Latest technology for Gold Coast with NBN, but only for those with HFC

THE Gold Coast will benefit from being one of the last places to receive NBN when the latest technology rolls into town next month — but an IT expert warns the good news isn’t for everyone.

PARTS of the Gold Coast will be among the first areas in Australia to receive double the normal bandwidth of the National Broadband Network.

But an information technology expert said the upgrade is only because the Gold Coast was one of the last places to receive the NBN.

Griffith University adjunct professor of information technology Bill Caelli told the Bulletin that while the latest NBN upgrade would be excellent, it would only affect a limited percentage of residents who already had hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) cables between “nodes” and their homes.

The NBN will rollout its latest technology, DOCSIS 3.1, capable of double the current bandwidth.

The node is a street cabinet allowing the network to use existing copper lines connecting to a home or business. These can be replaced by HFC, but not all Coast homes will receive this.

Currently, for those on the NBN network, the DOCSIS 3 system runs at 1.8Gbps.

NBN ready is in purple, while yellow is on its way. Picture: supplied

The new DOCSIS 3.1 system will see that capacity doubled to 3.6Gbps, with parts of Burleigh and Merrimac the first to benefit next month.

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According to NBN public affairs manager Tony Brown, the increased bandwidth is a game changer for the area.

Professor Bill Caelli says the upgrade is great, but won’t help everybody.

“So what it means as people are using more Netflix and Stan and all the rest of it, our ability to service that is doubled (immediately),” he said.

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“That’s a massive increase for people … It’s like a watertank.

“Previously we had 500 (premises) sharing 180 litres of water, now you’ve got people sharing 360 litres of water.

“This is world-class technology and the Gold Coast … will be one of the first places to have it.”

However Mr Caelli said those in the Hinterland and other parts of the Coast may not feel the difference.

Businesses were likely to see the best benefits, he said, as the upgrades meant they could receive similar upload and download speeds.

“On the Gold Coast where we have a focus on entertainment, we need high speeds both downloading and (uploading),” he said. “That’s very important for businesses.

“But I’m on good old copper wire, it will not help me at all …

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“We need to replace the copper,” says Bill Caelli

“They’re trying to avoid the bleeding obvious — we need to replace the copper.”

Mr Brown said using fibre to connect every single house individually was not feasible and the system being rolled out was cost effective, as well as producing similar results.

“If we were to run fibre to a premises it would cost us about $4500 a premises, on this it costs us $2500, so that’s a $2000 per premises saving for the same end result,” he said.

After Burleigh and Merrimac are upgraded to DOCSIS 3.1, parts of Ashmore will receive the better bandwidth in September, followed by other parts of Ashmore and Merrimac in October and then Gilston, Highland Park and Mudgeeraba in December. Remaining suburbs will be upgraded in 2019.