[LINK] Don’t believe the hype: We’re a long way from 5G

[David]

On Friday, 1 June 2018 21:38:13 AEST hamish at cloud.net.au wrote:

> I can't think of an application that needs hundreds of megabits constantly but I could certainly use it in bursts.  There are plenty of occupations which require large file transfers (software development, video and other media etc) where a lot of time is wasted waiting on file transfers right now, particularly uploading.
> 
> My ADSL uplink is 800 KILOBITS per second - it is pathetic.

Yes, but those occupations would normally use a desktop system at premises with a broadband connection.  Your ADSL certainly isn't great but NBN should improve things when it arrives, if that's any consolation!  I have an FTTN connection at the end of 1 Km of copper, and even that runs >6Mbit/s up and 28 Mbit/s down.  It might be worth checking your router / modem specs too.

> As for keeping your POTS connection that isn't possible with FTTN - it uses the same copper pair. With HFC (and fixed wireless I guess) it's possible though, at least during the 18 month coexistence period.

I was surprised to find ring tone after cutover to FTTN, believe me.  However it seems the copper tail is jumpered at both the pillar and the FTTN node, at least for a while, and the node contains VDSL2 filters anyway.  Some countries (Germany?) offer coexisting VDSL and POTS services like our ADSL.

I suppose the reason the government decided to ditch the POTS network was to save money, it's not technically necessary.  Think of all that exchange real estate which can eventually be sold off, and the technical redundancies...

David L.