[LINK] Telstra lifts net speeds

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Telstra lifts net speeds
Andrew Colley and Michael Sainsbury
NOVEMBER 10, 2006
The Australian
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,20731293%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html

TELSTRA will finally bring Australia's internet speeds in line with 
those offered in the rest of the developed world when it lifts the 
brakes on its copper wire-based ADSL broadband service today.

The telco will flick the switch on the technology known as ADSL2+ and 
branded HS (high-speed) ADSL, which will offer speeds up to 40 times 
faster than entry-level broadband.

The launch will bring Telstra into line with industry rivals such as 
Optus, iiNet, Internode and Primus and ends more than a year of waiting 
since it shelved plans to launch on the service in September last year.

But Telstra will only offer the faster service to about 50 per cent of 
Australian homes. It is still worried the competition regulator might 
force it to let rivals piggyback on the new service despite recent 
comments from competition chief Graeme Samuel saying he won't let them.

Other consumers will be offered faster speeds on existing ADSL 
technology after Telstra removes artificial caps on the service.

Telstra said it would lift speeds on its ADSL 1 to 8Mbps and offer 
speeds up to 20Mbps from High-Speed ADSL2+ exchanges.

The carrier has also revised pricing and service availability across 
BigPond ADSL offerings. It has withdrawn its 128Kbps and reduced monthly 
charges across 1.5Mbps ADSL plans.

Telstra's has also offered to upgrade customers currently subscribed to 
its 512Kbps ADSL service to a faster 1.5Mbps connection for the same 
monthly fee.

It's basic 256Kbps ADSL 1 service, which offers a 200MB download 
allowance for $30 per month, has been retained.

Pricing for the new HS ADSL2+ plans has been pegged to monthly download 
allowances rather than speed.

Customers that currently rent their copper line from Telstra can 
subscribe to the carrier's basic ADSL2+ service, which has a download 
allowance capped at 600MB, for $59.95 per month. Telstra is offering a 
shaped 12GB plan for $89.95 per month, and 25GB and 60GB plans priced at 
$119.95 and $149.95 per month respectively.

The carrier said that the ADSL2+ service would be offered from 2,400 
exchanges.

Recent statistics indicate that it takes Australians almost two hours to 
download a movie using an average 1.5Mbps ADSL internet link provided on 
Telstra's network. French, British and Korean users can down the same 
movie in less than 10 minutes.

Early last year, Telstra announced that it would launch ADSL2+ across 
400 exchange sites by September 2005. It withdrew that commitment and 
announced it would spend $4billion upgrading its copper network with 
fibre-to-the-node links.

Telstra cancelled that plan after failing to reach an agreement with the 
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over access to the 
network, although it may re-examine the plan at a later date.

Bids by small investors for shares in the T3 sale closed yesterday. The 
final share price will not be determined until November 20 when bids 
from financial institutions are finalised.


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Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au