I want to make people aware of some things happening in this area for all apartments at The Botanica.  A number of people in the building have ADSL, some have cable, some use the TPG FTTB service and there are a variety of providers (Telstra, iiNet, TPG….)

About a year ago TPG started providing a high speed service (Called FTTB).  Full details of their service are here.  TPG installed their own fibre into our basement (it is their box in the recycle room) and are using the existing copper cables up the building.  I have personally been using this service and it has been very good.  For $60pm you get unlimited volume and fast speed.  For the technical people, I normally get a speed of 90Mbps down and 35 Mbps.  People often call that 90/35

Another company will be installing their service in the next month.  A company called DGTek has agreed to run a fibre into our basement and also fibre up the building.  From there they run a cable (called Cat 6) into apartments.  They are a wholesale company and they have partnered with a company called Pineapple.net.au to provide the service.  Their offer for Botanica will be $60 pm for unlimited data and fast speed (100 Mbps up and 100Mbps down) – so same cost as TPG but faster.  They also offer faster again, for $80 pm they will offer 300/300 speed or for $150 pm they will offer 1000/1000.

They will charge a $100 connection fee and it will be a “no term” contract.  Month to month

DGTek has been in the news lately here and here.

Finally NBN will also be installing their service in the next 6 weeks.  Again they are a wholesaler and you buy that service through a normal ISP, like Telstra or iiNet or the like.  A quick look at the iiNet rates show for $80pm you get unlimited data and around of 44Mbps, TPG’s NBN offer is similar but costs $70pm, Telstra’s offer costs $80 pm but has capped data.  These are all on 18-24 term contracts

So from a simple speed perspective – the DGTek/Pineapple $80 pm offer will be around 7 times faster and no contract…but they are a small start up.  My expectation is with this sort of service, once it works, it will keep working.  And without wanting to getting into a political debate, I am not sure going to NBN should be seen as a safe bet.

What will I do??  I will sign up with the DGTek/Pineapple guys on their $80 pm deal and see how it goes.  I may even leave my old TPG service running for a month or two to be safe.

I think DGTek may even offer to waive the $100 for a limited time.

As these services become available I will send out more information but I wanted to give everyone a heads up now before you make any other commitments to existing suppliers.