[clug] [OT] Broadband in O'Connor

[Hugh Blemings]

Hiya,

Hoping I can draw on the direct and recent experience of fellow CLUG folk...

It looks likely that I'll be moving into a rental property in O'Connor,
one of the streets south of Macarthur Ave in particular (e.g.
Quinn/Todd/Way/Peel/Lord/Hart/Busby/Finn St) and am investigating
Broadband options.

According to the NBN website there is work underway on that side of
Macarthur Ave already, this somewhat backed up by my observation of lime
green cables about earlier in the year.

Internode (my preferred ISP) seem to corroborate this, their system
suggesting service will become available sometime around March next
year.  A bit of a wait and there is, ahem, some uncertainty around
in-progress (rather than completed) rollouts I gather in view of the
change of government.

Internode reckon they can probably do naked ADSL2+ to that address,
about 2-3km cable run from the Civic/Braddon Exchange suggests speeds in
the 1.5-8Mb range - useable but faster would be better.

And so to Transact - suggestion is from their website that I can get
Cable VDSL2 which ought be good for 60Mb apparently but my impression,
based entirely on hearsay is that the quality of links etc. can be a bit
iffy.  24 month contracts seem to be the norm.

Transact also means switching to another ISP, not the end of the world
but I've some loyalty to Internode based on so many years of good service.

So I'm leaning toward ADSL2+ w/Internode and sucking up the slower
speeds until the NBN is (hopefully!) provisioned but would be interested
to hear the experiences of folk in the area.  By staying with the same
ISP the waive/discount connection fees etc. etc. too.

Thanks in advance,

Cheers,
Hugh