My Infrastructure – September 2014

This month in My Infrastructure we are discussing internet connections. Not your boring old ADSL connections, but the absolute best you can get out of Australia’s copper network.

 

It’s no surprise to anyone in Australia that our internet infrastructure isn’t quite up to the standards of North America, Europe and Asia. In particular, our inability to send data at speeds no faster than we could 10 years ago is a real issue for businesses looking for productivity benefits. Sure we can download high definition video at home, but that doesn’t help our businesses send important data to each other or be able to work remotely in a productive and effective way.

 

With uncertainly around the NBN and private fibre connection fees often over $100,000, the only option for many is to make the best of our existing copper network.

 

An easy way to get better speeds out of the copper network is to combine four or more copper wire pairs together to create one high-speed connection, called EFM. With an EFM 20Mb/20Mb connection speed we are able to send data 20 times faster than with a standard ADSL2+ connection.

 

This can open up huge opportunities in remote access and connecting offices, changing the way some businesses are able to work.   The solution can also be used on its own or combined with your existing service to provide better quality of service, redundant failover or even dedicated connections for specific services such as email or remote access.

 

Up until recently a connection like this could cost you thousands per month. Fortunately one of Australia’s largest network providers PIPE (by TPG) has changed that with unlimited data plans ranging from $200-$300/month.