You’re feeling pretty excited because you’ve just checked out the National Broadband Network (NBN) roll out map. The rebuilding of the Telstra copper network from scratch has taken a while. And finally your street is getting the NBN connection!
With over 800,000 Australians connected to the NBN, and an estimated 2.5 million more being connected this year, it’s a good time to find out how your business will benefit.
The NBN technology has provided the following benefits for businesses already:
• Faster Internet speeds
• Improved stability
• Faster access to online collaboration services including phone and web conferencing, and
• Improved speed of cloud based applications
Many Australian businesses are seeing positive productivity changes as a result of using the NBN. An increased Internet speed has encouraged more businesses to offer remote working options for their staff. There’s also been an increase in the number of businesses using video and web conferencing (link to this page u/video-conferencing/
What is the NBN?
The National Broadband Network (NBN) offers different types of services, which offer fibre Internet. In Australia, there are currently two types of fibre services available – the National Broadband Network (NBN) and business grade fibre services. The main differences in these services are the guarantee of specific speeds for both upload and download, as well as the availability of the service.
3 types of NBN services
NBN FTTP or fibre to the premises:
An NBN fibre to the premises connection (FTTP) is a fibre service that runs from the nearest available fibre node directly up to a device at your premises.
This service is an “up-to” speed offering which currently provides potential speeds of up-to 100 Mbps, depending on the plan you select.
By ensuring that your data travels via fibre all way, you can expect fewer issues with the speed and reliability of the service.
NBN FTTN or fibre to the node:
An NBN fibre to the node connection (FTTN) is a fibre service that uses the existing copper network in the final part of the NBN connection. The fibre service is run up to a micro-exchange located at the end of your street. From this connection, the NBN service runs up to your premises through a copper pair. This service offers the speed of fibre up to the node but still partially relies on the existing copper network to deliver the last leg of the service.
NBN fixed wireless:
This service is available where the fibre network is not available and provides an alternative, which offers fast speeds wirelessly. Fixed wireless isn’t related to Wi-Fi or mobile connectivity though. It refers to the type of technology used where the wireless connection transmits data using radio signals instead of cables. Since data is transmitted by radio signals, it’s vital to have ‘line of sight’ from your equipment to the tower.
There are some equipment requirements including a mast and antenna, which need to be installed on the roof of your premises. While this service is capable of great speeds, it can be affected by the weather or signal interference from other devices.
Business grade fibre services
Apart from the NBN offerings (which continue to rollout) there are also some business grade fibre services available across a large part of Australia’s main CBD’s.
These work in the same fashion as an NBN Fibre to the Premise service, but are provided with guaranteed upload and download speeds. These are symmetrical to help support business functions and can offer speeds of up to 1000 Mbps for both upload and download.
Some other advantages of these dedicated Fibre connections include the ability to split the service’s bandwidth across multiple applications and various uses including VOIP, SIP and web browsing. This allows you to better manage the way data is used in your business.
Got questions about emerging or existing data services, technologies or solutions? We offer a variety of packages that can be tailored to your business – give us a call on 1300 452 142.
