Internet coverage Watson/Downer

geni_lou said :

‘keep up the torrent action at work’.

Seriously? Would’ve thought that would be either a sacking offence or just not possible at most workplaces. Then again, any corporate network permitting torrent traffic probably doesn’t much care. And my experience is purely guvvy/big corporate … I guess in small corporate, anything goes.

geni_lou said :

Thanks for all your help! I did look at some of those maps that show exchanges but I wasn’t sure how to translate that into ‘yep, that’ll work fine’ or ‘keep up the torrent action at work’. Really appreciate your comments, given friends’ experience in this area, I reckon others will too 🙂

What you want to do on http://www.adsl2exchanges.com.au is enter your street address, and you’ll be given a summary of how far you are from the exchange, the estimated length of the cable from the exchange to your address (as the cable is never a straight line, so that length will always be longer), and finally what speed you could expect to get over the service.

That’ll give you a feel for what type of performance you may get. It’s certainly not 100% accurate – the quality of the copper line, the home’s internal wiring, as well as a host of other factors can affect the speed you ultimately receive.

Watson and Downer are interesting suburbs, in that parts of them connect to the Civic exchange, and other parts connect to the Crace exchange, in Mitchell.

Ultimately though, while the ISP you go with will have some effect on the quality of service you receive, the condition of your copper line, and whether you’re connected to a RIM, will have a bigger impact.

Lastly, keep an eye on the news with the likely iiNet aquisition of TransACT. I’d never have recommended TransACT to anyone, but with a new owner, things may change. Who knows how long it’d take for iiNet to actually make any changes if they acquire it though!

Thanks for all your help! I did look at some of those maps that show exchanges but I wasn’t sure how to translate that into ‘yep, that’ll work fine’ or ‘keep up the torrent action at work’. Really appreciate your comments, given friends’ experience in this area, I reckon others will too 🙂

Go to http://www.whirlpool.net.au and put your phone number in Broadband Choice it will give you an “indication” of who covers that area and the price for the different plans.

As some posters have said, it will all depend on exactly where you are and how far you are from the exchange.

I know a number of people in Watson that have ADSL2+ with iiNet that are quite happy.

I also just saw that iiNet bought out Transact today, so not sure how that will affect Transact services in the future, but at the moment ADSL is generally a fair bit cheaper than Transact cable.

When I was living in Watson (townhouses near the Federal Highway) I got pretty well flawless ADSL2 service from iiNet – was on one of their Naked DSL plans.

Your best bet is to go with TransACT, they have optic fibre in that area and its the best you will get there. There are places in canberra that you can get a better speed but because of the distance to any exchanges you will only get a speed of around 3.5mbps through ADSL where with optic fibre there is 8mbps dedicated.

i have it and it works good, never had any problems with it.

semaj said :

The problem for parts of Downer, including where i am, is that your phone line will connect back to the Crace exchange in Mitchell. This results in a line length too long for decent ADSL speeds..

Actually, they’re probably quite short lines – they connect to the RIM (ADSL-enabled CMUX) down the street from you. The problem isn’t then the line length, it’s the speed of the backhaul from your RIM to the Crace exchange.

Top-hats are coming to some of these RIMs. http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=719151&p=2

lore said :

We have the phone line through Telstra (have to)

Unless you get VOIP!

I’m in Watson, near the Watson shops. We have the phone line through Telstra (have to) and ADSL2+ through Dodo.

I live in Downer, not far from the old Downer shops.

The problem for parts of Downer, including where i am, is that your phone line will connect back to the Crace exchange in Mitchell. This results in a line length too long for decent ADSL speeds.

Because of this I’ve been on Transact for about 6 years now, at first with Velocity as my ISP, now with Grapevine.

On a technical level, I’ve been very happy with the service, it’s reliable, and I get the speeds I’m paying for.

The pricing could be better, and a lot of Transact’s policies are pretty ordinary, such as 2 year contracts every time you want to change something on your plan. Overall though, I’m actually pretty happy with the service, I just wish they’d move a little quicker with the VDSL2 upgrade that they are currently doing.