13 November 2024

For 88,000 Canberra premises, this NBN alternative can deliver faster, better, cheaper internet

| Dione David
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modem and router

G.fast is a speedy, cheap NBN alternative available to tens of thousands of Canberra premises right now. Photo: Infinite Networks.

Occupants of around 88,000 premises in about 70 Canberra suburbs can access a fast, cheap alternative to the National Broadband Network (NBN), although many of them don’t know it.

G.fast is a technology that boosts internet over existing phone lines to fibre-like speeds without the need for new infrastructure.

The technology delivers up to 1000/100 Mbps, significantly faster than the NBN’s top fibre-to-the-node speed of 100/40 Mbps, according to Infinite Networks Managing Director Anthony Bortolotto.

“This will ensure quicker downloads, smoother video streaming and more efficient online activities,” he says.

“Upon launching this service, some customers have reported speed increases of up to 20 times faster than what they had previously.”

READ ALSO Government moves to keep NBN in public hands

The technology is available for select suburbs across Canberra.

Anthony explains that’s because it utilises the existing infrastructure laid down in the early 2000s by TransACT, a company owned by ACTEW, an ACT Government-owned corporation and various private investors, principally Hong Kong-based TVG private equity group.

“That was before the dot com bubble burst and slowed down its full rollout,” he says.

More recently, TPG Telecom and new wholesale provider Vision Network took over the infrastructure in Canberra and invested in a refresh for the old network, unlocking faster-than-NBN feeds.

A map by renowned data scientist and software developer Luke Prior shows where the equipment is, and most premises within 200 metres of the pins can get G.fast.

Anthony says it’s a boon for the eligible addresses, many of which won’t have access to the newer NBN technology any time soon and struggle with sluggish internet in the meantime.

group of people standing in a line

The Infinite Networks team can have your G.fast or NBN connection up and running very quickly, with minimal disruption and unparalleled support before, during and after. Photo: Infinite Networks.

“Every Aussie should have access to fibre NBN, but the fact is the NBN strategy hasn’t been delivered yet. However, these premises have a technology available to them right now and it not only delivers on speed, but also quality,” he says.

One thing to bear in mind is that G.fast speeds can vary based on the cable length from where the equipment is located. But technicians at Infinite Networks, the first company to be certified to connect customers to G.fast technology, have long observed G.fast performances across the suburbs and can quickly gauge what kind of service a household or business can expect.

“If you’re less than 200 metres from the node, you can get the fastest speeds. At longer distances, you can still get better than NBN speeds,” Anthony says.

READ ALSO Foreign interference audit ordered for all government internet tech

While pricing is based on the service you select, Anthony says G.fast is also cheaper than the NBN.

“Many customers who had been getting slow speeds and ineffective NBN were told it could cost $5000 to $40,000 to get onto the new technology. With G.fast, they can see a massive uplift in their internet services for a lot less than they’d pay NBN,” Anthony says.

“NBN is legislated by the government to deliver broadband to Australians, but having a real competitor for some 88,000 premises – that competition is good for Canberrans. It puts pressure on NBN to improve and gives people a viable alternative right now.”

For occupants of eligible premises, Infinite Networks can make the switch quickly and quietly. Within a few days of signing up for a plan, you’ll have an appointment for a technician to come to your premises to connect you to the service. Within an hour, you’ll have fast, reliable internet service.

Infinite Networks also provides NBN services in suburbs where it’s available.

“Being a Canberra company, we know these suburbs. We live in them. We would love to help anyone who can access this service.”

To find out if your address is eligible for connection to G.fast, visit Infinite Networks.

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We’ve recently moved onto this tech (but with another provider to the one in the article). Was a super easily 10 minute install job, and we are getting consistent 900mb+ download speeds, which is pretty awesome. Not much benefit on the upload side – but we were getting good rates before so that’s less of a worry. Anyone that has access to it, definitely worth considering (especially as it isn’t much more than what you are likely paying already).

My upload speed has more than doubled and I really notice how much faster Dropbox and things are. I went from 40Mb’s upload to 112Mb’s upload

JS9 says:
In the long term – it will still be an inferior product to a proper roll out of FTTH
JS9 moved onto new technology

What are you dribbling on about.

The options available at my property currently are:
– Standard Transact Network VDSL2+ connections.
– This technology
– NBN on a Fibre to the Node setup.

I was already on the first one to begin with, because it was here well before the NBN FTTN network connections were put in a few years.

Clearly, this technology is the best available option at this time. But longer term, a fully optic network delivered through FTTH has vastly superior upgradeability opportunities, and will deliver vastly better services. It is future proofed in comparison to this tech – unlike your understanding it seems, which doesn’t seem to comprehend that a network completely involving optic fibre cable > one that has some elements of copper wiring. Its a simple fact.

Interesting 2620 watcher – we’ve had no improvements on the uploading side. We are very close to the node – so wonder if there is some other issue at play here… will do some investigating, as would be great to get something like what you are getting, as would make a big difference.

Calm down. Thanks to Labor, I’m on FTTP

Remember when anyone who spruiked alternate technologies to the NBN were piled on by the ALP? I’m talking about you Steven Conroy and your gobby mate, Kevin Rudd

To be fair, this is a bit of an outlier – its not some fan dangled alternative technology, and it only exists as a separate network because NBN didn’t seek to buy it out as part of the roll out of NBN in Canberra a (they should have). Its exactly the same underlying tech as is used on FTTN NBN – its just they’ve moved forward to the next stage of unlocking higher speeds through some clever tech – NBN will likely do, where feasible, exactly the same on its FTTN network at some point – although their current focus at the moment seems to be getting more premises upgraded to FTTH where feasible.

In the long term – it will still be an inferior product to a proper roll out of FTTH, which was what was envisaged in most locations when comments were made by Conroy and co at the very start of the NBN.

Context always matters – those who ignore it make ignorant comments after all.

The original plan was and still is capable of faster. The problem is a lot of Canberra has the hobbled Liberal MTM/FTTN. I’m on the FTTP network that was the original plan and getting 1Gbps, but fibre can go much faster than that. The G.Fast solution by Infinite networks is great though, but its really pushing the limits of the Liberal NBN stuffup. I mean they even realised it before they were voted out in 2022, because they had started upgrades, my house was upgraded just 5 years after it was put onto the NBN… complete waste of money when it should have been built properly the first time instead of the usual politicisation of infrastructure that hobbles every project in this country.

Doing it properly first time around sadly watto is not something most governments are too keen on. Much prefer to screw or hobble a good idea for some cheap political pointscoring.

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