[H-GEN] Bigpond Advance (cable)

[Byron Ellacott]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and ]
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On Tue, 28 Mar 2000, Robert Stuart wrote:

> 1. What are the differences between BPA and getting 128K ISDN?

Cable has an installation fee and a monthy charge of around $60, depending
on your plan.  ISDN has an installation fee, a monthy charge of some
unknown amount, and timed calls.

BPA is for access, not content.  If you want to run a Web server, you need
to get ISDN.  Read the terms & conditions on bigpond's website.

> 2. Why would an organisation want BPA over 128K ISDN?

Those timed calls get expensive.  OnRamp 2 (I *think* that's what you'd
need) has a $50/month line rental, calls during office hours are 20c for
the first three minutes and 3c/min afterwards, so if you keep the
connection 40 hours a week you're looking at $72.55 per week in calls.

ISDN also has traffic charges; these are at (iirc) the standard 19c/mb
Telstra like to charge.  BPA has traffic charges, at the higher 24c/mb
(except on Freedom, which I don't believe can be used for commercial
operations) with variable amounts of free quota depending on your monthy
fee.

> 3. What "speeds" do you get from BPA - is it a relatively "slow" link
> from customer to Telstra?  Are these sustained speeds or "bursts"?

Telstra made a technical flaw doing my Freedom installation and put me on
the Business plan.  I was getting 500K/sec+ to mirror.aarnet, sustained.
Overseas maxes at about 20k/sec, I believe this is due to some other
``issue'' Telstra have.  When I was transferred to the Freedom plan speeds
dropped to the 50k/sec someone else mentioned.

> 4. Are there latency issues?

Not on the Business plan.  On the freedom plan, latency is marginally
higher, but as with ISDN, it's a digital connection.  Most of the latency
with a modem is the actual modulation/demodulation.  ``Cable modem'' is a
misnomer.

> 5. Is it reliable?

Yes and no.  I wrote a script to restart the login client, because
Telstra's auth server forgets things periodically.  I've been connected to
irc.uq.edu.au since Monday, though (:irc.uq.edu.au 317 tvk Tweek 760
954148446 :seconds idle, signon time).

> 6. IPs: How does this work?  I saw someone say that its dhcp?  Is it
> possible to get a fixed IP subnet?

As the other reply said, yes, it's DHCP, yes, I've had the same DHCP
assigned address since installation, no, they're shy of giving fixed IP
addresses, since you're not supposed to be running services anyway.  See
point 1.

> 7. Does anyone understand what Telstra's target market is for BPA

Businesses who want access to the Internet faster than modem speeds but
without the high charges of ISDN.  Freedom is aimed at the home market,
since Telstra are slowly realising that us backwater Australians have
heard about this fast internet access stuff and want it.  And Optus was
providing it.  Sort of.

> 8. How will the preformance of the cable network scale when every person
> in Brisbane gets cable internet.

That's difficult to answer.  It depends on how wide an area Telstra have
each backbone servicing.  Given that they still refuse to believe people
would *want* fast 'net accecss, I'd say the areas are large.

On the plus side, business hours should see lower congestion due to
kiddies being at school, uni students being at uni, and us young urban
professionals being at work, not at home sucking bandwidth.

> 9  Any other issues I should be aware of?

Telstra ran out of cable (sigh) modems.  There'll be a delay getting
installation.  If you go ISDN, there'll be someone at your doorstep in
nearly no time.

> 10. Are there any hidden costs?

For cable, not that I've seen yet.  For ISDN, be aware you're charged for
both time *and* data.

For the Cable business plan, the actual terms state you cannot share it on
a LAN unless you pay an additional $10 per user, up to 7 users, per month.
This takes your costs to around $130/month, plus traffic over 500mb.

-- 
bje


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