Am I crazy to consider BigPond Cable?

**Lutze** · 21st January 2011, 03:22 AM

1. It's going to cost me at least $130 for a cable modem - possibly as much as $350 (I'm not sure if we had Foxtel via dish or cable in this house when it was built - we're in a Smart Community area though...)

2. The only posts I can find about it seem to be mixed - having worked for a Cable internet firm in tech support the one guy on MoanPool seems to be a bit of a tool - however he does report speeds of 2.1mb/s - that's double what I'm getting with adsl.

3. This area is supposed to be fibre throughout. So when they spike the limits it should happen quickly.

4. They charge more for an install on a Mac than on a PC - thankfully I can drag a windows box with me.

5. It's expensive compared to iiNet with naked dsl. I have 2 lines in until tomorrow - 1 from bigpond ADSL - paid for by partners ex-employer and my iiNet Naked DSL. It's going to cost me another $10/m for this service - and that will mean losing our landline.

Anyone got any experience with Pigpond Cable in WA?

**JimWOz** · 21st January 2011, 09:52 AM

Short Answer = No.
I've used BigPond Cable for about 9 years.
I live in suburban Brisbane (above high tide) about 12Km radially from the CBD. We still cannot get ADSL here, as the exchange is 5.5Km cable distance away.

The original 8Mbit service produced download speeds up to 900Kb/sec from day 1. Although I haven't upgraded, and still use the original modem, I now see speeds of 1.2Mb/sec. Everyone gets the 20Mbit service now I believe.

5 or 6 years ago I'd have said the service was fast but unreliable, often with downtime at the weekends, when I most used it. But in the past 5 years, it has become extremely reliable.

I just need to get around to signing up a new contract, get a new high speed capable modem in the deal, and double the data allowance for $10 less per month.

So, as a long term user, I give it a tick.

**decryption** · 21st January 2011, 10:27 AM

I'm on BigPond cable and would never use another service by choice. It works, it's fast and it's reasonably priced. That said, here in Melb, I get 100mbit.
You might want to see if Optus cable is in your area - they do 100mbit countrywide.

**blanc** · 21st January 2011, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by decryption

I'm on BigPond cable and would never use another service by choice. It works, it's fast and it's reasonably priced. That said, here in Melb, I get 100mbit.
You might want to see if Optus cable is in your area - they do 100mbit countrywide.

What's that upload speed on that service?

**Lutze** · 21st January 2011, 12:15 PM

Thanks for this feedback guys... I guess I'll give the big T a call and see what they have in my area.

**decryption** · 21st January 2011, 01:36 PM

Originally Posted by richb

What's that upload speed on that service?

Can upload at a paltry 150kb/sec (whereas I can download a speedy 7-8mb/sec)

**davemc** · 21st January 2011, 02:15 PM

I have cable as no other choice..
Happy with it apart from when you do have problems Bigpond are pretty useless. As soon as you mention Mac they go into do you have a PC in the house. Last problem I had I told them I went into the cable modem setup and could see the error. Was told could I try it on a PC instead grrrr. Hate it when I understand things better then the helpdesk

Moved to the middle level one $49 for 50gb as I have phone etc on it. Speed wise well speedtest says 29 down 1 meg up.
Depending on seeders get over a 1meg download speed a lot of time in Vuze and I still have good speed net access. Moved to a airport extreme which I think helps.

**harps** · 21st January 2011, 02:46 PM

We are in a smart community area and accordingly have Telstra Velocity internet.
Costs have come down dramatically since we initially signed up (was initially going to be $120pm for 25GB plan - now paying only $80pm for 50GB, plus cheap home phone & calls).
Plus we got a $1200 credit meaning we are technically not paying anything.
Internet is quick (often close to 80-100mbps on speed tests), making downloading of movies, TV shows & music very quick.
We had ADSL+ previously and there is a dramatic difference.
Since purchased Telstra T-box for second TV PVR and the bigpond streaming TV channels are just like watching normal TV.
We are getting NBN speads without the cost!

