Can Australia internet handle what’s coming it’s way??

[Beachman]

I work for a large Australian Bank and have been working from home on Mondays for about 2 years without issue. Today due to COVID 19,  70% of our department are working from home and the server crashed. So that’s sent our IT department into a spin because work was planning on getting even more people working from home to reduce the risk.

While the system was down I decided to have a play on the home computer, but even that is really really slow to the point it reminds me of the old dial up days.

My question is, with work sending people home to work and Schools planning on sending kids home for online education, can Australia internet handle what’s coming it’s way??

[plusnq]

I work for a large Australian Bank and have been working from home on Mondays for about 2 years without issue. Today due to COVID 19,  70% of our department are working from home and the server crashed. So that’s sent our IT department into a spin because work was planning on getting even more people working from home to reduce the risk.

While the system was down I decided to have a play on the home computer, but even that is really really slow to the point it reminds me of the old dial up days.

My question is, with work sending people home to work and Schools planning on sending kids home for online education, can Australia internet handle what’s coming it’s way??

If you like 14.4K speeds. The whole economic system is predicated on just enough capacity. This isn't looking good at the moment on so many levels.

[Bird]

If you like 14.4K speeds. The whole economic system is predicated on just enough capacity. This isn't looking good at the moment on so many levels.

Agree 100%

[D4D]

It is going to be an interesting time indeed, I expect the NBN to fail under the pressure. Even if the RSPs upped their backhaul capacity I don't believe there is enough spare fiber lit up/terminated to cope. I'm with a private provider that doesn't use any NBN infrastructure so I am hoping I'll be ok.

From a corporate IT side, anybody who is still managing their own on-prem VPN is going to be in a world of hurt. Maybe this is all a ploy by the SaaS and public cloud vendors to get everybody to migrate

[Bigfish]

We knew 10 years ago that the NBN was doomed to fail...without a doubt.

[tryagain]

Don't forget people in isolation trying to constantly stream 4K Netflix to keen themselves entertained.

[Fizzie]

can Australia internet handle what’s coming it’s way??

This was being discussed on Whirlpool yesterday, &, same as with many / most things NBN, consensus was it depends on what you're on?

FTTP should be fine, HFC maybe & downwards from there

[KeithB]

Don't forget all the students doing their courses remotely.
Keith

[D4D]

Don't forget all the students doing their courses remotely.

Yup, my son's school has closed on Wednesday for a school wide online learning from home trial.

[plusnq]

Yes, my son's school closure plan is real-time lessons on zoom.

[Bird]

NO word on daughters school yet... nothing like last minute.

[MB TD42]

Antisocial behaviour has been approved in our kids school...no assemblies...no Cultural food sharing. No toilet paper...
Hmmm...everything normal ere...lol

We're all ere coz we ain't all there.
   

[moeite]

[deletia]
My question is, with work sending people home to work and Schools planning on sending kids home for online education, can Australia internet handle what’s coming it’s way??

My answer is, probably not.

ISP's don't like spending money so they'll only be buying enough bandwidth to cover themselves. They'll be buying it in blocks - they'll buy a heap for the peak hors and bugger all during the very low demand hours. Are the ISP's going to be willing to pay out for more bandwidth during low demand hours (during the day) ?

The next question that crops up is what's NBNCo going to do ? Are they going to jack the price up during the currently low demand hours ? NBNCo, in turn, has to buy their bandwidth from somewhere so what are those bandwidth suppliers going to do ? Limit bandwidth, jack up prices, what ??

What's in the contracts that companies, big and small, have with their ISP's ? What's in the contracts that the ISP's have with NBNCo ? What's in the contracts that NBNCo have with their suppliers ?

We have no way of knowing what's in all of the contracts so I suspect retail, domestic users will get left with leftovers which probably won't amount to very much at all.

[Bigfish]

Australia’s two largest internet service providers are offering additional broadband and mobile internet access free of charge during the coronavirus pandemic, with Telstra besting an offer from Optus to provide unlimited downloads until the end of April.

But analysts and politicians are calling on the National Broadband Network to at least match the companies’ offers as more Aussies are asked to work from home.

