Dan Warne09 November 2006, 6:00 PM
Telstra launched ADSL2+ broadband services early this morning, liberating customers from the 1.5Mbit/s hell they've been enduring since the late-90s. We have all the juicy details on pricing, speed and coverage.
 Four faces of Sol Trujillo: The big man himself couldn't be at the launch of BigPond ADSL2+, but he appeared by video hookup from L.A. |
Telstra will today launch ADSL2+ broadband with coverage of 2,400 exchanges and 91 per cent of the population.
However, in an odd twist, it will only offer the full 20Mbit/s speed of ADSL2+ in the 360 exchanges where competitors already have ADSL2+ infrastructure installed.
In all other areas, customers will be limited to 8Mbit/s -- still a massive improvement over the maximum 1.5Mbit/s offered by Telstra previously, but a clear indication of Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo's steely resolve to block competitors from gaining access to any new high speed broadband network Telstra builds.
Telstra will finally offer plans to suit the needs of heavy internet users who aren't interested in BigPond's 'walled garden' unmetered content, with download allowances of up to 60GB on offer.
But pricing has shot up compared to BigPond's existing ADSL1 plans. There are none of Telstra's infamous $29.95 plans to be seen -- pricing starts at $59.95 for a plan with 600MB and tops out at $149.95 for 60GB. However, Telstra is continuing its "half price for the first twelve months of a two year contract" offer, meaning customers will be able to get the $59.95 plan for $29.97 for 12 months and $59.95 for the next 12 months.
Telstra told APC it will also offer new 1.5Mbit/s plans that are "up to $30 cheaper" than existing ones, though it didn't provide details of exact pricing.
A news release listed the following plans "for customers with Telstra full-service phone" but did not mention how much they would cost if customers preselected to a different phone carrier.
- $59.95 - either 8 or 20Mbit/s, 600MB download limit ($150/GB excess usage charge after that)
- $89.95 - either 8 or 20Mbit/s, 12GB "shaped" plan (speed throttled to 64Kbit/s after 12GB)
- $119.95 - either 8 or 20Mbit/s, 25GB download limit ($150/GB excess usage charge after that)
- $149.95 - either 8 or 20Mbit/s, 60GB download limit ($150/GB excess usage charge after that)
BigPond provides an online coverage checker which allows you to type in your details to find out if your phone line is capable of getting either 8Mbit/s or 20Mbit/s service.
Telstra BigPond Group Managing Director Justin Milne backhanded the limited high-speed broadband coverage of competitors, saying, "BigPond’s new high-speed plans are not just for a few prime inner city exchanges. We’ve upgraded our ADSL-enabled exchanges nationally, to offer more speed in more places, so that customers in cities, regional centres and country towns can reap the productivity, entertainment, education, and health care benefits of high-speed broadband.”
What is not clear from the news release is what level of services will be available to other ISPs on a wholesale basis. It's likely that Telstra will only offer 8Mbit/s services to all other ISPs because, it may argue, if a competitor already has ADSL2+ in the same exchange, why should it be given access to Telstra's ports?
On the upside, Telstra's approach does actually mean that other ISPs will be encouraged to continue building infrastructure. However, it's also obvious that if Telstra gets tacit approval from the competition regulator to switch on ADSL2+ in every exchange without having to offer it to competitors, it will.
How BigPond's pricing compares
There's no question that BigPond's pricing for ADSL2+ is high compared to other ISPs. At the low-end, $59.95 buys only 600MB of usage on BigPond, but it buys at least 7GB on Optus Direct, at least 10GB on iiNet, 20GB on Internode and 30GB on TPG.
It's worth noting that iiNet forces customers to switch their phone line over too (a whopping $34.95) or take a VoIP service ($9.95) on top of the ADSL2+ plan fee if they want to enjoy full ADSL2+ speeds. In comparison Telstra's line rental fee is $19.95 and Optus Direct's line rental is $19.00.
Ironically, since Telstra will only offer ADSL2+ in exchanges where these competitors already are, it's likely that people who do their research and opt for BigPond will probably be the ones who can only get 8Mbit/s.
Here's some of the key competitors' pricing, sourced from Broadband Choice.
Optus Direct ADSL2+
100 MB peak, 200 MB off peak, phone preselected to Optus $19.95
300 MB peak, 600 MB off peak, phone preselected to Optus $29.95
2 GB peak, 4 GB off peak, phone preselected to Optus $39.95
7 GB peak, 14 GB off peak, phone preselected to Optus $49.95
20 GB peak, 40 GB off peak, phone preselected to Optus $69.95
Internode home ADSL2+
20GB $59.95
40GB $79.95
80GB $119.95
iiNet ADSL2+
500MB peak 1GB off peak, with phone preselected to iiNet, $29.95
2GB peak 4GB off peak, with phone preselected to iiNet, $39.95
7GB peak 14GB off peak, with phone preselected to iiNet, $49.95
10GB peak, 20GB off peak, with phone preselected to iiNet, $59.95
20GB peak, 40GB off peak, with phone preselected to iiNet, $69.95
40GB peak, 40GB off peak, with phone preselected to iiNet, $99.95
60GB peak, 60GB off peak, with phone preselected to iiNet, $129.95
TPG ADSL2+
600MB peak $29.99 (excess usage charged but capped at $59.99)
3 GB $39.99
15 GB including VoIP service $49.99
18 GB $49.99
25 GB including VoIP service $59.99
30 GB $59.99
50 GB $89.99
100 GB $129.99
Different DSLAMs to other ISPs
Telstra is using Alcatel ADSL2+ DSLAMs, which are different to the Ericsson ones used by iiNet, Internode and some other ADSL2+ providers.
Firmware for ADSL2+ modems sold in Australia has largely been tuned for use with Ericsson DSLAMs due to their prevalence.
Modem testing carried out by APC in June 2006 showed that tweaking small DSLAM parameters could have huge effects on real-life throughput of modems, and that there was real variance in the throughput speeds between different brands and models of modem.
The upshot is that modems that perform well on Internode or iiNet may not necessarily perform well on Telstra BigPond's Alcatel DSLAMs.
Though other modem models may work just as well, if you want to connect to BigPond ADSL2+, your best bet would be to use the modem supplied by Telstra.