If you are one of the lucky people to have FTTP (Fibre-To-The-Premises) or some HFC (Cable) users you can now get NBN Home Superfast or Home Ultrafast – 250/25 and between 500-1000/50Mbps from Vodafone.
NBN Home Superfast or Home Ultrafast are two new products. Both tiers are available to 100% of the FTTP network.
About 70% of the HFC network will be able to get Home Superfast and with plans for 100% by June 2021. Initially, only 7% of HFC user can get Home Ultrafast. And a big fat ZERO% of FTTN/FTTC/FTTB users will get nothing other than the very patchy NBN service over legacy copper.
Note that the NBN is being very careful in defining the Gigabit service calling it 500-1000Gbps and draws distinctions between sustained and peak speeds. Most CSPs have now learnt not to draw the wrath of the ACCC over false speed claims.
Vodafone’s 250 plan is $135 per month. The Ultra 1000 is $155 per month. Both plans come with unlimited data, Vodafone’s no lock-in contracts and 4G backup* when purchased with the Vodafone Wi-Fi Hub. It offers a sliding scale of discounts off eligible plan fees, starting from 5% for two services and up to 20% for five services.
*4G backup means maximum speeds of 12Mbps (down) and 1Mbps (up) which is almost useless if you order a gigabit service.
Thanks, Vodafone – see plans here.
But here is the rub for FTTN, FTTC/FTTB users – you are screwed yet again.
Well over 50% of homes in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have crappy FTTN services. We understand it could be as high as 80% don’t have FTTP nor access to reliable speeds over 50Mbps.
Not only is your FTTN service not speed upgradable to gigabit, but the download (DL) and upload (UL) rates have been subtly ‘redefined’ as well.
The new NBN plans for Home Basic, Home Standard and Home Fast are now ‘range from 25-100Mbps DL and 5-20Mbps UL’. The catch is these are not minimum and maximum speeds but acceptable speed for any tier. What happened to nbn Tiers 12/1, 25/5, 50/20 and 100/40Mbps? Now it appears the maximum upload speeds have dropped from 40Mbps to 20Mbps – screwing remote workers even more.
But again, another catch. RSPs now only offer the Home Fast (old nbn100/40 plan) to FTTP/HFC users.
Why? Because around 80% of FTTN users cannot get NBN Tier 100/40Mbps and it was unreliable anyway. If you are lucky, you may get reliable nbn 50/20. RSPs cannot even promise that, having an out by moving you to a lower speed at lower cost if the copper line is not ‘deemed’ capable of faster speeds.
I simply ask what is NBN Co doing about this gaping digital divide?
“And a big fat ZERO% of FTTN/FTTC/FTTB users will get nothing other than the very patchy NBN service over legacy copper.”
300metres from my Fritzbox 7590 router to the cabinet on FTTN here getting full 100/40 all day every day (actually the sync rate is more like 110 or even 115). If NBN were to provision 35b profile I’m confident of achieving 150Mbps or more on the downstream direction.
Not patchy. Not unreliable.
You are really one of the lucky 11% that can get 100/40 but you will find that speed is no longer offered on FTTN and if you change providers you probably wont get it again.
AFAIK aussiebroadband are still selling the 100/40 for FTTN users. They even do a speedtest once the service is provisioned to let you know what the connection actually achieves (their test rates my connection as “99Mbps” but I can see the dsl sync rate is >110Mbps)
Blame your NBN speed, or lack of, on Malcolm Turnbull and those who voted for his government.
If you yourself voted for his government, then you only have yourself to blame for not having fibre to the premises for all sites as the default technology used by NBN.