You may have come across the word, ‘Broadband’ a number of times in the context of internet connections and services. But, do you know what exactly Broadband is?
Broadband is one of the most commonly used internet terms and is essentially used to describe many different forms of high speed internet connections. In other words, Broadband is the fastest way most people can access the internet at home, with much faster speeds than you may have received in the past.
There are various types of Broadband plans, which provide different degrees of high speed internet connections depending on the cost. The ones that are most popular in Australia are as follows:
• ADSL/ADSL 2+
This type of broadband connection is the most commonly used in Australia. The difference between these two is the speed of the internet with ADSL2+ being faster. ADSL2+ may be available in fewer areas compared with ADSL, its speed depends on how far away you are from your local telephone exchange.
• Naked ADSL
This type of broadband connection does not require a traditional telephone service with dial tone. Naked ADSL connection’s price can be cheaper than regular ADSL broadband connection.
• Cable Broadband
Cable Broadband is another type internet connection which may provide higher speeds than ADSL or ADSL 2+. The main drawback with this internet connection is it has the most limited coverage in Australia.
• Mobile / Wireless Broadband
A Mobile Broadband connection is generally the most expensive amongst all the available internet connection options because Mobile Broadband connections run over the mobile telephone network, which has higher costs than the traditional fixed telephone network. This means that you may see that Mobile Broadband plans have smaller download allowances than other plan types.
• Recommendations
You can opt for any of the above mentioned broadband plans depending on the speed you desire, where you want to use the service, the cost you can afford and the number of options you require for downloads. If you are involved in a business that keeps you moving all the time, then a Wireless 3G Connection may be the best choice for you. Cable and ADSL 2+ connection plans are generally recommended for people who are regular net users and need fast speed internet connections.
Now that you have a complete know how of the various internet connections and plans available to you, below are some different factors which must be considered before opting for any Broadband connection plan.
There are many options offered by different Australian internet service providers and it is essential to do a comparison of different broadband plans.
Broadband plans offered in Australia generally advertised in Gigabytes of usage per month. There are unlimited broadband plans too; however these may reduce in speed once a certain amount of downloads are reached. True unlimited plans don’t slow down, no matter how much you may download!
We recommend you purchase a plan that does not charge any excess data usage per KB or per GB. This means you know how much you will pay for the plan, even if you use more than your download allowance.
The National Broadband Network (NBN) has been proposed, and is currently being built by the Federal Government via NBNco which makes super-fast internet accessible to many Australians. With this kind of internet connection Australians can certainly dream of changes for the better such as education, work from home options, health services, and expanded connectivity for the whole country.
Optical fibre connections will be utilised by NBN as well as other technologies like satellite and fixed wireless, to provide high speed internet connections to all Australians.
