For a lot of people it can be hard to figure out what type of internet connection they want or need.
Some people don’t like to be tied down to a particular location, other people don’t need a telephone number and others like the freedom of contract.
The biggest fear for a the general public in Townsville was that when the transition in their neighbourhood took place, from cooper to NBN, is what would happen to their telephone number? Specially for the older generations who had sometimes had the same number for 30 or more years.
So how does ADSL differ from NBN and how does it effect you?
What is ADSL?
When I first started using the internet in the early to mid 90’s, pretty much the only connection the home user could get was a dial up connection.
You might remember dial-up, which would make a telephone call every time you made your connection and no one else could use the line to make a call when you where on it. It was also painfully, extremely slow!
As demand grew for faster speed we saw the emergence of ADSL which stands for Asymmetric digital subscriber line and uses the existing copper telephone lines running to and throughout your house to existing a much faster internet connection which cold be used simultaneous with your telephone line.
As ADSL technology developed, ADSL2 soon became the standard delivering faster speeds again up to about 10Mbps in speed on average around Townsville.
What is the NBN
The NBN stands for National Broadband Network and is a heavily political topic. Delivery time has been estimated that 93% of Australia will have it somewhere between 10 and 15 years at a cost of roughly somewhere between 40-60 billion dollars.
For the sake of sanity I am only going to talk about the technical aspects of the NBN here.
For the majority of people, customers will either get a fibre cable installed into their home or a satellite connection for more remote areas.
Where ADSL2 was installed and delivered over your existing copper (telephone) line, the NBN uses a optic fibre cable which is 1000s of times faster than copper.
Depending on which internet provider you use, you will be able to still choose what type of contract you would like, but now with NBN you can choose what teared speeds you would like. Eg 12, 25, 50 or 100mbps (Significantly faster than ADSL).
Can I use my ADSL modem router on NBN
This really depends on what type of modem router you are currently using.
Unlike ADSL the NBN only requires a router, not a modem. If your current modem has a router built into it also you might be able to take advantage of it, but even so you might not get the speeds you paid for unless you have a NBN router.
A lot of connection you sign up for will provide you with a NBN router if you go under a contract for either 12 or 24 months.
To get the speeds the NBN promises I use an Apple Airport Extreme and usually get somewhere around 95Mbps from my paid 100Mbps connection.
Also depending on what provider you go with you can still use your telephone with NBN however it will be set up a little different to work over NBN not copper and most people have been able to keep their existing number.
Please call Townsville computer repairs Nerds on 0402 807 890 and a technician will be able to answer all your questions relating to internet, ADSL and internet.
