Tag Archives: Internet Access
24MB Broadband.. drool
Posted on 01. Sep, 2005
UK Online to offer 24MB ADSL2+ for under GBP30 per month! Where do I sign?
http://www.ukonline.net/...
BT Broadband Upgrades to 2Mbps
Posted on 01. Mar, 2005
At no extra charge. Good, because I was about to dump BT as their competitors were already offering 2Mbps for what I was paying for the 1Mbps service. The 8Mbps/500GB plan from UK Online is still looking very attractive though for GBP39.95 per month.
http://www.bt.com/...
BT Broadband connection now 1Mbps
Posted on 11. Feb, 2005
Increased my BT net connection speed here in London to 1Mbps, it's noticeably better, but still less than what I was running in Sydney before I left (1.5Mbps). I'm still toying with the idea of going to the 4Mbps plan from BulldogDSL or 8Mbps plan from UK Online. BT are currently running a 2Mbps trial as well.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/...
Bulldog Broadband
Posted on 18. Oct, 2004
4 Mbps unlimited ADSL, yummy. I think it's time to dump BT Broadband, particularly as they're introducing usage limits soon. Bulldog here I come.
UPDATE: Didn't end up going for Bulldog and now get hit up by rude aggressive commission based salesmen on the street trying desperately to flog Bulldog services, which really has turned me completely off them. Bulldog, your rude poorly informed and trained sales monkey's have lost me.
http://www.bulldogbroadband.com/...
BT Broadband 15GB Monthly Limit :(
Posted on 05. Jul, 2004
Ah well, it was a fantastic deal while it lasted. At 2 quid a gig it still completely beats Tel$tra BigPond's ludicrous excess charge of AUD$150 per gig back home:
Australia’s great broadband disaster
Posted on 13. Jun, 2003
Excellent analysis from Telecom Asia of broadband in Australia, it provides an excellent summary of what has gone wrong from the 80's till now, and how bad the Telstra monopoly is for Australia. Plenty of interesting statistics, particularly in uptake with only 2% of the country using broadband, we're 23rd in uptake behind Estonia -- where as Alston likes to quite NOIE figure of 'broadband readiness'. Highly recommended read. As usual, I believe Telstra should burn in hell, and are keeping Australia down -- this links well with my gripe about why so many people I know don't have broadband, and the comments I received on and offline pointed to pricing as being the critical factor. [via Slashdot]
http://telecomasia.net/...
Broadband market saturated in Australia?
Posted on 22. May, 2003
I read an interesting assessment last week on falling broadband uptake in Australia, unfortunately I've lost the link to the article, however I did want to share my thoughts on this. Putting aside pair-gain and optic fibre mini-mux victims, from my observations the lack of broadband take up is not just limited to non-tech savvy consumers, I still have a significant number of so called "high-tech" friends who do not have broadband at home. They choose to do their broadband usage at work because they are too cheap, are attempting to limit their home internet usage, or live at home and have technology phobic parents who are blocking the installation of broadband. At an entry price of just $49.95 for broadband account these days, it just amazes me that people still use analogue modems at all for home internet access.
Full-marks to Telstra for trying to raise awareness of broadband through simple effective advertising aimed at educating the non-tech savvy market on the benefits of broadband, however it looks like it's falling on deaf ears. As the article suggests, maybe the Australian broadband market is indeed reaching saturation point, with many consumers still either fearful of the technology or accustomed to internet access at work only. One solution may be for computer manufacturers like Dell to ship systems with ADSL modems rather than analogue modems in the near future. Death to 56k!
To all my high-tech friends who still use 56k modems at home, I'm disgusted with you! Why is it that no matter how hard I lobby on the benefits of new (umm.. newish) technologies such as broadband, wireless networks and microwave ovens, people are resistant and fearful? Why is it that my strata is scared to put a FOXTEL satellite dish on the roof of my apartment block? Slow technology adopters drive me nuts!
Plugging the gaps left by Tel$tra
Posted on 30. Apr, 2003
One of my favourite topics is the lack of broadband coverage at Jackson's Landing, well two companies are keen to get into the area and are considering setting up base stations to fill the gap left by Telstra and Bovis Lend Lease. Good to see! I registered my interest on both sites the other day and they both got back to me straight away, including both a personal call and email from Unwired to discuss my location. Full marks to Unwired and BigAir. Jackson's Landing might just turn into a massive success story in large scale urban wireless networking. Here's an entire waterfront suburb with hundreds of brand-new half-million to multi-million dollar apartments and terraces where the well-off professioanl residents have given up waiting for Telstra to get broadband connected, they've formed an action group to organise their own broadband coverage for the suburb, and wireless is the winner. Interestingly enough, Bovis are pitching some money in as well to help with initial proof of concepts. I'll be watching this one with interest as it's a great story of people and small organisations working around Telstra to get access to services most other people in Sydney take for granted now. (heh, I'm not bitter!)
http://www.jacksonslanding.com.au/...
