Quote:
Originally Posted by BetterRed
Oh - and FTR I cancelled getting an NBN connection - far too much up front cost for no ongoing benefit whatsoever. To get faster speeds, which I don't need, I would have to pay a higher monthly tariff on top of the extortionate up front costs plus the disruption to my equanimity...
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I had though that it was like over here where when one places your order with the ISP the fiber wholesaler (as I understand Oz'ites also do) the wholesaler is subsidized by government for the cost of the in-house and to the street fiber installation, plus the optical terminal at the homeowner/renter's wanted termination point inside the dwelling (the dwelling can be an apartment) ready for one to plug the ethernet modem/router into, all at no cost to the dwelling occupier. Disturbed landscaping is restored. I think all ISPs who provide telephone services over copper also at no cost to the occupier get the fiber wholesaler to bring any in-dwelling telephone copper back to a termination point beside the optical terminal as a matter of course for patch cabling to the terminal.
There is a limit as to how far they will run free from gate to house, but we are 70m back from the front gate to the front of the house and several years back when fiber was installed here that was free. From memory the fiber service was cut straight over from copper while the technicians were here so there was essentially no disruption to service.
The only inconvenience was taking the time to agree the gate to house cable route and the location of the optical terminal in the house (about 10 minutes), plus I helped them sort out the cable route through the house's various difficult roof spaces rather than just leave them to work it out themselves (it being a 2 story house and the house network is terminated right at the back).
(Our security provider changed us from copper to cellular at their own cost).
It would seem a disincentive to a country's getting rid of the old copper network if the fiber rollout doesn't work as above because getting fiber installed through ones garden and house is expensive otherwise.
As an idea of the cost difference between fiber and ADSL/VDSL services I just looked at an example from an ISP (ADSL and VDSL are priced the same as each other by them). 100Mbps fiber, unlimited data is NZD10 cheaper per month than unlimited ADSL/VDSL; 200Mbps fiber, unlimited data is NZD10 dearer than unlimited ADSL/VDSL; 1Gbps fiber, unlimited data is NZD20 dearer than unlimited ADSL/VDSL. At sub 100Mbs speeds and for non-unlimited plans fiber stays cheaper. As 100Mbps, unlimited data is more than plenty for most households, even with multiple streams going, fiber is cheaper than ADSL/VDSL for most everyone. That does not mean broadband services are cheap here though
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Installation of fiber won't be free here to householders forever and it surprises me how many do not bother to take advantage of the current freebee. I had assumed Oz was doing it the same way?