Tuesday, April 20. 2010Wireless Performance Continues To Increase......John Linton .....continues to reach a wider demographic's needs. Before Exetel first started providing wireless broadband solutions using the Optus mobile network we asked for some 'volunteers' to do 'real life testing' of the performance they could achieve in various parts of Australia. These kind people (who 'volunteered' via the Exetel forum) did an excellent job of providing feed back to us and to other people who followed that forum thread as to what they were achieving under various conditions and from various locations - some quite remote others around regional towns and a couple in the suburbs of Adelaide and Brisbane. Over the past two plus years we have kept in touch with them to track their ongoing experiences as the network grew in capacity and capability and as more and more users connected to it. I sent out my quarterly email to the remaining 12 of the original 15 users last week and have now got all of the replies. In summary the results continue to be very positive in every respect with users getting slightly faster speeds than three months ago and have had another three months of operation without any 'down time' or any other network performance issues. Over the two and a half years of usage the average sustained down time speeds have increased from an average of 650 kbps to an average 0f 2.8 mbps together with slightly better latencies - most of this improvement has come in the last twelve months when average speeds have almost doubled from a year ago. The other significant piece of information from the last quarter's 'survey' was that the remaining three people have canceled their land line since January 2010 with all now using VoIP to make telephone calls. I understand this minute number of users, who are also atypical because they were all 'technically competent' and are now long term users of wireless technology, but it is 'directional' in that the average usage by this small group is less than 3 gb per month (a number that would cover more than 30% of Exetel's current users) and includes three 'rural' families and four 'work from home' duos. By 'abandoning' their telephone line all of these users now spend around 40% less than they used to spend on their previous ADSL1 service (ignoring the lower cost of telephone calls) and have a consistently faster connection. Current wireless pricing (at least that from Optus to Exetel - it could be quite different in other scenarios) doesn't allow us to offer wireless services at less than around $A15.00 per gb (up and down) so wireless services are not even on the horizon for heavy down loaders or low latency dependent game players but for a very sizeable 'chunk' of today's broadband users it is better than they get in many areas in Australia and it is continuing to get better. I don't know what the LTE testing later this year by both Telstra and Optus will show, let alone when those carriers will make LTE available on their mobile networks, but it seems likely that both speed and latency over wireless will surpass today's ADSL2 performances around Australia sooner rather than later. Pricing will remain an issue in Australia though that doesn't seem to be the case in the US or in the EU as far as I can tell from the available information. However for users who don't need large downloads wireless looks like it will become the dominant broadband technology sooner rather than later has been 'predicted'. People like me continue to use a wireless service (mine is around 2.5 mbps in my home and somewhat faster when travelling) and my bill seldom exceeds $A15.00 per month for a constantly used service. I would think that there are many other people like me that now only use wireless because it is as fast as they need it to be and it's a fraction of the cost of ADSL. So 'straws in the wind'....but the approaching 'winter' continues to darken ADSL's skies. PS: For those people who told me how stupid Exetel was to take Telstra to court to force them to publicly apologise for their unconscionable behaviour - look at page 16 of today's Australian....mealy mouthed for sure - but then ..............
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4......
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noticed this published today http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/optus-adds-muscle-to-its-3g-mobile-network/story-e6frgakx-1225855709556?referrer=email&source=AIT_email_nl&emcmp=Ping&emchn=Newsletter&emlist=Member
Comment (1)
I just had a look at the apology. Good one! Why did you need to take it to court though? Was it related to damaging your brand or was it recorded in such a way that it could have harmed Exetel's credit rating etc? Was there any other recompense apart from the apology?
Mike. Comment (1)
We only asked for an apology in the first instance.
When that wasn't forthcoming we said we would take it to a court and ask for an apology plus our costs. When it was obvious that we really would go to court Telstra agreed to write and publish an apology. The judge today awarded Exetel the costs caused by Telstra's bloody mindedness. Why didn't they apologise before it cost each party time and money? That's the Telstra way. But they did avoid being found guilty of deceptive and damaging conduct by settling before the case commenced in earnest. Comments (2)
Good to see someone prepared to stand up to those arseholes.
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Its interesting to read the impact that devices like the iPhone and iPad are having on the provision of wireless internet and the capacity problems it is causing.
The thing is, increasing bandwidth is no longer about having faster downloads but allowing more concurrent connections. Increasing bandwidth has made it practical to have multiple Internet connected devices per household, where the capacity of the wired connection is the limiting factor. With the iPhone/iPad, there is no single limiting connection it is driving a future where multiple connected 'always on' devices per person will be the norm. The ability of the shared wireless medium to cope with this will be its limiting factor. Comment (1)
Scan of apology in this article
http://www.itwire.com/it-industry-news/strategy/38426-telstra-apologises-to-exetels-linton-pays-costs Well done! Comment (1)
3G holds some appeal for email & VoiP, and here a 1gb plan probably makes a bit of sense.
Eventually.. 4G should provide a complement to the innevitable Fibre-net; both shall proceed in the decade ahead. 4G commences trialing in the months ahead- http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/telcos-start-their-super-fast-4g-trials-next-month/story-e6frgakx-1225855703478 meanwhile.. FTTH/Fibre gathers speed on its path, indicating 8-2Mbps speeds 'Uploads' (plus $1/GB type pricing) ahead- http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/343596/_internode_overhauls_ftth_plans/ but moreover.. benchmarks reveal wireless performs at ~1.88Mbps a connection/average speed in 2010--services based on very pricey structure Optus/Telstra use to charge data ($10/GB is typical- to some $60/G/excess-data) they think appropriate to charge the market . Time will tell how effective that strategy is in market in propping up/arresting decline in their obsoleted/declining items. Comment (1)
The latest 3 brochure (March 2010) shows excess data prices on their prepaid mobile plan of $5 per Mb (page 4, note 5). Ouch! The excess on their postpaid mobile is $0.10 per Mb and $0.50 per Mb if roaming, or on the smallest data plan.
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