**stewiesno1** · 21st January 2011, 10:31 PM

My experience here is Sydney is pretty close to JimWoz's.
We used to have a few outages but now very reliable and quite speedy.
Another plus is that it is very seldom that I have had to use tech support for any problems - there just haven't been any.

Stewie

**WindowsVista** · 21st January 2011, 11:49 PM

Our household has used bigpond for years now (6+) in Sydney. Used to be relatively unstable, but the last few years have been faultless. We usually get between 15-30mb down, and couldn't be happier. We've considered changing, but what's the point when we're getting such good, reliable service now!

**blanc** · 22nd January 2011, 10:21 AM

Originally Posted by decryption

Can upload at a paltry 150kb/sec (whereas I can download a speedy 7-8mb/sec)

Baah that's slower than my ADSL connection which does 250-300 kB/s. Why do Telstra cripple it like that.

I hope the NBN brings us decent upload speeds. I'd prefer 50 MB/s up and down.

**davemc** · 22nd January 2011, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by richb

Baah that's slower than my ADSL connection which does 250-300 kB/s. Why do Telstra cripple it like that.

I hope the NBN brings us decent upload speeds. I'd prefer 50 MB/s up and down.

With Bigpond uploads are included in usage.. So maybe the cripple it on purpose

**~Coxy** · 24th January 2011, 06:24 PM

Originally Posted by richb

I hope the NBN brings us decent upload speeds. I'd prefer 50 MB/s up and down.

As much as I would like it too, this is simply not going to happen.
Current NBN plans are looking even more assymetric than ADSL. Plus you won't be able to get a 50 MB/sec connection.

**Erwin** · 31st January 2011, 04:42 PM

I'm on the cable ultimate (1oombit) plan here in Melbourne like decryption, and it works great - moved from ADSL2+ - the trouble was getting it setup, as the Telstra/ Bigpond support team missed the install appointment 5 times in a row over the course of 2 months - I almost gave up, but after complaining all the way up to the CEO, and receiving credit for the stuffups, once installed, it has been working fine.

**drzeus** · 31st January 2011, 06:40 PM

Originally Posted by richb

Baah that's slower than my ADSL connection which does 250-300 kB/s. Why do Telstra cripple it like that.

I hope the NBN brings us decent upload speeds. I'd prefer 50 MB/s up and down.

Anthony meant to say 150KiloBYTES I think, not Kbps....BIG difference!

Here is my opinion and this is from someone with experience on both Aussie cable networks (Telstra/Optus) and Adsl2 and 1.

I was with Optus cable for 5 years and Telstra 4 years, then ADSL2 and then ADSL1.. The only reason why I swaped is due to moving houses and eventually buying my own place that unfortunately has nothing more than ADSL1 as many new estates suffer from.

Cable absolutely, positively DESTROYS any ADSL connection....if someone says otherwise, they don't have much experience with it.. For all the years I was on it it had fantastic uptime, super reliable, the lowest pings you will ever get and download speeds unparalleled by ADSL without the worries of distance from exchange etc...Only a handful of ADSL2 subscribers will ever get close to a cable like connection and they have to virtually leave inside the exchange...for many you'd by lucky to even sync at more than 12-15Mbps..

Cable is the closest you will get to the speeds of fibre to the home without the fibre.

The only downsides are the comparatively lower download allowance compared to some cheaper ADSL plans by some providers, the comparatively low upload speed (1.2Mbps) compared to the 100Mbps down and the fact that you are fairly locked in to that one provider...

If cable was available in my new house I would sign up in a heart beat regardless of cost!!!

**blanc** · 31st January 2011, 10:50 PM

Originally Posted by drzeus

Anthony meant to say 150KiloBYTES I think, not Kbps....BIG difference!

Yes. And my ADSL connection gets >= 250 kB/s. Still pretty lame, but less lame than the Telstra plan.

Originally Posted by drzeus

Cable absolutely, positively DESTROYS any ADSL connection....if someone says otherwise, they don't have much experience with it.. For all the years I was on it it had fantastic uptime, super reliable, the lowest pings you will ever get and download speeds unparalleled by ADSL without the worries of distance from exchange etc...Only a handful of ADSL2 subscribers will ever get close to a cable like connection and they have to virtually leave inside the exchange...for many you'd by lucky to even sync at more than 12-15Mbps..

