NBN Availability Checker Updated, Planned Technology Moved from HFC to FTTN. Good or Bad?

scotty on 01/03/2017 - 08:11

Many of you would have known that NBN's address availability checker has been updated a few days ago with the latest planned dates. I am in Sydney south-eastern suburbs. I did the address lookup again and

  • Planned availability delayed to Jan-Jun 2019 (Damn!)
  • Planned technology changed from HFC to FTTN (Huh?)

I don't want to get on ranting about the delayed availability (it was originally scheduled to be 2013 when NBN was initially announced). However I would like to find out whether it is good or bad for planned technology to move from HFC to FTTN. NBN's website was showing HFC when I checked my address a few months ago, and the neighbours on the opposite side of the road are still getting HFC. I know both are crap comparing to FTTP, but I guess I just want to find out which one is less crap.

My parents' place on the Gold Coast recently moved to NBN via HFC and it seems to work well for them. I am currently on Telstra Cable that gives me consistent 36Mbps/1.1Mbps. It's more expensive than the ADSL2+ I had previously, but miles better as my old ADSL2+ can hardly sync at 6Mbps down. I definitely don't want to get worse performance than what I currently have with Cable.

Thanks.

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Comments

  • mccaj09 on 01/03/2017 - 08:48

    Generally, NBN HFC will obtain the higher speed tiers more reliably, compared with Fibre to the Node as you are affected by more factors such as Node location and cooper health and distance. That being said come the time in 2019 they might change FTTN to FTTdp

  • ESEMCE on 01/03/2017 - 08:54
    +1

    I'd expect HFC to have been better provided they segment the neighborhood properly so that the feeder cable to your drop point is not congested by too many other users as can currently be the case.

    FttN is literally a lottery. If you're within 300m of the node(+Pillar), then you should get a solid 100/40 connection, past that sort of range though, where the majority of houses are, the max attainable speeds drop off pretty sharply. If the copper in your house is poor quality that will further reduce your attainable speed.
    I estimate a 450m line length from my node/pillar at the end of my street (right next to the RIM cabinet that used to serve me ADSL) and my max sync is 55/16. This has only been achieved after replacing my internal line (increased from 30/11 to 49/15) and upgrading my modem - from Netcomm NF10W to secondhand Telstra Gateway Max TG799 (increased from 49/15 to 55/16).

    As a result, NBN get less of my money, initially I was only connected at 25/5, cause I didn't see the value in paying extra to get 2-3mbps improvement.
    Then I read about the success people were having replacing their internal lines and bit the bullet. Having said that, I'm still only connected on a 50/20 plan cause that's all they can supply to me!
    Subsequently, self-fulfilling the "Australian's don't even want 100/40 or higher speeds" philosophy.

    In summary, is it possible that FttN will deliver slower internet than you already have?
    Absolutely it is!

    • cloudy on 01/03/2017 - 11:35

      How much did it cost to replace ur internal lines? Sounds exxy!

      • ESEMCE on 01/03/2017 - 12:28
        +1

        $250

  • Amaris on 01/03/2017 - 09:35

    You will get another 18 months or so after the NBN service goes active in your area before they switch off the HFC. So you can have HFC till 2021.

    • ESEMCE on 01/03/2017 - 09:40

      Yeah, I wonder how that's going to work?

      Clearly you have access to the network and you're already physically connected to the network, so it's going to be interesting to see if you sneak through in a loophole and stay connected to the HFC when NBN take over ownership of it!

      Almost worth going down the street and telling your neighbors on your side of the street to connect to HFC now if they're not already connected!

      • scotty on 01/03/2017 - 10:00

        My side of street are almost all public housing (mostly age / disabled pensions). I'm not too sure whether they are interested in broadband at all.

      • Amaris on 01/03/2017 - 21:03

        Telstra will have to stop providing internet access through HFC about 18months after the NBN (via FTTN in this case) goes live. Foxtel will continue to provide a connection to paytv through the HFC

        • ESEMCE on 01/03/2017 - 22:01

          Yeah, but NBN will also own the HFC network in the area…
          Scotty, it might be worth talking to Telstra when the HFC NBN goes live to see if you can transition to an NBN plan in contract with them.

        • scotty on 02/03/2017 - 09:04

          @scubacoles: Sure. I'm already out of contract on the cable though. Still it's 2 years away and a lot of things can change.

  • ubor on 01/03/2017 - 13:22

    Any good reason they want to change from HFC to FTTN if HFC is already there?

    • Clear on 01/03/2017 - 13:34

      No. I've worked in suburbs that have implemented every method of NBN and it's all been performed by different contractors. A complete mess.

    • [Deactivated] on 01/03/2017 - 13:35

      if you're in an area where the HFC isn't connected to many homes it is probably much cheaper to rollout FTTN

      • ESEMCE on 01/03/2017 - 14:01

        I think you're on the money there..
        This rollout is based solely around what is the cheapest "upgrade" possible, whether it is a good long term solution is completely irrelevant according to the brief from the Government.
        HFC requires an in-home install if you don't already have a drop installed for a Foxtel or Cable Broadband install. FttN does not for all but incredibly rare cases in Brownfields areas.

        • ubor on 01/03/2017 - 14:18

          So in Scotty's case, he may be worse off if he switches from cable to NBN.

        • ESEMCE on 01/03/2017 - 14:29

          @ubor:
          NBN has the power to force him off.
          It will be interesting to see what happens in this case!

        • cloudy on 01/03/2017 - 18:55

          So in the case where HFC is the chosen tech, and the resident doesn't have Fox/cable already installed, who pays for the in-home install?

        • ESEMCE on 01/03/2017 - 22:02

          @cloudy:
          The resident will have to pay the standard $300 new residence install fee, but that probably wont cover the actual install cost to NBN, so NBN will pick up the tab as part of the cost of rollout.

  • wengerboy on 01/03/2017 - 14:08

    I'm only getting 10mbps on my NBN HFC so I don't think it is much better than FTTN. I think the speeds will improve over time…hopefully.

    • ESEMCE on 01/03/2017 - 14:20

      If they don't chop up the HFC network into smaller chunks then it'll definitely be worse…
      HFC is shared back to the Fibre point so more users = slower speeds.

      • wengerboy on 01/03/2017 - 14:26

        Wouldn't surprise me. I was even given the wrong instructions for setup: it was telling me to connect NBN to the LAN1 port which produced no internet I just had to figure out to use the WAN port.

        • ESEMCE on 01/03/2017 - 14:30
          +1

          ISP probably switched router vendor.. Some routers have the LAN1 double as the WAN port.

  • TopGun31 on 01/03/2017 - 22:40

    I'm in the opposite boat.

    About 80% of my quite large suburb received FTTN about 6 months ago, but strangely they left the other 20% out (including me) with no mention of a build date.

    Now the NBN website says we're getting HFC in 2019, but there is no existing cable on my street or most of the streets nearby. I even have Foxtel and they had to install a satellite because there was no cable in the street.

    Frustrating as I can't even get ADSL2 here, yet a few of my mates who have 100mbit cable were included in the 80% that received FTTN 6 months ago!

    • Geoff-bargain on 02/03/2017 - 17:16

      I've only got optus cable here and the rollout also says hfc. I'm betting this will change to fttdp by 2019

  • rjstev on 02/03/2017 - 19:44

    Does anyone know what happens if you live in a MDU with Foxtel cable tv and Telstra cable internet? I tried asking NBN but never got an answer.

    • ESEMCE on 14/03/2017 - 08:56

      Most likely FttB, but with your existing connection to HFC, I'm not even sure that NBN knows what they'll do?

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