have to go digging for a budget NBN12 plan with 50 to 100GB monthly download limits.

 

[Quickstatus]

budget NBN12 plan

Minimal price reduction for a large restricting in speed and data. Though if you don’t need don’t pay for it

 

[Buzzard]

I'm pretty sure we had 25/5, we now have 50/20. The 25/5 was all old copper at our previous house whilst at the new build it's FTTP with all new wiring in the house.
I would say that our connection now is definitely better but I will add that I opted for the higher speed for the upload rather than the download.

 

[moa999]

Minimal price reduction for a large restricting in speed and data. Though if you don’t need don’t pay for it

Yep. To do with the NBNs wholesale pricing.

Aussie Broadband has 100GB/500GB/Unlimited at all speed levels (other than 12/1). But it's only $9 between 100GB and Unlimited.

 

[RAM]

Yep. To do with the NBNs wholesale pricing.

Aussie Broadband has 100GB/500GB/Unlimited at all speed levels (other than 12/1). But it's only $9 between 100GB and Unlimited.

Weren't the NBN price changes a temporary measure due to Covid - so that things like video medical consults & remote school/university operation could operate?

Perhaps as 'temporary' Covid has morphed into 'living with Covid' - the price reduction/capacity increases may become permanent?

One thing for sure - the current pricing, although excessive in comparison to rest of the world, sees a valuation drop for the NBN of around $18 billion.