There is a lot of talk about the government 'fibre to the door' initiative and the super fast broadband speeds that this will achieve. Fibre to the door will be fantastic but in reality it is at least five years before the average person is using it.
The news is not all bad however as there is a lot more speed to squeeze out of the current wires running to your house or business and in the background over the last few years Telecom and others have been adding new technologies to and between our Hawkes Bay exchanges that could give your internet the boost you desire.
Firstly a few acronyms to help you sleep at night. (source wikipedia.org)
ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line). This is the first generation of Broadband over our phone lines and is what most broadband users have today. This has a maximum download speed of 8 Megabits and upload speed of 800 kilobits. End user can be up to 5km from the exchange over the phone wire.
ADSL2+. This has a maximum download speed of 24 Megabits and upload speed of 1 Megabit. End user can be up to 2km from the exchange over the phone wire.
VDSL2. (Very High-Speed Digital Subscriber Line 2) This has a theoretical maximum download speed of up to 100 Megabits and upload speed of 16 Megabits. End user can be up to 500m from the exchange over the phone wire.
Unfortunately these technologies are not available to all of us. There are several factors that determine who can get what.
Whether your exchange / cabinet is upgraded. The role out of these newer technologies by Telecom and others, Airnet and Slingshot are two I have heard of in the bay, has been going for several years and will continue for several more. The project is managed by Telecom Wholesale and they have a very good resource on line to determine whether you are able to join to one of these faster technologies or when it will be available. http://www.telecomwholesale.co.nz/maps.
Whether your ISP supports it. ADSL2+ can be used by anyone that has a full speed broadband account but VDSL2 requires your ISP to support a VDSL2 plan and currently no one does nor have I heard any dates of when they will. Whats up with that?
Your hardware. ADSL2+ is supported by most broadband modems less than 3 years old and in some cases it will automatically detect the ADSL2+ network and connect but the majority of modems out there will need to be configured, updated or replaced to reap the extra speed available. VDSL2 modems are not yet available but will probably be more expensive when they do get here.
So whether you already have ADSL2+ or have to suffer the tyranny of a dial-up connection Internet in the Hawkes Bay is slowly getting better.
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