Why is Australia's internet so far behind?

Why is Australia's internet so far behind?

IMAGINE being able to download an entire season of Game of Thrones in HD in less than a minute.

The NBN hopes to make this dream a reality, with the service provider recently producing speeds of 1 gigabit per second on the HFC network used to deliver pay television.

When available to be rolled out commercially, customers will be able to get internet almost 10 times faster than the current highest commercially available speed tier offered by the NBN - the service provider does offer 1Gbps speeds on FTTP, but most ISPs don’t choose to sell it.

Upload speeds were also recorded at 100 Megabits per second, which is more than double the current highest 40 Mbps retail speed available on HFC retail services over the NBN network.

The speeds were captured in lab tests using upgraded Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (Docsis) 3.1 technology on the HFC network responsible for supplying internet and Foxtel to millions of Australian homes.

NBN chief executive Bill Morrow said these early tests were very exciting, with the service provider to be one of the first operators outside of the US to commercially launch DOCSIS 3.1 technology as an upgrade path for the HFC network.

“This is another example of the continued efforts of the NBN team to innovate and plan for Australia’s growing demands for data,” he said.

“DOCSIS 3.1 is going to be able to provide fantastic gigabit potential for end users – just as our Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network does today.”

NBN is planning further lab testing of DOCSIS 3.1 in August, then in-field trials in December, with the technology tipped to be launched commercially in 2018.

“The best news is that we will be able to bring Gigabit broadband to these premises far more quickly, cost effectively and with less disruption to end users than alternate technologies in these busy urban areas,” he said.

According to NBN’s 2017 corporate plan, the HFC footprint will be rolled out to somewhere between 2.5 million and 3.2 million premises.

Would you like download speeds of 1Gbps? Continue the conversation in the comments below or with Matthew Dunn on Facebook or Twitter.