As you may or may not know my Internet Service Provider is Internode. This is an Adelaide run; slick internet provider that comes highly recommended for you Australian readers. I have always received great service with a no-fuss attitude. In addition to that they offer a reliable service at an affordable cost.
So without starting to sound like an advertisement or something, I found some real news on the RSS about Internode. Australian IT reports that they are wanting to be the first Australian ISP to offer “super-fast” internet connections of over 1Mps. They are currently waiting for approval by the relevant authorities. Once this is done they are planning for immediate deployment of the service.
The service is being touted as ideal for people that want to host web services, video conferencing and downloading large files. While this is all great and dandy, I bet the rest of the world is laughing their arses off! Internet services are so far behind in Australia it really is not funny. This is evidenced by the fact that I regularly talk to my overseas contacts that have much faster connections than the “super-fast” 2Mps! Indeed Knightwise who is from Belgium has a 4Mps connection for less than I am paying for 1.5Mps!
This is not to shun the forward thinking of Internode. The fact that they are pushing for faster connections is great but we are really behind the times on a global level and scale.
The tele-communications industry in Australia remains a political and red-tape filled cess pit that, from what I can see, shows no sign of changing any time soon. This is severely compromising our stake in this rapidly changing and transforming landscape that is the internet. Perhaps the global push for connectivity will boot our industry into a more competitive stance and one that enables the community to take advantage of all that the internet is offering, rather than a restrictive, legalistic, overpriced and unfair monopoly (Despite the denials) that restricts access and that is based on cost alone.
This is highly evident by the fact that at the moment I pay $49.95 AU a month for a 1500/256 connection. If I was with the biggest, most dominant and anti-competitive company in Australia and yet the most popular, Telstra; I would be paying $125 AU. When you ask them why; you get the usual red-tape rhetoric. I just do not understand how a company that charges more than double can stay in business. Other than the fact that they prey on peoples’ comfort in familiarity.
Congratulations to Internode for playing the ball. Wake up you Telstra morons we are being left behind and yes you are a problem.
Rooster's Rail 
May 26, 2006 at 1:02 am
Mate I dont mean to rain on your parade but a lot of ISP’s have been rolling out superfast broadband in the form of ADSL2+. Right now I am in QLD and I am sending this message on a 17mbit/1mbit connection that I pay $60/month for. Good deal if you ask me. Also if I was closer to the exchange it would sync anywhere up to 24mbit (not that you need that).
If you check This Link you will see a current list of isp’s offering “faster than 1500kbps” access.
The only problem with all of this is the backbones we have to the rest of the world are limited. So even on my 17mbit where I can get 1700kb/sec to Brisbane, i can only get max 300kb/sec from any 1 connection. Still fantastic but something need to be done to open the pipe some more!