FEBRUARY 25, 2009 -- At Greenfield developments around Australia, Internode (search for Internode) is partnering with real estate telecom specialist OptiComm to deliver what it claims is Australia's fastest commercial broadband services for retail customers.
OptiComm, a Hills Industries joint venture company, specialises in providing Fibre-to-the-Home networks for new housing developments. Internode is delivering retail broadband services over the OptiComm network.
Internode's first Home Fibre services will be connected at Queensland's Fernbrooke estate, a development by Urban Pacific at Redbank Plains, located 32 km southwest of the Brisbane CBD. Fernbrooke comprises more than 1,000 homes built around 20 hectares of recreational space and parkland.
Among a dozen planned projects, Internode says it is also partnering with OptiComm to deliver FTTH services at the Lochiel Park and Northgate developments in South Australia.
Internode Home Fibre plans cost from $49.95 a month for a service with a 25-Mbps downstream speed and a five-gigabyte (GB) download quota. Home Fibre services are also available at downstream speeds of 50-Mbps and 100-Mbps. With Internode Home Fibre services, the quoted downstream speed is actually delivered to the home's Ethernet port, unlike the "best effort" speeds provided by traditional ADSL2+ services, say company representatives.
Internode managing director Simon Hackett says Internode Home Fibre is a future-proof broadband service that could operate for decades. "Just as copper served Australia well during the 20th century, fibre will provide the country's nervous system for the 21st century. Fibre to the home is emerging as the broadband delivery model of choice internationally, with more than 13 million FTTH-connected homes in Japan, six million in the US, a similar number in China, and nearly two million FTTH subscribers in Europe," he reports.
"Internode's ability to deliver a 25-Mbps fibre-to-the-home service for less than $50 a month and a true 100-Mbps service for less than $100 demonstrates that technology is not the barrier to deploying a world-best broadband system in Australia," Hackett continues. "Our testing shows that Internode Home Fibre service is working extremely well, delivering outcomes at up to eight times faster than the National Broadband Network target speed of 12 Mbps. NBN speeds stopped being the future quite some time ago. Significantly, FTTH is scaleable in the future to speeds far greater than that again."
As well as access to Australia's fastest retail broadband service, Internode Home Fibre subscribers will receive access to a phone service that provides a conventional 'dial tone' voice service to each subscribing household, directly from the OptiComm termination unit in the home.
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