BigPond Broadband

Telstra have just announced yet another upgrade with Next G planned  to make the jump to 'hyper speed' with 21Mbps speeds to be introduced in 2008 followed by speeds up to 42Mbps in 2009.

At the GSMA Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, Telstra CEO 'Sol Trujillo' announced the exciting news for increased wireless Broadband speeds across their Next G network using HSPA+ technology. No firm dates as yet, however a jump from the current 14.4Mbps that's currently achievable to 42Mbps in the next year or so will open up opportunities for new and optimized voice, data and video transmissions.

“We have an evolution roadmap with Ericsson which will deliver customers speeds of 21 Mbps in 2008 across our national Next G network - a world first - and 42 Mbps in 2009 using HSPA+ technology. Our partnership with Ericsson continues to break the speed barrier,”

Read the entire article at itnews.com.au

News hot of the press, as most know by now, is that Telstra have announced an immediate extension to their Broadband Network by enabling a further 900 telephone exchanges with ADSL2+ services. What does this mean for you and more to the point, will you be eligible and if so, when will you be able to be connected?

Below is a logistical breakdown of the national ADSL2+ extension upgrade which is scheduled to be deployed over 4 stage increments.

The 900 additional exchanges that will provide ADSL2+ high-speed broadband serve –
• approximately 730,000 homes and businesses in NSW
• more than 660,000 homes and businesses in Victoria
• more than 570,000 homes and businesses in Queensland
• more than 170,000 homes and businesses in Western Australia
• nearly 80,000 homes and businesses in South Australia
• more than 120,000 homes and businesses in Tasmania
• more than 50,000 homes and businesses in the Northern Territory
• more than 2,000 homes and businesses in the Australian Capital Territory.

Deployment Schedule

Stage 1 & 2 (48 - 72 hours)
370 telephone exchanges serving nearly 1.8 million premises will be upgraded within seven working days – within the first 48 hours exchanges will be upgraded serving nearly one million premises in locations such as Alice Springs (NT), Banora Point (NSW), Buderim (Qld), Deer Park (Vic), Kalgoorlie and Karratha (WA), Newtown (Tas) and Victor Harbour (SA); and within seven working days exchanges will be upgraded serving locations such as Ayr (Qld), Aldinga (SA), Mittagong (NSW), Lakes Entrance (Vic), Sandy Bar (Tas) and Madjimup (WA).

Stage 3 (2 weeks)
132 telephone exchanges serving 230,000 premises will be upgraded within three weeks – serving locations such as Loxton (SA), Tully (Qld), Narromine (NSW), Camperdown (Vic), Howard Springs (NT), Smithton (Tas) and Yanchep (WA).

Stage 4 (6 months)
An additional 405 exchanges serving more than 330,000 premises will be upgraded within 200 days as Telstra completes additional work – serving locations such as Grovedale (Vic), Tumbarumba (NSW), Barcaldine (Qld), Ceduna (SA), Forrestdale (WA) and Cambridge (Tas).

Overall Total
907 exchange sites serving 2,423,664 million consumers across every state and territory.

Check out all Telstra BigPond ADSL2+ Plans right here at Broadband Guide, or for further information or Connection to BigPond ADSL2+ services Call 1800 197 632.

Telstra has announced that it's been conducting upgrade tests on its Cable Broadband network which may see the Telco capitalize on it's own network in the not so distant future if the Federal Government's fibre-to-the-node decision does not go its way. Telstra stated that recent experiments with pre DOCSIS 3.0 (hybrid fibre upgrade) on their cable network had delivered Broadband speeds up to 100Mbps.

The experiment is so far providing 75Mbps in Sydney and 100Mbps connectivity over the HFC cable network in Melbourne, Bradlow said.

"We're about to enter the video-on-demand era, we know that in an IPTV environment to deliver standard definition [needs] 12Mbps. Very soon high-definition will require the doubling of speeds again [to 25Mbps]."