Australia falling behind in broadband: experts
Posted on 10. Mar, 2003
This article over at ZDNet Australia on Australia's pitiful broadband implementation attempts has got me all worked up again about the greatest luddite of all time, Senator Richard Alston and of course Telstra. I've wasted a lot of energy over the years blogging at my continued and extreme disgust at the government handling of broadband and the Internet, and the astronomical charges Telstra squeezes out of the market for a sub-standard service that is still not widely available despite the fictious posturing by Alston that Australia is a world leader. Don't even get me started on Telsta's continued write-offs due to poor Asian investments and yet the incompetent senior management stay in power. Telstra and Alston continue to keep Australia down, and it seems nothing can be done to stop it. When will someone with a clue take over the Communications, Information Technology and the Arts portfolio from that useless bastard Alston? When will the Australian government give up trying to censor the Internet? How long before we are faced with a Saudi Arabia, China or Singapore like filtering proxy regulating everything we see? If Alston had his way, this is what we'd have in Australia. I rarely get angry about politics, but everytime I see Altson or Telstra mentioned in the media, I think of all that could be in Australia with regards to communiations infrastructure compared to what we have and get very angry indeed. (okay poorly structured rant over)
UPDATE: For those who claim that everyone can get broadband now, remember all those people who live more than 3.5KM from an exchange, do not have a cable running past their home, or live at the end of a RIM etc. For example, large chunks of Pyrmont a Sydney suburb 1.5KM out of the city centre STILL can't get access to broadband. Disgusting.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/...
CWO Takes Control of Excite@Home Australia
Posted on 18. Sep, 2001
" 'Optus today announced it has taken 100 per cent control of its joint venture with US-based Excite@Home. Optus has purchased all shares in
Excite@Home Australia and now controls the company outright.' " [via CM]
http://www.asx.com.au/...
Jinx net
Posted on 12. Dec, 2000
Interesting, Victoria-based Jinx net intends to offer free broadband Internet access over Cable & Wireless Optus' HFC network. Amusing.
http://australia.internet.com/...
Internet Traffic Report
Posted on 21. Nov, 2000
Australia: Current Index 12 Avg. Response Time 2920ms.
http://www.internettrafficreport.com/...
SMH: Gridlock on the Internet as intercontinental cable lies damaged on sea floor
Posted on 21. Nov, 2000
Finally 12 hours after hearing about this unofficially we get confirmation. The 39,000-kilometre SEA-ME-WE 3 cable running from western Europe (including Germany, Britain and France) to the Far East (including China, Japan and Singapore), to Australia has been severed. The cause of the problem is not yet known, however possibilities include a ships anchor or an Earthquake.
"The gridlock, he said, was probably the biggest Internet problem Australia had seen."
http://www.smh.com.au/...
ADSLUsers.com.au
Posted on 21. Nov, 2000
Definitely a useful source of Australian ADSL related rumours and gossip.
http://www.adslusers.com.au/...
IT Fairfax: Optus@Home dumps customers ahead of expected sell-off
Posted on 20. Nov, 2000
AUP etc.
http://www.it.fairfax.com.au/...
Netgear RT311
Posted on 08. Aug, 2000
Getting ready for my ADSL installation, I'll probably pickup one of these DSL routers from Netgear to share the one connection and IP address between all machines on my home network.
http://www.netgear.com/...
Telstra releases ADSL pricing!
Posted on 08. Aug, 2000
The Freedom Deluxe plan at $89 per month for 512k downstream, 128k upstream and **unlimited transfers seems the best value.
http://www.telstra.com.au/...
ADSL arrives at $143 a month
Posted on 13. Jul, 2000
Ahead of Telstra's official price release date of 7th August, iTnews have revealed Telstra ADSL will come in a range of product offerings for corporate, SME and residential customers. The top access plan is likely to be around $143 for unlimited 1.5Mbps access, although with recent discussions of Acceptable Use Policies by Optus@Home users I'd suspect the unlimited access isn't completely unlimited but more likely limited to say 500MB-1G per day. The article also says that Telstra has found through the residential cable access market that residential users are not likely to pay more than $70 per month for access. So, to stay inline with current BPA cable prices, they'll probably cap the cheaper residential access at around 500Kbps.
http://www.itnews.com.au/...
Optus broadband access this month
Posted on 02. Dec, 1999
Further to my earlier post, CM pointed out that: "Cable and Wireless Optus is set to clean up in the broadband market when it goes to market with flat access fees and a low connection price for its Optus@Home service this month."
http://www.itnews.com.au/...
