British Expats - Broadband

Quote:

Originally posted by shorrock
Check out http://www.broadbandchoice.com.au/ will give you all the info you need

With one possible exception, being is your telephone exchange able to provide broadband. We live in the Sydney metro area and went through the application process with Telstra Bigpond; they told us we could get it, gave us a quote and a date and time to install...then cancelled, saying that actually we couldn't get it. Reason: "your telephone line works off a RIM cable. ADSL is a technology dependant service and if all of the elements are not right, then ADSL is not available. A RIM is where fibre optic cable has been used instead of twisted pair copper (a requirement for ADSL). This is often done to supply customers with an essential service (telephone connection) where there are capacity or network issues. Supplying a phone line is a commitment to all Australians that require connection undertaken by Telstra.
All new lines must work with the existing infrastructure and in some cases where twisted pair copper lines are not available, we must use alternative solutions to supply the essential phone service. In this case a RIM. RIM technology is incompatible with ADSL and thus means that the ADSL service is unavailable. We are working towards solutions in the future for this service to become available but there is no date for when this will occur".

If you read the papers today, you will see a report on Australia's take up of broadband. Telstra have a lot of work to do.