NBN fixed line broadband speeds reached record highs during the COVID-19 pandemic, research from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) revealed.

According to the agency’s latest Measuring Broadband Australia report, NBN retail service providers (RSPs) in October delivered, on average, more than 94 percent of plan speed in the 7-11pm evening period, ranging from 84.8 and 98.5 percent among RSPs.

Some monitored services also regularly hit higher speeds than expected by consumers.

Daytime download speeds remained steady during the period, with the peak 7-11pm period only seeing a minimal decrease in performance.

“NBN Co’s decision to temporarily waive charges for up to 40 percent extra capacity for RSPs in the form of increased connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) has played a key role in supporting broadband speeds during the pandemic,” Sims said.

The recent increase in speeds was also backed by an increase in how NBN Co over-provisions the download component of most NBN speed tiers by around 10 to 15 percent, ensuring more reliable speeds closer to the maximum download speed of their chosen retail plan.

“We had been concerned that consumers haven’t experienced full use of their plan speed even outside busy hours for some time now, so it is good to see the MBA’s transparency measures showcasing the faster broadband speeds available to consumers during these difficult times,” Sims added.

Among all NBN technologies, fibre to the node (FTTN) connections are still performing considerably lower than the others, with the 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps plans running 10 and 20 percent slower than the maximum plan speed respectively, at any given time.

“Although most consumers have already benefited from increased download speeds, those on FTTN connections are continuing to experience lower than expected speeds. We encourage NBN Co and RSPs to work to resolve this, especially given the additional investment in FTTN services announced by NBN Co in September,” Sims said.

“Good progress has already been made on addressing this issue with the proportion of underperforming services in our sample falling from 13.9 percent in May 2018 to 8.1 per cent in October 2020."

From: https://www.crn.com.au/news/nbn-speeds-reach-record-highs-in-october-accc-558588

OCCOM—Optical Communication Expert

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If you use the internet regularly, you’ve probably noticed that your connection slows down during different times of the day or week. But what causes these fluctuations in speed and why do they always seem to happen when you need the internet most?

In a word, traffic.

Think of your internet bandwidth as the speed limit and your internet speed as the flow of traffic down “the information superhighway.” Highways can get jammed up with traffic, and so can the internet. However, while commuters tend to hit traffic going to and from a nine-to-five job, internet users usually see slowing in the evenings after everyone gets home.

When is internet rush hour?

Many internet connections seem to slow down weekdays between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays. The capacity of those connections doesn’t actually decrease, but they slow down because high traffic levels cause delays.

Much of this traffic likely comes from streaming. Streaming video from sites like Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu takes a lot of data. So when you and your neighbors stream video at the same time (like on nights or weekends), all that required data jams up the network in your neighborhood.

You may have experienced a similar effect if you’ve ever tried using your phone at a concert or sporting event. With an arena full of people using the network in a concentrated area, the network can slow to a crawl. The same concept applies to your neighborhood.

Why does my Wi-Fi slow down at night?

Your household may be attempting to use more data than your equipment can handle.

This can happen if you live in a household with more than three people, or with people who use multiple internet devices at once. This equipment overload essentially creates traffic jams in your home network.

Sometimes you can fix this by resetting the equipment or dialing in the equipment settings. Upgrading your equipment may also solve the problem. If you decide to replace your equipment, we have lots of information to help you pick the right router and other home Wi-Fi equipment.

From: https://www.highspeedinternet.com/resources/why-does-my-internet-slow-down-at-night

OCCOM—Optical Communication Expert

Occom is an Internet service provider dedicated to delivering faster fibre and mobile services and faster support. Occom has been praised by tens of thousands of satisfied residents and businesses, and our products have attained commendation from industry experts. As one of the fastest growing telcos endorsed by top global and Australian financial media, Occom has set the bar for exceeding Aussies’ expectations towards customer service. Occom’s young, passionate and professional team will keep on pushing the boundary for what is possible in the future.

Tel：1300 200 999

The post Why does my internet slow down at night? appeared first on Occom Site.

Starts work on bringing fibre from node to street.

NBN Co has revealed the first 17 towns and suburbs where it will start bringing fibre from the node into streets, putting customers in those areas among the first to know they can ask for a full fibre connection.

The 17 locations collectively comprise about 100,000 premises out of about 2 million that are in NBN Co’s sights under the near $3 billion upgrade works.

The places announced by NBN Co today cover as yet undisclosed "parts" of:

• NSW: Belmont North, Charlestown, Toronto, Carramar, Castle Hill, Holsworthy, Liverpool, and Wetherill Park
• Victoria: Lyndhurst and Narre Warren
• Queensland: Acacia Ridge, Browns Plains, Eight Mile and Oxenford
• South Australia: Osborne
• Western Australia: Cannington and Double View

NBN Co said these are areas where it “anticipates strong demand for higher speeds; has established construction and delivery partners with an existing workforce in place; and “where it is cost-effective to start work now”.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said separately that "construction of the initial local fibre networks [in these areas] is expected to be completed in the second half of next calendar year."

The company said it would “consult with internet retailers before finalising the design for its extended fibre network”.

Further, it said, it “is planning to make further announcements in early 2021 about its future rollout plans.”

“NBN Co will work closely with internet retailers over the coming months to define the process by which eligible customers can express their interest in ordering a higher speed broadband service and acquiring a fibre lead-in to their premises,” it said.

