In less than two weeks, one million Melbourne homes will have access to the fastest internet connection currently available in Australia. On December 1st 2009, the $1.5 billion upgrade to Telstra’s HFC cable broadband network as well as its Velocity fibre-to-the-home network is planned for completion.
See all cable internet plans.
It is super-fast broadband with download speeds upgraded to 100 Mega bits per second (Mbps), with uploads having a limit of 2Mbps. This makes it the fastest hybrid fibre coaxial cable network in Australia, and comparable with the fastest internet countries in the modern world. A price scheme has yet to be announced.
Telstra has stated the cable upgrade will give families the ability to do heavy downloading of music and movies simultaneously whilst playing online video games and surfing the Web. However, in a formal statement Telstra says, ‘The actual download speeds an individual customer will receive from the services will depend on factors including customer equipment, server limitations, Wi-Fi reception/capacity, and so will be less than the total capacity into the home.’
Telstra denies the introduction of these new upgrades is an insurance policy to safeguard their business in the instance they are excluded from the Australian Federal Government’s National Broadband Network if a break down in discussions were to occur.