Thoughts on Cable vs ADSL2+

Technology and Internet
#1

Hey all,

Wondering if any of you have thoughts on moving to cable from ADSL2+. Are there any pitfalls, or any thoughts pro/con wise on either solution?

We are currently with iinet ADSL2+ on their off-net turbo system.
100GB per month + phone rental + phone pack = $100 pr Mth. We currently get a max of around 6Mbps, usually just over 5. We need a bit more data nowadays as I’m topping up with data packs the last few months

Had one of those friendly calls from Telstra, they were offering cable 200GB, free installation, $137(odd value) of local/mobile/national calls, $10 rebate rebate each month, $100 welcome credit. Asking price of $79 per mth.

Price reduction for us is helpful at the moment, so that’s one on the pro side. As is the extra data. Telstra tell me we will get a max of 100Mbps. We’ll I’m not going to hang my hat on getting that, but if we can at least get >20Mbps that would be nice.

Also I’ve read that the speed will be impacted depending on how far away from the node we are. I’ve been trying to find something that gives a rough idea of what the degradation would be over distance, then if I can find where the node is in the street that would give me an idea of where we may sit. Or, am I just reading too much and should not bother?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Telstra Cable: Thoughts, Opinions, Advice
#2

Hi

Cable is far superior to ADSL2+.

Speed will be dependent more on how busy and congested the network is - in the morning when there is less traffic I can pull down 90+ mbits. At night, it drops to 20+. But still faster than ADSL. I didn’t think distance from node impacts speed as well - thought that was more for ADSL.

#3

Correct. Cable doesn’t have distance limitations. Rather contention at the HFC node. Telstra is usually pretty good. Optus Cable on the other hand is shocking.

Much better than ADSL :smile:

#4

Cable has a more stable, consistent connection. But look around at pricing, I get 500GB cable from Telstra for that price.

#5

I get around 200GB for $79 on the faster speed, I was getting 2Mbit on ADSL 2+ as we were at the end of a meandering phone line. I now get 115Mbit.

#6

I was on iiNet ADSL and switched to bigpond cable.

You will miss iiNet service. Telstra sucks. No doubt you know that.

The reason we switched was the phone line was poor and as we were more than 3 km from the exchange we never got better than about 3-4 Mbps. On cable we can exceed 100 Mbps (speedtest.net up to 115), although usually you only get near that in real world use from a source such as Apple’s when downloading big files on akamai servers or accessing a very popular large file from a large number of servers using some nifty but potentially illegal software.

Netflix and iTunes are usually very good, but occasionally you will get suspension or pixellation when there is congestion.
General web browsing probably doesn’t look or seem any different to a 5 Mbps ADSL connection. if you don’t use Netflix , other streaming sites or regularly download large files it is probably not worth the bother [remembers how much hassle was getting connection set up via shonky contractors, a sad tale that took six weeks instead of the promised 4 days].

And it can be variable. Annoyingly so. Just today I thought it was slow and speedtest said it was only 20 Mbps. I am currently getting 95 Mbps.

But I would not go back to ADSL, no matter how much I liked iiNet.

Steeley4h
Cable has a more stable, consistent connection. But look around at pricing, I get 500GB cable from Telstra for that price.

If your package is like my package (the he) you only get that because about a year or so ago Telstra doubled the allowance, or in my case, from 200GB to 500GB for long term users.
.

#7

Thanks all.
Received the paperwork and it only states $50 welcome credit, was told $100 on the phone. Just noticed on Telstra website that they have upped the data to 400GB. Rang them and they said, no you will only get the 200. The shenanigans have already begun.

Well, it’s still cheaper than iiNet for more speed and data.

#8

I’m going to chime in and say cable > ADSL too :smile:

I’m on Optus and will also echo the it’s great when it’s not congested story too. Depending on the node “congested” can mean anything from dropping to 20MBit to dropping to 5MBit or less so it really really depends on your area. Telstra should be much better in that regards… who knows how that might look/feel when (if) HFC ever becomes NBN.