Last week, NBN Co set a relatively low bar for customers to qualify for the free last-mile connection, and therefore full upgrade from fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) to fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), saying they would only need to place an order for a plan speed higher than they get today.

However, under rules still being determined, customers may need to commit to stay on the higher plan speed for a certain period of time.

Up to gigabit availability on HFC

NBN Co also said it expects "more than 25 percent" of premises in its HFC footprint will be able to order an up to gigabit service - what it calls "Ultrafast broadband" - by the end of November.

When it launched a new configuration of its up to gigabit product earlier this year, a maximum of 7 percent of premises in the HFC footprint could support the product.

It will continue upgrade works into next year to ready more premises for up to gigabit speeds.

"The company expects that by June 2021 over two-thirds of premises in the HFC network footprint will be able to order NBN Ultrafast broadband, and it forecasts that by the end of 2021 nearly the entire HFC network footprint should be able to order NBN Ultrafast broadband," it said.

From: https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-reveals-first-locations-with-an-fttn-upgrade-path-to-full-fibre-555199

OCCOM—Optical Communication Expert

Occom is an Internet service provider dedicated to delivering faster fibre and mobile services and faster support. Occom has been praised by tens of thousands of satisfied residents and businesses, and our products have attained commendation from industry experts. As one of the fastest growing telcos endorsed by top global and Australian financial media, Occom has set the bar for exceeding Aussies’ expectations towards customer service. Occom’s young, passionate and professional team will keep on pushing the boundary for what is possible in the future.

Tel：1300 200 999

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Fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) provider OptiComm has announced that it is in the final stages of developing Australia’s first Ten Gigabit per Second Passive Optical Network (XGS-PON) – the next generation Passive Optical Network (PON) – allowing residential customers to access a nominal line speed of up to 1Gbps, and commercial customers to reach speeds up to 10Gbps.

OptiComm says that following extensive testing, modelling, research and development, it will be ready to deploy the XGS-PON in 2020, commencing with a residential and commercial precinct in Melbourne.

OptiComm, which designates itself as the largest private competitor to the NBN, has been working closely with its supplier, USA-based ADTRAN, at the latter’s research and development facility in Melbourne, leading to the testing of thee 10Gbps services.

OptiComm says ADTRAN, a consistent leader in the telecommunications industry with its Gigabit Passive Optical Networks (GPON) solutions, is now leading the industry transition to this next chapter in FTTP, “where focus is shifting to the new, superior, XGS-PON”.

The ADTRAN XGS-PON solution connects users to OptiComm’s network using the traditional PON optical network design, but it eliminates the speed restrictions imposed by first generation GPON technologies, allowing user speeds to leap to levels previously unheard of in Australia.

OptiComm says ADTRAN’s XGS-PON is allowing it to future-proof its sites, “which has become increasingly important as more and more people depend on their broadband for robust connectivity while working from home, gaming, and streaming, with in-home entertainment and education for the entire family now making a high-speed connection essential”.

According to OptiComm, the demand for high-speed, reliable Internet has evolved quickly in 2020, as Victoria’s second wave of COVID-19 cases drove downstream network utilisation to settle at 10% above its pre-pandemic levels, with usage statistics from August revealing a 20Gbps increase when compared with the weeks prior.

OptiComm’s chief customer officer Geoff Aldridge says he believes the popularity of XGS-PON will grow exponentially throughout the world in coming years, with more information and entertainment existing online than ever before, and a permanent shift in the global teleworking landscape, driving a global need for the symmetric upload and download capabilities of XGS-PON.

“We’re seeing constant increases in the amount of data that people stream and download across our networks, and that appetite for large-scale files is only going to keep growing,” said Aldridge.

“Most games, and many game updates are now well over 100 gigabytes in size, so our new XGS-PON will allow those to be downloaded in less than a minute.

“We’ve heard a lot of chatter in the industry, most groups have identified and forecasted that the XGS-PON will be the dominant technology being deployed around the world as early as next year,” Aldridge said.

Anthony Camilleri, ADTRAN’s Asia-Pacific chief technology officer, says he believes the successful launch of the XGS-PON will allow OptiComm customers to connect to the Internet “like never before, as demand for high-speed internet continues to grow”.

“OptiComm is creating a network with limitless potential and scale, leveraging the flexibility of XGS-PON and the power of 10Gbps speeds to open the door to new possibilities for its residential and business customers,” said Camilleri.

“We’re pleased to have been able to partner with OptiComm to help it build its best network, as the company looks to meet and exceed the demands of the globally connected Gigabit Economy.

“This technology also allows OptiComm to pioneer smart city technologies like self-maintained parks, community security systems, intranets, and more, while future-proofing residential and business precincts.”

OptiComm says it will begin user trials by installing XGS-PON line-cards in existing ADTRAN PON systems in the coming months.

From: https://www.itwire.com/networking/opticom-announces-%E2%80%98australia-first%E2%80%99-next-generation-passive-optical-network.html

OCCOM—Optical Communication Expert

Occom is an Internet service provider dedicated to delivering faster fibre and mobile services and faster support. Occom has been praised by tens of thousands of satisfied residents and businesses, and our products have attained commendation from industry experts. As one of the fastest growing telcos endorsed by top global and Australian financial media, Occom has set the bar for exceeding Aussies’ expectations towards customer service. Occom’s young, passionate and professional team will keep on pushing the boundary for what is possible in the future.

Tel：1300 200 999

The post OptiComm announces ‘Australia first’ next-generation passive optical network appeared first on Occom Site.