Communications downunder.

[alan s]

Living as I do in the boondocks, I sometimes wonder how things compare with the other side of the pond particularly in communications as there are moves afoot over here to privatise the formerly Government owned Telco. Unfortunately, the services are crap now particularly in regional areas, but unless you've seen it, the physical size of this place is a challenge in itself. In perspective, I live 350+ klms from the State Capital and I'm considered in terms of weather forecasts, to be in "the same area." My sister in law who we visit from time to time is 930klms away and they live over 500 klms away from their State capital, so infrastructure is always going to be a problem.
Here is my ADSL connection speed as I write this.

Your connection speed:

kbps: 294.6
KB/s: 36.83
Mbps: 0.29

I'm on a 512 plan, yet that's all I am getting at present.

We run VoIP on the phone due to our phone bills being around $200 a month previously; it now is around $30, so a big saving there, but with the dodgy internet speed, it's sometimes impossible to hear on it, just the same a 10 cents anywhere in the Country untimed is worth the inconvenience. Overseas, I can go for 3.7 cents a minute to most Countries and their latest plan whereby I can pay $20 a month and get untimed overseas calls for 20 cents has to be a bargain for anyone with relatives over there.
How do these speeds and charges compare with what you guys get and are charged?


Alan S

[philhoward]

I'm on cable (not ADSL), but pay a total of £45/month for unlimited UK calls and cheap overseas calls (extra) and get a supposed 2Mb (download - 512k upload) connection, although that tends to be not much over a Meg most of the time. Occasionally I've got nearly 4 Meg though...
Bandwidth is not guaranteed, but an indicator of your "slice" of what's available (i.e. i'd get twice the allocation of a 1Mb user).
VOIP seems to be catching on over here big style, although I rarely use it myself. Upload speed is the killer for VOIP, and with only 36k I can see VOIP being a problem.

[jgra1]

Hi Alan, I am with Uk company Tiscali..

8meg Broadband.. (In reality some like 0.5M down and 7.5M upload - or the other way around?) and I am not sure if that M bytes or Mbits....

free National calls, anytime.. £20 Per Month - something like A$50 ?

John

[alan s]

With the local mob, "Tel$tra" as they're affectionately called, we were on around $30 a month rental plus local calls @ 25 cents untimed and national calls at $2.50 for up to 2 hours. International were such a scarey price to some Countries, that it was a case of ringing and getting a quote for a specified time at a specified time to a specified number in the Country you wanted to call.
I know of a lawyer who made one call from a mobile to an overseas client who wore a bill for $170....
My average monthly phone account ranged from $160 - $220 a month before I changed to VoIP.

As regards our uploads and downloads, with the speed (or lack of it) it has become some kind of a hypothetical due to the speed problems we get at times. I was lead to believe that our speed was only a fraction of the speeds you guys get over there. I have an added problem in as much as we have fibre optic up to around 1 klm from my place and the old wire from there to here and I'm 7 klms from the closest exchange.


Alan S

[Homer]

Your connection speed:

kbps: 294.6
KB/s: 36.83
Mbps: 0.29

I'm on a 512 plan, yet that's all I am getting at present.

I assume those are your download speeds since they are all about the same just expressed differently (capital B being bytes, lower case b being bits, 8 bits to a byte).

You might be suprised to know there are still a lot of people over here who can't get any kind of broadband. Some because they are too far from the exchange others because BT (or maybe it was during the GPO days) installed state of the art fibre optic connections which are incompatible with ADSL. And the cable companies don't cover all areas as yet.

We have a complicated range of services on offer but most new connections are made on a rate adaptive service which gives between 128k and 8Meg depending on your line quality/length. You pay the same (assuming the same ISP) whatever you get. Some areas can get up to 24Meg but to get anything over 20Meg you need to be living in the exchange.

BT was privatised a long time ago but it hasn't done much good for the customer. Some rather strict rules were put in place (for instance BT were not allowed to provide TV services) to attempt to give the cable companies a chance to catch up which resulted in a lack of investment in the network by BT.

A standard line rental with no included calls is around £10 per month, an ADSL service can vary widely, some offering bundled packages with other services, but I am told it costs and ISP about £14 a month to run each ADSL connection, before the customer starts using it. Any charging less than that obviously don't have a very good long term business model.

[James.UK]

Hi Alan. I have a friend who makes calls to people all over the globe, he is also very good with computers in general. I had a word with him and he tells me he uses a programme called 'Skype' for all his international calls.

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/?utm_so ... /644617564


He also suggests that there are several online services that allow you to make very cheap international calls to a designated number at very low costs, but doesn't actually use them himself.

Personaly I use a complex system myself, i.e. PC is on a hired line from BT. I use AOL as my ISP and NTL for all my phone calls!! lol... I keep meaning to simpify it all but never get round to actualy doing it!

[Ross_K]

I'm lucky enough to have 6Mb ADSL here in Ireland for €35/£23/AU$57 a month with free line rental.

I don't get it from Eircom though -they're the Irish equivalent of Telstra, with prices to match.