Tag Archives: National Broadband Network

Fibre vs. Wireless Performance & The NBN

I’m sick & tired of people saying wireless is a better alternative to Fibre in regard to the NBN debate in Australia. I have thralled the net looking for some really world results & finally am satisfied with what I have found I’m not after marketing claims or anything like that, I’m not quoting some peace of policy, these are results recorded through the one and the same site, speedtest.net.

Below is a video recorded in the US, it compares Verison LTE vs. Sprint 4G. The results are less than impressive, Verizon LTE modem clocked in speeds of 7.40 Mbps down & 1.40 Mbps up while the Sprint 4G 1.76 Mbps down and 0.40 Mbps up.
Sprint 4G vs. Verizon LTE Speedtest in San Francisco

This next peace is the results from my own Internode ADSL2+ connection from October last year, I’m not going to retest because it’s much the same now:

Speedtest.net Result 7th October 2010
Web White Noise – Speedtest Time

Finally a speed test from a customer with iiNet connected to the NBN:

iiNet NBN Speedtest.net Results
Whirlpool – I’m on the NBN! Forum Thread

The numbers based on performance speak for themselves.

Update 19/05/2011 – New Phone

I’ve got myself a new phone & have now done a speedtest on the Telstra NextG / UMTS 850 / US3G network (what ever standard they want to call it), using the USB tethering capability. The results are unsurprising for wireless.

Update 20/01/2013 – Telstra LTE 4G (1800Mhz) in Southport

For those who keep wanting to say that 4G is better then Fibre to the Home (FTTH), I think not.

2013-01-18 14.11.37

Australian National Broadband Network, $43 Billion, FTTP

The Australian Federal Government has announced the results of it’s national broadband network.

Essentially they have rejected all tenders and are going to spend $43 Billion to create a new wholesale communications company over a period of 8 years, that will provide Fibre To The Premises (FTTP, also refered to as Fibre To The Home – FTTH).