My biggest struggle at the moment is how much congestion I am willing to live with vs price. At the moment it’s not too bad by which I mean streaming hasn’t been impacted. What is a little annoying is when sometimes you can download at 10-12MB/s then other times you struggle to pull 1MB/s… you really get used to those speeds and miss them when they aren’t there. I keep telling myself that my old ADSL connection would get 500kb/s BEST CASE! So this is still awesome :stuck_out_tongue:

#9

The other advantage of cable (in the near future) is that its going to be moved onto the NBN.

So… Go with Telstra for your 2 year contract and at the end of that, you will be able to move BACK to iinet using the cable service.

Long term… you win either way.

#10

Yeah I somehow think any places on cable should logically be the last moving onto NBN, and I’m not hearing great reports about NBN being very stable or able to be relied upon at the moment. Also seems the nodes are getting crowded and congested.

#11

Having used both Telstra and Optus cable (100mbs) - Telstra is definitely much better in terms of speed, consistency and reliability, although Optus is unlimited while Telstra is 1 Tb/month.

#12

Cable users are actually going to be the first to move. If you have a look at the 3 year “construction plan”, a raft of new suburbs have been included, but they are simply those who are having their HFC onboarded into the NBN world.

My area is classed as “HFC - H2-2016” which says that the cable is expected to be migrated int he 2nd half of this year. However, since the small area my house is situated in doesnt have cable, I will be waiting a bit longer.

As for congestion, thats a whole different kettle of fish!

#13

The Telstra bundle is currently 1.5TB (inc 500GB bonus data) although by the time you put in the speed pack it’s $169 / month… a hell of a lot more than my old Optus unlimited plan (inc unlimited phone calls + FetchTV) at $90 / month.

Personally I could do without the phone line and move to their internet only plans, but even that is 1,000GB @ $135 / month (with the speedpack) so a decent step up and I lose FetchTV.

In my case a move to NBN is scheduled for H2 2018… so one day… maybe…

#14

I’m on 200GB which doubled a few months back from 100GB. They have naked ultimate cable for $79 at the time. It was 80GB orginally 2 yrs back. I then set up VOIP with mynetfone, but barely use the fixed line anymore. They did have one plan that included the speedpack with calls included but it was gone, and naked suited us better. Loved being with iinet before that, just the phone line distance was letting us down.

#15

I’m in southeast Melb and its not even remotely showing as anything in the future. I noticed a while back the premium suburbs like Wheelers Hill once again got rolled out early even though they were heavily covered by Telstra and Optus cabling…they sure are going after the $$$ rather than the people who need it first. Optus cabling is run into our house but they refused to acknowledge it when I looked into cable, so went with Telstra. At the time Optus were lettting their network degrade and not rolling out any new installs as they thought it was going to be made redundant, they might suddenly have a keener interest in me again now their cabling will be reused.

#16

same here, have been on Telstra Cable for years now…we are lucky and get around 90+mbps on LAN cable (our house was cable networked) and around 60-70mbps on wireless (via Asus Black Knight router)
we are on a home bundle $90 for phone line, T-Box and 1TB internet (500gb standard + 500gb loyalty top up) per month.

#17

Almost the same here (@PO15KA), except for the modem part, we pull in 110+ mbps all day everyday.

#18

This is why I keep considering Telstra. Mind you with usage in the 700 - 900GB / month range (thanks almost completely to Netflix, Hulu and Fetch TV) I’m close enough to the limit to worry that I could hit it.

#19

I’ve heard horror stories from people on Optus cable (who frequently get slower speeds due to contention issues and overselling their network). By comparison Telstra cable seems much more reliable, but YMMV.

Of course, neither are available where I live.

#20

I had a look at the “construction plan”, my suburb is not even mentioned, though the surrounding suburbs are. Hopefully we get rolled in when they get done.

From what you lot are saying its a step forward anyway.

There’s still a couple of oddities with the paperwork and what was promised, the next consultant I spoke with assures me all is ok and the original sales person will call prior to the installation. Got nowhere with them and so have to wait and see if it was the palm off it felt like.

Thanks again for all your feedback.