So I finally got approved for a unit in an NBN area with NTD already in and service ready to be flicked on.
I have had to set up a couple of NBN connections for clients and have worked out all the nitty gritty to do with set up.
I have been a customer of Telstra's for a while and have used their 100mbit Cable Ultimate plan previously and have always been able to get 100mbit speeds using speedtest.net at all times (worst case 85mbit)
I have been reading Delimiter articles and posts on Whirlpool forums that suggest NBN speeds vary as customer base and usage increases during peak times. I read about the reasons for this and it appears to be more to do with ISPs and their lack of infrastructure purchase directly from NBNCo (which apparently have more than enough infrastructure available to maintain advertised speeds constantly).
I understand that obviously ISPs that do not spend as much money making sure that there will be enough throughput - end up "profiting" more.
What worries me now is that something that seems like great value plan (such as Exetel $89 unlimited) might only be possible at that price because the ISP skimped out on purchasing enough infrastructure to maintain quality of the service.
I guess my first question is:
How can you be sure if an ISP that advertises 100mbit/40mbit will continue to deliver such speeds?
I can't seem to find any information even a comparison table between ISPs on connection speeds at certain times of the day (I can find individual ISPs but not a comparison)
And my second question is:
Let's say I go with one of the more reputable companies and fork out more $$ towards the monthly payment - will a 100/40 mbit plan ever go as low as half it's speed?
The reason I ask the above is because I know for sure that Telstra Cable NEVER went anywhere below 85mbps for me at any time I have had it - and all I keep seeing from NBN users are speedtests that consistently show 100/40 mbit advertised speeds fall as low as half of what they are advertised (even reputable ISPs like Internode)
Or is all this NBN hype not worth it in the end? Should I just stick with Telstra Cable? Because Telstra Cable has been delivering 100mbps speeds for 5 years now and it never falls below 85mbps.
I have Skymesh, a friend of mine also has Skymesh with several heavy downloaders in the house, they have been good and give good speeds at all times. I would advise against Telstra as I had them to begin with and purchased the speed upgrades which were $15 if I remember correctly to bring it up to 100/40, I did not see speeds even close to that even when connected directly into the NTD, after a few phone calls to Telstra they advised me saying they cannot guarantee even near the speeds I am paying for which is when I switched to Skymesh. Skymesh also offer 1 or 2 month trial to new connections, it comes with a voip and 100GB a month which is not a lot but it is free.
Also NBN is great in terms of speed consistency as long as your ISP/RSP doesn't try to cheap out. NBN is also future proofed for connections that use FTTP(Fibre to the premise) as the speeds capable of going through the cable can easily reach 1000/400 mbps but will not be likely anymore under the new "NBN" plan.