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This article didn't mention what Australians are choosing to do when they have a range of speeds. According to the figures NBN released 80% of customers aren't

This article didn't mention what Australians are choosing to do when they have a range of speeds. According to the figures NBN released 80% of customers aren't even paying for the top speed they could. Similarly, this piece from Vox notes that fast internet just is not nearly as valuable as proponents claimed. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/only-17pc-of-nbn-users-choosing-highspeed-packages/news-story/20ab3be87d9cc9ca6760c3889e29fb41 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/only-17p... https://www.vox.com/new-money/2016/10/17/13230500/gigabit-networks-chattanooga-google https://www.vox.com/new-money/2016/10/17/13230500/gigabit-ne...

girvo 9y ago
The craziest part is that I was getting 100/60 that actually ran FASTER than it’s advertised speed, unlimited (truly) for $69 a month, with TPGs private FTTB network. But I had to move, and now I’m on an Opticom network; $99 a month for slower upload, but I do get a static v4 IP, so that’s a plus for what I use it for. And this is all in Fortitude Valley, basically the centre of Brisbane...
- ACow_Adonis 9y ago
  'tis true. Can vouch because that's the plan/infrastructure I'm on in Melbourne. I can only extrapolate my own experience, but perhaps if there was some truth in advertising enforcement. I've had NBN plans elsewhere, and I never chose the top plan, because I'd still be limited by other parts of the internet I was communicating with in practice, and everyone knew the top rate plans quoted speeds are literal nonsense. Why pay extra when you get the same performance on the bottom/mid plan?
gonzo41 9y ago
The default Telstra plan is 25/5. That is why most have that limit. I have FTTN and won't pay above that because at peak netflix hours my 25/5 drops to 10/1. If i go higher, I can't break 35/8
bobbles 9y ago
It really is on par with saying something like hard drives should never get bigger because we dont use the space. The capabilities need the infrastructure in place first so that they can grow to use them, it's impossible for the other way around to occur as you cannot transfer something that requires faster connections before they exist.
hiisukun 9y ago
That's at least partly because the speeds you pay for are "up to" 100mbps. Many who pay the extra (~double a normal adsl fee) don't get anywhere near the advertised max speed. Besides, what people pay for and need in October 2017 is probably less than a child starting school will use in 2022 when they hit year 5. This is a national infrastructure project - surely it should be built with the future in mind? This is without discussing upload speeds - not everyone is a purely downloading user. Viewing a population of civilians as a population of solely consumers seems a common folly. I recommend the four corners tv show [1] (linked in the original piece), likely the cause of the extra media attention on the NBN lately. [1] http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/whats-wrong-with-the-nbn/9077900 http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/whats-wrong-with-the-nbn/9077...
robryan 9y ago
That is probably largely down to cost. People don't want to pay $99/month.
adventured 9y ago
That happens in most countries. Consumers don't go with the most expensive options. Romania has among the fastest Internet speeds mixed with the cheapest cost per mbps, yet consumers there frequently don't choose their fastest options because they can make do with less and save a bit of money. Per Akamai's Q1 State of the Internet report, Romania doesn't make the top 10 in average mbps. Yet their % of connections above 10mbps is #8, and above 15 mbps is #9. Despite how inexpensive a faster connection is in Romania, people are often choosing not to bother with the fastest options. Despite that, Romania is still much faster than Australia - people there aren't choosing 5mbps options. If you hypothetically give a consumer a choice of a 100mbps connection at $50, and a 50mbps connection at $25, you're going to see a lot of people seek to save some money where they can (which doesn't mean they don't still want very fast Internet in that #2 price slot).
- Medox 9y ago
  Romanian here. 5mbps cannot be chosen, not even for rural areas where fiber is being upgraded for free (e.g. the rural town of my parents was upgraded to fiber). Lowest I know is from UPC which still has some weird 50mbps option but compare that to the biggest ISP, RDS, which has practically made 300mbps the default as you pay the same amount for 100mbps as for 300mbps since a year or so, both for 7$. And by 300mpbs I mean 300mpbs (the remote servers being the bottlenecks while good ones & tests max out). A lot of things are wrong in Romania but internet is not one of them :) but for those interested, /u/HoliGigi's explanation: https://np.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/2ct58s/average_internet_speed_in_eu_by_country/cjiyt5n/?context=3 https://np.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/2ct58s/average_inter...
PebblesHD 9y ago
I did originally opt for the more expensive 100/40 plan, but found that even in the middle of the night with no rain or line work I couldn’t get any better than about 50mbps sync. I’d be perfectly happy to pay for it if I actually got the promised service but until then I’m on the next best plan, 25/5... From my perspective, they’re blaming the lack of uptake on a symptom of the change they themselves implemented. If they’d left it with fibre I propose many people like myself would pay for the higher tier plan.
stephen_g 9y ago
That's an extremely misleading argument. The offerings are hobbled by the fact that most of the new connections (FTTN) can't achieve those high speeds, and secondly, the CVC pricing model discourages ISPs from providing a service generally that doesn't slow down at peak times, and the CVC also makes it more expensive. It's the perfect trifecta to discourage the higher tiers - and the growing uproar by the general population is an indication you're wrong. Compare to a country with a more sane model (like NZ, the US in places or many Asian countries), and you'll find much higher uptake of fast internet. The Government could fix the NBN to encourage people to take up faster plans if they wanted, but their insistence to not fix any of the barriers makes me conclude they must be doing it intentionally...
spacehunt 9y ago
Telstra just told me today that yes, I can pay for 100/40, but they can't guarantee anything past 25/5. Not sure how my situation gets counted by NBN.
neotek 9y ago
Sure, and we'll never need more than 640k of RAM, either.
stevejb 9y ago
Echoing the sentiment of other replies, this is because you don't actually get what you are paying for. I initially bought a 100Mbps Unlimited plan. I have never gotten close to that. I pay for the most expensive plan out of a hope that I will get prioritized by my ISP, but I have never seen anything faster than 26Mbps, ever.

girvo 9y ago

The craziest part is that I was getting 100/60 that actually ran FASTER than it’s advertised speed, unlimited (truly) for $69 a month, with TPGs private FTTB network. But I had to move, and now I’m on an Opticom network; $99 a month for slower upload, but I do get a static v4 IP, so that’s a plus for what I use it for. And this is all in Fortitude Valley, basically the centre of Brisbane...

