internet

National Broadband Network (NBN)

Joe HuppLeave a comment

Australia is being progressively upgraded to the National Broadband Network. There are three options for NBN internet in the Dubbo (2DBB) region and they are:

  1. Fibre – two types available: Fibre to the premises (FTTP) and Fibre to the node (FTTN)
  2. Copper – using the existing copper lines
  3. Fixed Wireless

In my region (2DBB-51-12-NORY – North Yarrabar), we can only connect to the Fixed Wireless network. And it’s easy to be connected to the Fixed Wireless network – here’s how!

You need to contact a Internet Service Provider – in our case, we contacted Telstra. They then set up a time and date range in which the owner of the network, NBNCo, will use to organise a date and time to come in to test the signal strength (which was really strong and from 2 towers) and install their equipment (photos below).

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NBNCo Fixed Wireless Aerial and receiver
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Network Terminating Device or NTD

Then a few days later, Telstra will come in and install their part, the Wireless Gateway.

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NBN Fixed Wireless Gateway – the only part Telstra supplies

The NBNCo technician, however, installed our gateway for us to make sure everything worked as it should. He also set up my computer and my mother’s tablet to connect and we were in business. Super fast and quick too – compared to my slow ass mobile wireless connection, this set-up is pretty fast!

Mobile vs NBN Fixed:

Mobile was good – but it was slow and tended to be prone to dropouts. The device I had was starting to automatically shut down and be a prick – this fixed wireless is much better as it doesn’t rely on the mobile network because the towers used to get input aren’t tied to the Telstra 3G/4G mobile network.Speeds are much quicker than mobile too! I will give you the download speeds below but let me say this: uploading videos to YouTube is much quicker (20mins) using the fixed wireless than the mobile (up to 2hrs).

Download speeds for Mobile Wireless vs NBN Fixed Wireless:
Mobile: 3.5-4MBps down, <2MBps up
Fixed: 21-25MBps down, >4MBps up

Result: I am 6+ times faster on downloads and twice as fast on uploads using the NBN Fixed Wireless compared to my mobile wireless. So it’s highly recommended by me as an option for those who can’t get FTTP, FTTN or copper connections, aptly those who live in a area that is not as close to the exchange or cannot be serviced by the other options.