Best news I have seen in a fair bit on the broadband scene.
I could be getting ADSL2+ soon, although, the ISP that is the only ISP to announce it thus far to announce it, is none other than the lunatics at Netspace.
Hopefully, this isn’t a Netspace only roll out (I highly doubt it), I think it is an Optus roll out, however, attempts to obtain this information from Netspace reps have been none other than ignored.
The news is great news, simply because we can finally move away from Telstra’s wholesale greed, and get some realistic prices on internet access from the professionals.
I do however, have significant doubts as to hosting a landline service on the Optus network, mainly because of issues that have been demonstrated with Optus in general.
That’s where a mobile phone comes in handy, prepaid mobiles are nice and cheap to maintain, so just having one of those will do the trick, in the absense of an LSS based service (ULL is what I gather is required for many optus DSLAM supplied services).
What can you do with an increased upstream (no real problem with 8Mb downstream, we don’t saturate that continuously)?
A lot more. I can host websites with bandwidth prioritisation right here. I can reduce delays in lengthy file transfers to and from internet servers. I can make VoIP a lot more reliable while transferring web files to a server for example.
And moving database backup files is made more easier.
Remote Desktop, easier again.
And in general, a lot of the issues associated with the artificially limited upload imposed by Telstra, are solved.
A lot of the cost issues of ports available from Telstra are solved.
In fact, the entire situation is solved, because except for the mandated ULL price that the supplier will pay, there is no issue with services from more professional companies like Optus, when compared to the service from Telstra.
The faster downstream poses no gain for me just yet, but that’s of course not to say that we wouldn’t get advantage from a faster downstream connection in the future.
ADSL2+ according to public available information is expected to be available some time in Q1 2008, with the likely being advised on Whirlpool as being Jan 2008.
Not bad! Took them long enough, but not bad at all! :).
The proof will always be there when it is actually active and my service is supplied on it, but sure enough, I plan to follow this in detail and be one of the first that does connect. Hopefully its February, it’ll make a good birthday present, and will also make for good timing for the finish of our contract with Exetel, though I probably will end up sticking with them, for the good value services, the only flaw with Exetel is the attitude displayed by management in their own forums and public areas, and the general attitude towards users by Exetel, which suggests that if Exetel don’t like you, they’ll disconnect you- something I would be keen to see challenged.
You have to take the good with the bad sometimes, and obviously Exetel is a nice case of this. Good value plans. Good service. Bad attitude of staff and members on their own forums. For an ISP that doesn’t do much in the way of support and passes the savings back to the consumer, they do a fantastic job and that would be the reason I stick with them and recommend them!
Enjoy!