ACow_Adonis 9y ago
'tis true. Can vouch because that's the plan/infrastructure I'm on in Melbourne. I can only extrapolate my own experience, but perhaps if there was some truth in advertising enforcement. I've had NBN plans elsewhere, and I never chose the top plan, because I'd still be limited by other parts of the internet I was communicating with in practice, and everyone knew the top rate plans quoted speeds are literal nonsense. Why pay extra when you get the same performance on the bottom/mid plan?

gonzo41 9y ago

The default Telstra plan is 25/5. That is why most have that limit. I have FTTN and won't pay above that because at peak netflix hours my 25/5 drops to 10/1. If i go higher, I can't break 35/8

bobbles 9y ago

It really is on par with saying something like hard drives should never get bigger because we dont use the space. The capabilities need the infrastructure in place first so that they can grow to use them, it's impossible for the other way around to occur as you cannot transfer something that requires faster connections before they exist.

hiisukun 9y ago

That's at least partly because the speeds you pay for are "up to" 100mbps. Many who pay the extra (~double a normal adsl fee) don't get anywhere near the advertised max speed. Besides, what people pay for and need in October 2017 is probably less than a child starting school will use in 2022 when they hit year 5. This is a national infrastructure project - surely it should be built with the future in mind? This is without discussing upload speeds - not everyone is a purely downloading user. Viewing a population of civilians as a population of solely consumers seems a common folly. I recommend the four corners tv show [1] (linked in the original piece), likely the cause of the extra media attention on the NBN lately. [1] http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/whats-wrong-with-the-nbn/9077900 http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/whats-wrong-with-the-nbn/9077...

robryan 9y ago

That is probably largely down to cost. People don't want to pay $99/month.

adventured 9y ago

That happens in most countries. Consumers don't go with the most expensive options. Romania has among the fastest Internet speeds mixed with the cheapest cost per mbps, yet consumers there frequently don't choose their fastest options because they can make do with less and save a bit of money. Per Akamai's Q1 State of the Internet report, Romania doesn't make the top 10 in average mbps. Yet their % of connections above 10mbps is #8, and above 15 mbps is #9. Despite how inexpensive a faster connection is in Romania, people are often choosing not to bother with the fastest options. Despite that, Romania is still much faster than Australia - people there aren't choosing 5mbps options. If you hypothetically give a consumer a choice of a 100mbps connection at $50, and a 50mbps connection at $25, you're going to see a lot of people seek to save some money where they can (which doesn't mean they don't still want very fast Internet in that #2 price slot).

Medox 9y ago
Romanian here. 5mbps cannot be chosen, not even for rural areas where fiber is being upgraded for free (e.g. the rural town of my parents was upgraded to fiber). Lowest I know is from UPC which still has some weird 50mbps option but compare that to the biggest ISP, RDS, which has practically made 300mbps the default as you pay the same amount for 100mbps as for 300mbps since a year or so, both for 7$. And by 300mpbs I mean 300mpbs (the remote servers being the bottlenecks while good ones & tests max out). A lot of things are wrong in Romania but internet is not one of them :) but for those interested, /u/HoliGigi's explanation: https://np.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/2ct58s/average_internet_speed_in_eu_by_country/cjiyt5n/?context=3 https://np.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/2ct58s/average_inter...

PebblesHD 9y ago

I did originally opt for the more expensive 100/40 plan, but found that even in the middle of the night with no rain or line work I couldn’t get any better than about 50mbps sync. I’d be perfectly happy to pay for it if I actually got the promised service but until then I’m on the next best plan, 25/5... From my perspective, they’re blaming the lack of uptake on a symptom of the change they themselves implemented. If they’d left it with fibre I propose many people like myself would pay for the higher tier plan.

stephen_g 9y ago

That's an extremely misleading argument. The offerings are hobbled by the fact that most of the new connections (FTTN) can't achieve those high speeds, and secondly, the CVC pricing model discourages ISPs from providing a service generally that doesn't slow down at peak times, and the CVC also makes it more expensive. It's the perfect trifecta to discourage the higher tiers - and the growing uproar by the general population is an indication you're wrong. Compare to a country with a more sane model (like NZ, the US in places or many Asian countries), and you'll find much higher uptake of fast internet. The Government could fix the NBN to encourage people to take up faster plans if they wanted, but their insistence to not fix any of the barriers makes me conclude they must be doing it intentionally...

spacehunt 9y ago

Telstra just told me today that yes, I can pay for 100/40, but they can't guarantee anything past 25/5. Not sure how my situation gets counted by NBN.

neotek 9y ago

Sure, and we'll never need more than 640k of RAM, either.

stevejb 9y ago

Echoing the sentiment of other replies, this is because you don't actually get what you are paying for. I initially bought a 100Mbps Unlimited plan. I have never gotten close to that. I pay for the most expensive plan out of a hope that I will get prioritized by my ISP, but I have never seen anything faster than 26Mbps, ever.