Well, I have years of experience with ADSL, and I say otherwise. My Internode ADSL connection also has fantastic uptime, and is super reliable etc etc. And it has better upload speed.

I get close to 20 Mb/s down which is obviously not as good as 100 Mb/s. However the lame *UPLOAD* speed is what I'm complaining about. The cable connection is half the upload speed of ADSL Annex/M.

For you, it sounds like upload speed isn't important. I use my internet connection for work. For me upload speed is *as important* as download speed, so Telstra cable is crippled and not as good as ADSL.

Originally Posted by drzeus

The only downsides are the comparatively lower download allowance compared to some cheaper ADSL plans by some providers, the comparatively low upload speed (1.2Mbps) compared to the 100Mbps down and the fact that you are fairly locked in to that one provider...

Those are HUGE downsides for some people including me.

**torana355** · 31st January 2011, 11:04 PM

Originally Posted by richb

I get close to 20 Mb/s down which is obviously not as good as 100 Mb/s. However the lame *UPLOAD* speed is what I'm complaining about. The cable connection is half the upload speed of ADSL Annex/M.

For you, it sounds like upload speed isn't important. I use my internet connection for work. For me upload speed is *as important* as download speed, so Telstra cable is crippled and not as good as ADSL.

Telstra bigpond cable has 1mb upload speeds in Sydney and Melbourne and even higher if you are on the 100mb speeds available in Melbourne. I get 35mb down and 1.1mb up with Bigpond cable in Sydney.

**blanc** · 31st January 2011, 11:44 PM

Originally Posted by torana355

Telstra bigpond cable has 1mb upload speeds in Sydney and Melbourne and even higher if you are on the 100mb speeds available in Melbourne. I get 35mb down and 1.1mb up with Bigpond cable in Sydney.

You mean 1 Mbit/s upload right? That's half the upload speed of ADSL Annex M (2 Mbit/s). That's what I am saying. Telstra cable is slower than ADSL Annex M for upload speeds.

p.s. Actually ADSL Annex M theoretically goes up to 3 Mbit/s but noone gets that.

**torana355** · 4th February 2011, 08:14 AM

Originally Posted by richb

You mean 1 Mbit/s upload right? That's half the upload speed of ADSL Annex M (2 Mbit/s). That's what I am saying. Telstra cable is slower than ADSL Annex M for upload speeds.

p.s. Actually ADSL Annex M theoretically goes up to 3 Mbit/s but noone gets that.

Fair enough but you also have to consider cable has lower latency then adsl and that you don't usually get the full 20Mb down and 2Mb up unless you are next door to the exchange, with cable EVERYONE is getting the 1Mb up 95% of the time. Also Telstra Cable in Melbourne is about 3Mb up. (The lowercase m means bits btw, capital M means bytes

)

Here is my connection btw, and i get these speeds regularly.

**blanc** · 4th February 2011, 09:47 AM

Originally Posted by torana355

Fair enough but you also have to consider cable has lower latency then adsl and that you don't usually get the full 20Mb down and 2Mb up unless you are next door to the exchange, with cable EVERYONE is getting the 1Mb up 95% of the time. Also Telstra Cable in Melbourne is about 3Mb up.)

Really - Telstra cable in Melbourne is 3Mb up? Do you have a link that describes these plans? I can't find anything on the Bigpond web site.

Originally Posted by torana355

The lowercase m means bits btw, capital M means bytes

Don't think so. I'm pretty sure Mbps means mega-bits per second. MBps is mega-bytes per second. You are confusing the M with the B. See wikipedia:

Data rate units - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by torana355

Here is my connection btw, and i get these speeds regularly.

I ran the speedtest.net on my ADSL connection. You download speed is double mine (awesome) but your upload speed is slower (not awesome).

I'm not arguing ADSL is better. I know it's all down to distance from exchange. I am lucky that I am close to mine. All I'm saying is, that cable is capable of fast download AND upload speeds, and it's lame that Telstra cripple it like this. After all they metre uploads don't they?

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