Telstra unveils super-fast cable broadband - Melbourne first to be upgraded

Telstra today announced that its hybrid fibre coaxial cable broadband network in Melbourne will be upgraded to 100Mbps - more than triple the current peak speed - by Christmas.

Using new technology already successfully deployed in several cable networks overseas, Telstra will immediately begin work to turbo-charge its five-city cable network.

Melbourne is stage one of Telstra’s deployment of next generation super-fast broadband technologies into its cable network, which already passes 2.5 million homes in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Cable, along with Telstra’s other fixed-line infrastructure, will be a key driver of next generation broadband in Australia, as it is around the world. This cable upgrade will position Telstra to deliver on its vision of a world-class fixed-line infrastructure that complements our world-leading Next G" mobile broadband network in delivering services that meet our customers’ needs.

Work will start immediately with the installation of DOCSIS 3.0 software and related infrastructure in the Melbourne cable network. Telstra will invest about $300 million in the cable upgrade this calendar year.

This upgrade will increase the peak download speeds in Melbourne homes to 100Mbps, with further upgrades potentially to speeds of up to 200Mbps.

It will build on the recent BigPond Cable Extreme upgrade, which already provides download speeds on the cable network of up to 30Mbps to 1.8 million homes, with another 700,000 homes having speeds up to 17Mbps.

Telstra estimates that nearly one million Melbourne homes stand to benefit from the experience of super-fast broadband once the upgrade to provide speeds of up to 100Mbps is completed.

Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo said the cable upgrade continues Telstra’s strategy of bringing high-speed broadband to Australians, as the company has done with the Next G“ network. Next G” covers 99 per cent of the population and is engineered to peak network download speeds of 21Mbps[1].

“BigPond Cable Extreme transformed the cable network into a high-speed broadband network,” Mr Trujillo said. "Now we are going to the next level: super-fast broadband with download speeds among the highest in the world.

"Late last year, Telstra foreshadowed that we would continue our investment in our cable network and, with the DOCSIS 3.0 software now well-established internationally, we have the ability to dramatically increase speeds into Australian homes.

"Melbourne will be the first city to benefit from the cable network’s super-fast broadband speeds. This broadband upgrade will bring the next generation of the internet to Melburnians, enabling new work-from-home, learning, security, entertainment, health care and energy-saving choices at home. It will help spawn an innovative, video-based, applications and content services sector in Australia.

"It will enable households to do the things that they want to do, but can’t do at today’s broadband speeds.

“Families will be able to choose a high-definition movie from an online catalogue and download it in a little over a minute to watch on the family’s big-screen TV. At the same time, they could watch their favourite sport on FOXTEL in high-definition, with instant match statistics at their fingertips and, in the near future, control of camera angles. Simultaneously, they could share a video file in a high-resolution video conference with friends and family, as well as review test results with their doctor, without leaving home.”

Mr Trujillo continued: "As well as super-fast broadband, it is important that this upgrade will turn the cable network into a two-way, fully interactive platform paving the way to an array of existing and next generation services for customers.

“As Telstra has done with Next G” and Next IP“ in wireless and business broadband, we intend to leverage our cable network to lead the market in providing world leading services to meet our customers’ individual needs.”

[1] average user speeds will be lower and will depend on a range of factors, including location.