Life & Technology

I discussed some of the latest internet and mobile phone scams with Lisa on the Today Show. This hoops people will jump through to get your hard-earned cash never ceases to amaze. Even Snoop Dogg got scammed!

If you live in the city, you will need to wait for fast broadband under the National Broadband Network (NBN) – in fact, chances are it will be at least two years away from arriving. This is about the length of time a contract will last for most of the fast internet speed offerings that are out there. So why wait ? Here’s how you can join the revolution now!

You can get similar speeds to the NBN right now, however most internet users don’t realise how. Fast internet, for the purpose of this write up is broadband speeds 70 megabits or higher. Co-incidentally, ADSL2+ is a 22 megabit theoretical speed.

Before I outline some of the services around the country that offer blisteringly fast broadband, at a competitive price – I need to say this: you may have to change where you live to take up the opportunity. This might involve moving house, or moving cities. I know it sounds ridiculous, but many of the people who I have spoken to who are using fast broadband, planned their home rental or purchase around this service being present!

Optus Cable Broadband – Premium Speed Broadband

During the 1990s Optus rolled out its Optus Vision cable into the suburban streets of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. This cable promised the world of cable television to the residents whose house it passed by. Today, Optus has up-graded its cable service to use technology called Docsis3. This technology has been used in countries like the USA, by operators like Comcast, to offer internet speeds much faster than ADSL2+. Optus has had the cable sitting there, and now, with the Docsis3 tweaking, offer an internet service that is one of the best in the country for speed and price.

The big tell tale sign that Optus cable is available in your street is a large, ugly, low hanging black cable strung between the telegraph wires. If you see that, then call Optus (1800 780 237) and tell them your address. Plans start from $100 once you have added your phone service and cable broadband together, and the contract runs for two years.

The Good:
$100 a month is not bad for internet speed that will change your life
Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane location covers millions of Australians

The Bad:
You have to bundle a phone line – who needs one of these anymore!

Telstra Big Pond Cable

In parts of Melbourne, Telstra has upgraded its cable broadband network. Speeds of 30MBps have been increased to 100 megabit. The speed is phenomenally quick, and feedback from the technology community who have subscribed to this service has been overwhelmingly positive. Working out whether you can access the service is more tricky, Foxtel cables used to carry the service are buried, and not all areas of Melbourne are up-graded (even if they have Foxtel cable running down the street). In my opinion, it sounds like Telstra started up-grading their cable, and then stopped when the Government announced the NBN. However that could just be a timing coincidence.

The Good:
100 megabit is fast
Realistic prices start at $99 a month over 24 months
One cable for internet, paytv and VOIP

The Bad:
If you can work out the Telstra rate card, you should be given a Competency of Understanding certificate.
Too few house are able to sign up

Greenfield Estates
If you’re looking for a house in a new housing development, it may be an estate that has been ‘fibred’. That means the developer has laid optical fibre around the estate (instead of copper) to carry internet and other communication services. The cost of doing this is higher and may be reflected in your home price, but the benefits far outweigh the cost over the long term. Further, your estate needs to be ‘back boned’ by an internet service provider, so the fast data speed doesn’t just travel across the estate quickly, but onto the internet quickly too. Companies like Internode have been proactive in this area, and you can read more about what estates they are working with and the prices of their fibre plans here

The Good:
100 megabit from $80 is a great offer
Fast upload speeds of 8 megabit (allow high def video and other content benefits)

The Bad:
There are very few estates where you can get this service

So, the services are out there and they are affordable. They may be just down the road, or outside your house. The NBN is coming later for capital city customers so look into how you get the above services now and begin your experience with super fast internet access.

The Filter Is Dead – Long Live the Filter

So the big news out today in the world of technology is that Australia will now roll out (over the next three years anyway) a National Fibre to the Home broadband network. By the next election the government will have been five years into the process, with three years of the eight years development plan left to go. Telstra’s deal with the government to sell key cable infrastructure to the NBN company rolling out the network can continue to it’s next phase and key black spots where broadband is scant, such as the marginal seats and those of the key independents (come on, we all know these will be the first to get green lighted at the next role out announcement) will see men digging pits and laying thin blue piping into the ground.

But what about the filter?

Remember, the mandatory internet filter that was planned to save our kids from nasty net predators and then remove refused classification content from our beloved internet pipes. This was the stumbling block I choked on every time I got excited about a 100 megabit internet connection coming into homes around the country. I am all for $43 billion punted on the project, but I am being selfish. I just know that many other voters out there will struggle to get value from it, at least for the next twenty years. Minister Conroy planned the filter, he sold it to us and swore that it was the best thing for Australia to have, but in the end he did not get the support of others in Canberra, nor the people of Australia (if you believe what you read on Twitter).

Don’t get me wrong. Minister Conroy knows technology, in the limited time I have spent with him it’s clear he understands technology. Which is why I was always so confused about his filter project. It did not make sense to force us all into a system that was never going to be able to do what it was designed to do.

Well my fellow Australians, the filter is dead.

The Greens have said they would support the broadband, but not the filter. The Coalition will not support the filter, and so that means that the only party wanting the filter is Labour. Not enough I’m afraid.

So we get the best broadband network in the world, filter free. Yippee!

Tony Windsor summed it up well. ‘You do it once, you do it right and you do it fibre’ and the fact Mr Windsor mentioned this as a key area of his decision shows how much the world has changed in the last five years.

We have now reached the point where a government is formed based on their plan for broadband. If I said that to you five years ago you would tell me to go back to tinkering with my gadget.

So the good news is, we will have a national fibre to the home network built. And the best part is that there will be no one in Canberra deciding what web pages we can and cannot look at.