Posts Tagged telstra
Internet Without Wires: How Far Can It Go?
New developments in the industry show that there is much movement with regards to wireless technologies and networks. From U.S. President Obama’s talk about wireless, to Telstra in Australia expanding their UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA aka 3G networks to the latest 4G and LTE (Long Term Evolution) technologies, the landscape of wireless internet access is by no means a stagnant market.
Australia’s Exetel CEO John Linton now reveals that 35% of his customers use 5G or less per month and that their new 3G plans of $25 for 5G without a land line through Optus is now on par with many of it’s DSL offerings but are unique in that it is inherently portable. This means that for approximately the same price as a fixed line DSL connection, you can take your internet with you wherever you go and it will still seem like you are home.
Vividwireless, after operating for a time in and around Perth, are now trialling their LTE offerings in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Vividwireless were one of the few wireless providers to introduce and unlimited downloads plan last year.
Of course, many users will have to purchase or upgrade existing wireless modems, access stations and routers to take advantage of the difference frequencies that the various systems use. Current 2G and 3G use 850,900,1900 and 2100Mhz, but with the freeing up of existing frequencies from old analogue television, a whole lot more room is now at our disposal for more carefree and portable internet solutions.
Is the future of internet access all wireless or physical connection via fibre? Perhaps it is a mixture of both. One idea is to connect all the back-end infrastructure via cables and convert most areas into wifi hotspots, therefore still providing convenient wireless access, at cheap bulk data prices via fibre/xDSL.
Whatever the answer is, one thing is sure; we as consumers win this challenge for finding the best internet access.
User Responsibility for Internet Piracy
Online piracy has made its way into the news again with Telstra voicing it’s opposition to potential new intellectual property regulations making internet service providers (I.S.P.s) liable for customers downloading pirated material.
Some say that this is being put on the table again because it is a quick fix, but potentially ineffective solution, proposed by the MPAA and RIAA for governments to implement. But simple logic says that this is not the answer.
If someone is sending offensive material through the post system, you prosecute the person, not demand that the postal system denies service to them. Likewise if someone drives like an idiot, you suspend their licence, fine them, prosecute them, etc and not ban car dealers from selling them a car.
The internet simply presents a new medium and a new challenge for distribution of media and intellectual property which big media businesses need to accept and embrace, rather than complain about the potential death of optical media they need to negotiate with service providers in finding new profitable means of releasing and distributing new media.
However, big media businesses will also need to keep in mind that duplication and distribution costs are far, far lower than traditional optical media channels and that most people wont tolerate paying physical media costs for electronic media formats because consumers know that the manufacturing costs just do not exist like they previously and traditionally did.
It is only when media producers try to keep themselves in their old mindset and place content out there in a digital context but keep themselves in a physical media mind and charge accordingly that piracy kicks in. This in turn makes them scream bloody murder and attempt to prosecute users, when it is their own mindset that needs to change.
Whichever way it goes, media and entertainment will never been the same again.
Telstra super-fast 4G wireless sparks debate over NBN
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has rejected suggestions Telstra’s upcoming super-fast 4G mobile network would threaten the viability of the national broadband network (NBN), saying the mobile network would be “complementary” but was no match for fibre technologies.
Telstra will significantly upgrade its mobile network to take advantage of fast 4G technology that will allow users to obtain speeds similar to home ADSL broadband connections while on the go.
The move has sparked fresh debate over the viability of the NBN.
The telco will use new 4G technology to boost mobile internet speeds in capital cities and some regional areas by the end of the year.
Telstra chief executive David Thodey said the “leading-edge” technology would help the company meet growing demands for mobile data, “which is doubling every year as customers move to adopt data-hungry smartphones, mobile modems and tablets”.
The announcement comes on the back of a government-commissioned report warning uptake to its $36 billion network could be stifled by wireless technologies.
The federal government aims to connect 93 per cent of Australian households with high-speed optical fibres by 2020. The NBN Co, the company charged with building the network, has said it will eventually deliver speeds of 1 gigabit per second.
The federal opposition says wireless services make the project less viable.
“This [wireless technology] is going to be a real competitive force,” opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull told ABC Radio.
The NBN business case assumes the increase in demand for wireless broadband will not continue, he said.
“The problem, of course, is that wireless broadband is improving as well.”
In a statement released at about 2pm Tuesday, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said Telstra’s new offering was ‘‘far from being a threat’’ to the national broadband network.
‘‘Wireless is an important complementary technology to fibre,’’ he said.