Read the entire article at ZDNet.com.au

Managing director of the Telstra Wide group 'Geoff Booth' recently announced that Telstra BigPond's Next G network coverage has been extended to include Cradle Mountain and Bass Strait in Tasmania. The increase in coverage is expected to greatly assist emergency servicess around the Cradle Mountain area along with the provision of many services for passengers aboard the Spirit of Tasmania.

Assistant Police Commissioner Scott Tilyard said: "From a community safety perspective, access to mobile telephone and wireless internet services in the Cradle Mountain area will enhance the operational response capability of police and other emergency services, especially for incidents such as search and rescue and road crashes.

Passengers can now use ATMs, shop with EFTPOS and get uninterrupted mobile coverage and fast wireless broadband during the Melbourne to Devonport journey," Mr Booth said.

Read the entire article at News.com.au

Good news for those seeking fast wireless Broadband is that Telstra BigPond have upgraded their Next G wireless network to increase download speeds. The new wireless speeds will now compete with wired household Broadband and in some cases prove to be significantly faster. Bigpond have stated that subscribers will require their new mobile wireless cards to produce speeds up to 6Mbps!  Better still, if you'd like to find out more about the cards and associated wireless Broadband plans, you can do so right here at Broadband Guide.

The turbocharged laptop cards, to be marketed as Telstra Mobile Turbocards and BigPond Wireless Broadband 7.2 cards, deliver download speeds bursting up to 6 Mbps and, for the first time, also boast super fast upload speeds bursting up to 1.3 Mbps.

Telstra Business Group Managing Director, Ms Deena Shiff, said the new turbo cards provided extra speed, flexibility and productivity for businesses to operate seamlessly anywhere there is Next G™ mobile coverage - 98.8% of the Australian population

The turbo card devices are compatible with Microsoft Windows 2000 and Microsoft Windows XP and support Microsoft Vista. The devices also support Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

BigPond Next G Wireless Broadband at Broadband Guide


Read the entire media announcement at Telstra

Telstra BigPond today launched their new 30Mbit/s Cable Broadband 'Extreme' plans which will evidently increase Cable speeds by up to 13Mbit/s.  Worth noting is Extreme Cable speeds of up to 30Mbps/1Mbps are available in selected areas of Sydney and Melbourne only that pass Foxtel services. All other areas servicing BigPond Cable, namely Brisbane, Gold Coast, Adelaide & Perth will be limited to17Mbps/256kbps. 

However, the service is only available to the 1.8 million households passed by Foxtel cable in Sydney or Melbourne. The other million or so people in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth who can get it will be limited to 17Mbit/s speed.

"At 30 Mbps, theoretically you can download a Hollywood blockbuster from BigPond Movies in less than five minutes, or stream it instantly," BigPond MD Justin Milne said.

Browse all the BigPond High Speed Cable Broadband Plans right here at Broadband Guide. 

Read the entire article at APC.

Telstra BigPond CEO Sol Trujillo recently confirmed a planned upgrade for their hybrid fibre coaxial cable network for later this year. It is expected that the upgrade will deliver fast broadband speeds of 30Mbps (30Mbit/s) to 1.7 million household subscribers by the end of 2007. The jump from the current 17Mbps Broadband speed to the new proposed faster 30Mbps is not that significant when considering Telstra's overall plans for it's hybrid cable network. However, when Mr Trujillo was quizzed over the limited speed developments he remained tight lipped and refused to discuss details. 

The relatively small jump in speed (17Mbit/s to 30Mbit/s) indicates that Telstra is indeed using channel-bonded DOCSIS technology rather than the newer DOCSIS 3.0 standard that Optus is considering. 

He was tight lipped on other details, refusing to discuss why the reach of the 30Mbit/s cable broadband was smaller than the overall footprint of Telstra's HFC, which covers 2.7 million premises. Presumably, though, Telstra's engineers have found that 30Mbit/s is only attainable over certain distances.

Read the entire article here at APCMag.