Telstra chief executive Andy Penn announced its new effort to assist customers during the pandemic, just days after directing the company’s workforce of more than 20,000 people to work from home.
Telstra and Optus have announced free data offers to help more Australians work from home during the next two months.


Under the new scheme, Telstra broadband users will be able to access unlimited downloads from this Thursday until April 30.

Telstra postpaid mobile customers will also be given an extra 25GB data allowance if they apply for it within the Telstra 24x7 app by the end of March, and some prepaid customers can access an extra 10GB.

[Pete79]

Having extra data allowance doesn’t help when you can’t access it.

All of the extra traffic has killed my work from home connection.
Just paid $2k for a brand new 4G setup in my home office with dual antennas and modem.
Went from consistent 15 down and 25 up (I use lots of upload bandwidth) last week.
To about 3 down and 5 up this morning....

Made for an awesome day of online training today...

[plusnq]

Having extra data allowance doesn’t help when you can’t access it.

All of the extra traffic has killed my work from home connection.
Just paid $2k for a brand new 4G setup in my home office with dual antennas and modem.
Went from consistent 15 down and 25 up (I use lots of upload bandwidth) last week.
To about 3 down and 5 up this morning....

Made for an awesome day of online training today...

Can’t wait to hear all the old modem memes. 😂😂😂 This was so predictable though. In inner north Brisbane the first day of the school holidays is time to mow the lawn or clean the pool as the internet speeds are awful with all the kids at home. Add in a large chunk of the workforce and it will be dreadful.

[plusnq]

I’m shocked and surprised.......not

https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/nbn/nbn-complaints-yet-to-surge-as-telstra-optus-announce-coronavirus-relief/news-story/e00f79200ac8053418aef3fc5a4a5d92

[Kangaron]

I'd guess most on the cheaper plans, 25 or 50 down will have problems.
Fibre to the node will not help either.

[Wazza999]

Some sites appeared to be loading slowly yesterday so I checked the line speed. So far the FTTN is performing well, at the modem, it was 55Mb/s, we pay for 50. The line showed itself to be capable of 118Mb/s on Telstra's initial testing. The Telstra CEO made the point that there is excess capacity 9-5 as the retail network is meant to cope with 9pm movie streaming. Might be pushed to cope with working from home on top, to be seen. Fortunately only 3 cases so far in the ACT, one possibly from community transmission. If you could guarantee that you would stay healthy the boondocks look attractive.

2011 NT Pajero; 2007 Goldstream Crown 4B

[gronk]

I'd guess most on the cheaper plans, 25 or 50 down will have problems.
Fibre to the node will not help either.

How many were lucky enough to NOT have FTTN ??

I now have Netflix.....have watched a few movies where it buffered fairly bad......even did a speed test while it was buffering....21Mbs.
Netflix say it only needs 7Mbs to run smoothly, so is the problem not the NBN, but Netflix not sending the information thru fast enough ??

[Fizzie]

so is the problem not the NBN, but Netflix not sending the information thru fast enough ??

Nah Gronk - the buffering is in the original!

[D4D]

I now have Netflix.....have watched a few movies where it buffered fairly bad......even did a speed test while it was buffering....21Mbs.
Netflix say it only needs 7Mbs to run smoothly, so is the problem not the NBN, but Netflix not sending the information thru fast enough ??

What are you running Netflix on? I found my Samsung TV wasn't the best experience. Swapped to the Telstra TV and it works great, that was even on my old 6mbps ADSL connection.

[paceman]

What are you running Netflix on? I found my Samsung TV wasn't the best experience. Swapped to the Telstra TV and it works great, that was even on my old 6mbps ADSL connection.

+1...

21Mbps is plenty for Netflix...

[gronk]

Running a new Apple tv...4K, although I don't need it for my "old" Samsung plasma .
Usually have a laptop and a tablet connected to the same modem ( Huawei ), but not doing anything while the movie is on.
Only buffers approx 1 time out of 6 ?

[D4D]

Running a new Apple tv...4K, although I don't need it for my "old" Samsung plasma .
Usually have a laptop and a tablet connected to the same modem ( Huawei ), but not doing anything while the movie is on.
Only buffers approx 1 time out of 6 ?

Streaming 4K you'll probably struggle with 21mbps