He added that whilst mobile networks offered consumers ‘‘flexibility and mobility’’, only fibre could deliver ‘‘many of the new services that will increasingly be made available as the NBN rolls out, like in-home specialist healthcare and rehabilitation services’’.
He also made the point that a fibre connection delivered ‘‘the speed it says it does’’ as opposed to wireless or copper technology, which delivers a theoretical speed that varies on a number of factors, including distance from an exchange in the case of copper and distance from a tower in the case of wireless broadband, amongst other factors.
“There is no decline in speed or performance if more people are online, or if you are further away from an exchange,’’ Conroy said in relation to fibre technology.
In a statement, Telstra said its new technology was “not related to the NBN” and that it was “business as usual”.
“This announcement relates to the ongoing upgrade of Telstra’s flagship Next G wireless broadband network,” it said. “Wireless and fixed networks are complementary – our customers use both depending on need and circumstances and Telstra continues to invest in both.”
Telecommunications consultant Paul Budde did not think the growth of wireless services would affect the long-term viability of the NBN.
‘‘Yes, there will be an overlap … but there are applications that are impossible to run over a wireless network,’’ Mr Budde told ABC Radio.
Foad Fadaghi, telecommunications analyst at the Australian firm Telsyte, said that Telstra’s upgrade was more about “reliability or consistency of speeds” than than a speed boost.
“Today you might be tempted to watch a video clip online and it might work and it might have a bit of buffer … or it might drop out here or there or you can’t be sure that it’s going to be consistently of high quality and so forth,” he said.
“The LTE network should address that sort of challenge and make it easier for consumers to consume, particularly video content and streaming content, in a more reliable way than they may do today.”
Theoretical speeds on LTE networks were about 100 megabits per second and higher, Mr Fadaghi said. But typical speeds, or real-world speeds, would be in the range of 20 to 30 megabits per second.
“Now that puts it, strictly speaking, higher than most fixed-line networks – so [the same speeds as] ADSL connections you can get today.”
The speed of a connection would also depend on how far away you were from a tower and how many users were connected at the one time.
The cost of a plan on the 4G network would also likely be higher than current 3G plans, Mr Fadaghi said, and it would most likely be first aimed at business customers.
The first customers able to use the network would be those connecting with Telstra’s 4G mobile broadband dongle, which plugs into computers to allow them to connect to mobile towers.
“[But] it may take a little bit of time before we see it being used on handsets,” Mr Fadaghi said.
“That’s the big question,” he said when asked when Australia would see 4G handsets.
“There have been some announcements of certain 4G handset models in the US on the Verizon network, however, it’s still very early. We haven’t seen a lot of handsets come to the market currently [and there are] none in Australia as it stands.
“So that leaves a lot of iPhone users – or Apple users – that will not be able to use that service until [a 4G] handset is made available,” he said. “And that might take a little bit of timing; Apple might be focused on other things rather than supporting the LTE networks, whether that be applications or better design or something like that.”
A Telstra spokesman said the company was “currently in discussions” with handset makers to bring 4G smartphones to Australia.
Information Source smh.com.au
Telstra unveils 4G mobile plan
TELSTRA will launch its next-generation mobile phone network by the end of this year, the first Australian mobile carrier to announce when it will provide the so-called fourth generation of mobile technology.
Mobile networks in capital cities and some regional areas will be upgraded before 2012 and Telstra will start selling devices capable of crossing between the two networks.
“The technology can provide many Australians with faster data speeds, high-quality video conferencing and faster response times when using mobile applications or accessing the internet,” chief executive David Thodey said this morning in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress.
“It can also help Telstra meet demand for mobile data, which is doubling every year as customers move to adopt data-hungry smartphones, mobile modems and tablets.”
The new network will be built from the existing capital expenditure budget.
Swedish network manager Ericsson has been chosen to build the network along with Qualcomm and Sierra Wireless, beating competitors Huawei and Nokia Siemens.
”We found the Ericsson proposal to be the most innovative and immediate, compatible with our network,” a Telstra spokesman said.
Telstra will use existing spectrum assets at the 1800MHz frequency for the new network and integrate it with its existing high-speed service on the 850MHz spectrum range.
More spectrum will become available for mobile broadband in coming years as television signals are moved to a more efficient digital format, which will free up spectrum at present allocated to analog television signals.
Known as long-term-evolution (LTE) technology, the next generation of mobile networks will carry more data faster than existing 3G technology.
LTE technology is more efficient, meaning more people can use the network at a greater speed, and will enable more video features on smart phones.
Information Source smh.com.au
