Because we suffer from an effect in Australia called Telstra, who own most of the equipment needed.

Broadband is problematic here for the following reasons

1. You need to be near an exchange that is ADSL enabled. For many rural people, this means no ADSL

2. OK, you like in the suburbs, and it is relatively new. To cut costs a few years back, Telstra opted for what are called RIMS to save money. Basically, think of these as glorified party lines, connected to the exchange via fibre optic. TOTALLY incompatible with ASDSL, and also your dial-uo modem may struggle to connect faster than 28.8kbs. At least Telstra is attempting to rectify this

3. OK, you live close enough to an exchange, and you have copper wires from your house right into the exchange: Whoopy, we have ADSL. However, because of some strange policy, the fastest connection you will get is 1500/256, which is an artificial limit imposed by Telstra (their equipment is capable of delivering 8000/1000). Some good news, this may change next year

4. Because of the above, several ISP's are now putting in their own equipment, and this is capable of delivering 24000/1000 (and often cheaper than 1500/256 delivered through Telstra equipment, because of Telstras wholesale charges).

Why go for a faster speed? Because you can, and because you can then to a whole load of funky stuff, like use it for all your phone calls (VOIP), video on demand etc.

One thing to watch actually is not the download speed, but the upload speed, as this can limit your connection. For any download, there is a stream of uploaded acknowledgements. Saturate your upstream link, and everything slows. If you use VOIP this is a killer.

So basically :
fast = good (Telstra can deliver this)
very fast = very good (Telstra cannot deliver this currently)

Hi
I am in the Perth metro area, have just got my broadband back on line after moving house, took 3 months but telstra did it in the end.
I am on 1.5mbps with a ridiculously high download limit all courtesy of TPG in Perth.
One thing that I did find out only certain phone numbers can get adsl, this does not mean the exchange cant do you, the Wanneroo exchange did have some adsl lines already installed but only on a 9405 tel number, mine was not so they had to plug me in!
I later found out off telstra that I could have changed my phone number and got my adsl line there and then, if only I had known but never mind I am up and running now,
Jenny

http://www.iinet.net.au/

Look no further!

12'000kbps download speed, & 20GB / month, quota for $49 per month.