How's Internet speed in Australia?
 

Hi,
Anyone from here living in Australia?
Are there any decent internet cable providers, which offer 10 or 20 mbps connections?

LOL 10 or 20? Try 2 if you're lucky. They only just got cable modems over there.

I've spent 1 year of the last 2 living and working in Australia and their internet is so backwards it's untrue.

If you're used to fast speeds ie the rest of the world you will be sorely disappointed over there.

Early 2008 I was paying $120AUD a month for the fastest consumer connection you can buy - it was about 2 mbps (*possibly* it was 4 i never measured it) AND bandwidth was capped at a paltry 60gb.

What does this mean? Basic surfing, email and uploading of a few sites. No torrents, downloads, streaming video, plus watching your bandwidth meter every damn day to make sure you don't go over.

The first month we didn't watch it and ended up with a $2k AUD bill - they hammer the fuck out of you for overages. Yes $2000 dollars

They are VERY backwards with their internet, apparently the new prime minister wants to sort that out but you know what politicians are like lol

sorry double post

You're correct, it is like a backwater here in Oz mainly due to Telstra/Bigpond. Modern day theives. They have tried to own the market and as a result have stuffed it.

The new government is full of shit and no substance and will bankrupt the country quickly with their union/socialist tendancies.

We have to hope there is some new technology to allow for beaming up to a satellite as Australia is too large to cable. Most of our ranches here are larger than Texas.

BigPond?

Try LargeSwamp.

Internet here as quick as an LA freeway at rush hour.

Sucks :-(

You mean vs using dialup for the upload? You can upload to the ipstar satellite if you have the proper dish...

Personally im on Optus DSL, 1.5mps connection. It does the job for what I need. There is some areas that have ADSL2 and they are much faster, but as said previously, it will cost alot of you go over your usage.

Check this site out, it shows you all the ISP's plans.
http://bc.whirlpool.net.au

Ya it's pretty fucked here, I'm on a adsl2 plan with telstra supposed speeds of 10-20MBS but never gets that high it's running around 4-5MBS atm...

Dont move here if you like fast internet :2 cents:

Decent & internet in the same sentence is always good for a laugh. Unless you are in an area that can get ADSL2+ then expect slow speeds in comparison to other developed countries.

-N

lol. I get ADSL2, it is okay and I am quite used to it, so I actually find it fast. But you are right, if you are coming from somewhere like Europe you'd be quite disappointed.

hey firehorse I was in Sydney.... what plan/connection is that you're on there?

I connect at 20 megabit downstream, 1 up on ADSL2 (speed varies by distance)

AUD $139 pm for:
60gb used between 12pm and 2am
80gb used between 2am and 12pm

The thing is, I can't max out downstraem due to shitty international links. Only rarely do I exceed 8 megabits connecting to west coast USA, east + everwhere else is worse. Upstream is much worse, 1 megabit goes nowhere and you need a special business plan for Annex M (assuming your ISP provides it) which brings only marginal improvement.

Hey natas, we're with BigPond (telstra):

BigPond ADSL 60GB
20000/1000 $149.95 per month

I'm supposedly Bigpond's fastest service:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/330677939.png

It's been awful of late though. Tel$tra suck. :error

It's called the laws of physics and a transmission protocol that was conceived when 9600bps was blindingly fast. :) Tip: if you need to download more than one file from a particular site, do them simultaneously - if you have enough bw headroom then they should each go around the same speed as if it was just a single stream. eg 150kbytes/sec single, 450kbytes/sec if you download 3 at a time.

natas: AU had cable back in the early-mid 90s in selected suburbs of large cities, but they've stopped laying cable. If I remember correctly both Telstra and Optus abandoned new cable laying around the same time... no point spending the money if your competitor doesn't bother, eh?

^ I should add that until Optus came along cable internet pricing was ridiculous... from memory Telstra were charging something like $79.95/mo for 100MB (that is MEGABYTES) download. Even in 1996, and in expen$ive Australia, that sort of pricing was super silly.

Is that for real? :error
Some countries have internet plans with those speeds, like Sweden for example.

:error :error :error

Check this out:
http://www.thelocal.se/7869/20070712/

...
Sigbritt will now be able to enjoy 1,500 high definition HDTV channels simultaneously. Or, if there is nothing worth watching there, she will be able to download a full high definition DVD in just two seconds.
..