Turnbull: “Seeing is believing”
MALCOLM Turnbull has just shared the speeds of the first house connected to his new NBN network. But is all as it seems?
COMMUNICATIONS Minister Malcolm Turnbull has visited the country’s first user of his fibre to the node (FTTN) broadband technology in Umina, New South Wales.
Tweeting earlier, the speedtest has garnered some impressive speeds but still leaves a few questions to be asked.
Seeing is believing. Speedtest on Martin McInnes' computer connected w NBN FTTN in Umina this morning @LucyWicksMP pic.twitter.com/JfU9CNVeyV
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) August 21, 2014The download speed of roughly 95Mbps and upload speed of 37Mbps are roughly the equivalent of what current users of cable internet get, however it’s unclear how close Mr McInnes’ home is to the node.
Another factor in the potential speed of the connection is your ping — the time it takes for a packet of data to travel between your computer and the server it is connecting.
The ping at the home tested this morning was quite high, which could affect the consistency of the connection, particularly important for things such as a Skype chat or online gaming.
So although the government is investing billions of dollars into FTTN, the technology could make little difference to the end user if their home a long way from the node — meaning they will still receive data at a similar pace to their current ADSL connection.
Potential users of FTTN, such as rural hospital staff have raised concerns about the reliability of their connection when using video conferencing facilities to specialists at major hospitals.
While that may be a very extreme example, it’s still something to consider when compared to the initial NBN plan of a fibre to the premises.
Many businesses, such as NewsCorp have invested in private fibre to the premises networks, which as seen below makes a big impact on overall speed.
Seeing is believing. Speedtest on my computer connected with FTTP in Surry Hills this morning. #NBN @TurnbullMalcolm pic.twitter.com/cdYxaSxgEM
— Harry Tucker (@harrytuckerr) August 22, 2014
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