Best FTTP NBN provider for streaming?

Lancerx on 18/06/2016 - 20:43
Last edited 19/06/2016 - 14:10

Hi all,

Moving to my newly built house with FTTP NBN available in the estate. Looking at minimum 25mbps speed, with possible upgrade to 100mbps. I regularly stream Netflix, Presto and also EPL stream (used to be illegal ;P).

Since EPL is pretty important to me, is Optus plan my current best option? I'm offered $90/month for 25mbps unlimited data, with Fetch TV, and free EPL stream. However, I just feel a bit iffy about "unlimited data". I'm confused with NBN tech. Does it have congestion problem like ADSL too? Does each ISP provide different experience, even though they all use NBN network? How long does it typically take to get connected?

Love to hear your suggestions on better NBN deal out there. Thanks!

Internet

Comments

  • scrimshaw on 18/06/2016 - 20:51

    I'm with Devoted (which was acquired by NuSkope) and while I don't stream much, I find 25/5 to be perfectly fine for watching Youtube 1080p without the need to buffer.

    It is generally believed that lower priced providers will use higher contention ratio's to deliver your service. What does this mean? Well it may mean nothing at all in some scenarios but it could mean that instead of getting a 100/40 service you may instead get a 70/30 service or something else entirely. It really depends on what contention ratio they use.

    My experience with Devoted prior to NuSkope's acquisition was… mixed. It first started off okay but as time went on, server pings even to local servers became unacceptably poor (55ms ping) and there was a shaping mechanism that would suddenly cap your speeds to 1mbs for no good reason. I was almost ready to jump ship.

    After Nuskope acquired it though, things got better and they upgraded the backhaul infrastructure and added 25 percent more capacity (apparently).

    However, I just feel a bit iffy about "unlimited data"

    Unlimited data is really just "we're okay with you using as much data as you want, but we have tolerances and if we find that you use way too much in too short of a period of time, we're going to have to cap you"

    It is very unlikely that a person whose bulk of downloads consist of video streams is going to exceed this 'invisible' threshold, its more likely if you're a P2P user and you are grabbing close to a terabyte of data each month, that your provider might give you a nudge and tell you to stop whatever it is you're doing.

    • Lancerx on 19/06/2016 - 00:29

      In newbie term, what is contention ratio? cheers

      • scotty on 19/06/2016 - 08:21

        Say an ISP has 10x 25mbps customers, but its confection to the "internet" is only 25mbps as it assumes not everyone is going to use the full capacity of their connections at the same time. Thus the contention ratio is 10:1.

        Budget ISP has higher contention ratio as it has more end customers vs overall bandwidth to the internet.

    • Zachary on 19/06/2016 - 19:54

      server pings even to local servers became unacceptably poor (55ms ping)

      You call that unacceptably poor?! Try 150. The lowest I've gotten through the net(not LAN - that would be 5 as my record, wait no I think there was one game that I got 0 because obviously I was hosting a listen server) on any one game is 72 that I remember of. Hell I'll even take your 55 if you don't want that….hahahaha

      Unlimited data is really just "we're okay with you using as much data as you want, but we have tolerances and if we find that you use way too much in too short of a period of time, we're going to have to cap you"

      It is very unlikely that a person whose bulk of downloads consist of video streams is going to exceed this 'invisible' threshold, its more likely if you're a P2P user and you are grabbing close to a terabyte of data each month, that your provider might give you a nudge and tell you to stop whatever it is you're doing.

      So then it would be false advertising? Perhaps it should be changed to data capped at 1TB a month rather than unlimited if this is what unlimited truly means for us? We're currently on unlimited though I don't think there was any one time that we've even gone pass 1TB a month…

      Even so if the limit is truly 1TB, we probably won't be able to make that target in a month anyways as it takes us(or me at least since I'm usually downloading the big shits - games, movies, programs, etc,.) as it takes me a few days to even download 30GB of data(this is a true example as I was downloading a steam game through steam client), but that's with family on. If it's only me(and I'm not using the internet for anything else but this), 30GB should take no longer than 8.4 hrs with a consistent 1MB/s down line of course.

  • belongsinforums on 18/06/2016 - 23:12

    I just moved from adsl to nbn. It's ridiculously fast in comparison, even on the cheap plans. Definitely go with a provider that has good reviews. I get great service with internode and am happy with them.

  • Lancerx on 18/06/2016 - 23:54

    Since I can't live without EPL, and Optus is the only bastard who hold the right…and I cbb to find illegal stream every week..

    Is Optus any good in real life experience?

    • scotty on 19/06/2016 - 08:24

      Check comments in past Optus deals, or Whirlpool forums.

      • Lancerx on 20/06/2016 - 01:04

        WP is useless these days, you'd be lucky to get any reply within a day or two….past its glory days…

        Bravo to Ozb! My forum of choice for almost anything now!

    • [Deactivated] on 19/06/2016 - 13:25

      So if Optus is the only one then why bother asking for advice?

      • Lancerx on 19/06/2016 - 14:07

        Because I can technically stream epl from those Chinese iptv, But I like to support local economy hehe

  • tychiang82 on 27/06/2016 - 02:29

    Has anyone used activenet.com.au before?? Good offerings but don't know about real life experience

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