Welcome to the NBN Maidstone Victoria… or should you be welcomed to the Optus network? It seems the answer is the latter, because the NBN took so long to reach Maidstone that it was beaten to the finish line by Optus 5G. Better yet, NBN hasn’t even crossed the line yet, and Optus 5G is already there.
Many of us have languished in the world of inadequate internet connectivity. Just ask Chris or Duncan about their woeful internet experiences over the last couple of years, though both – fortunately – are now connected (with varying success) via the NBN.
Just like Chris and Duncan, though, for many customers those days of complete internet woe are over, and many Australians have access to connections of 50Mbps or higher. Not so for a significant number of users though.
While cables are being run into Maidstone in Victoria, Optus has already delivered 5G connectivity to the local users who are still waiting for NBN to be delivered. For some users, if Optus can deliver a good experience, those NBN cables may in fact never be used.
Connecting to 5G, locals are seeing 400Mbps speeds downstream on a regular basis with the speeds averaging over 300Mbps. Even in congested network times, they’re reporting speeds over 50Mbps which is the guaranteed minimum speed. If you experience speeds lower than this, there is an exit clause on the contract allowing you to leave with no penalty.
All of this is happening on an Optus 5G plan costing $70 per month for an unlimited data capacity.
Compare this to the Aussie Broadband 250/25 Mbps FTTP NBN plan at $169 per month and the 5G option could be a winner in terms of performance and – significantly – in terms of price.
There are some failings of 5G in terms of maintaining high speed connectivity. Range from the tower, any physical obstructions and even the weather conditions can have an effect on the speeds you’ll experience on 5G. So consider whether your close to a tower, where to place the modem and if external antenna options need to be utilized to maximise your experience.
A recent article from news.com.au has a user reporting several very positive factors.
- The only thing that was tricky was the positioning of the modem, but I got help from Optus over the phone.
- The latency is better than their ADSL2 connection was.
- Download times are fast… really fast for large files such as updates and operating system files.
- Multiple users are streaming simultaneously with no reported issues of buffering or noticeable lag on the network.
It is unfortunate that the NBN rollout has become so disjointed that houses have the potential for FTTP, where two streets over they may be on HFC, FTTC or FTTN. Not only that, but the rollout has been so prolonged in some areas, that mobile carriers have been able to deliver a brand new technology, with higher speeds for less.
5G has been hailed as the field of dreams, now that it’s becoming a viable product for users – it seems the players are ready to take to the field.
I have multi story appartments in the way so I can’t get 5g. Have a great LOS to the ausnet smart meter tower pity optus don’t use that, I’d have max speed, have to wait upto 3 more months for NBN (my last house was getting NBN 1 month after I moved, that was 3.5 years ago), meanwhile my 4g sucks and ADSL is always dreadful as well. I can’t imagine NBN being any worse.
I would prefer to see Optus guarantee that their speed would greater than 100mb for 90% of the time
The guarantee of it not going below 50 is a joke for 5G
Optus 4g beats NBN in my hood 😂
Yep. 800m from a tower, almost line of sight with a tree in the way. At the modem I get 400mbps, but moving a room or two away on my PC or downstairs it usually only gets a max of 360 with averages of 250-300. Coming from cable HFC. Latency is alot higher. 10 ping in fornite to 35-50. Siege 19 to 40-50. But not noticeable at all on my 165hz montior. However, I was streaming 2 8k videos 2 4k videos at the same time with little to no buffering and playing fornite with less than 100 ping 😂.… Read more »
I paid $90.00 a month for cable broadband with a 115 Mbps download speed. I was asked to move to an NBN service with less than half the download speed in order to pay $20.00 a month more. I still fail to understand why why taxpayers wasted 50 Billion dollars in creating something more expensive at half the speed?
Ask the Liberal government who destroyed Labour’s plan to give everybody world top speed on fibre to the node.I,m not very a technical person,but I know politics
I am in the exact same boat as you and as a bonus the internet drops out 4 to 5 times a week now…. Never used to do that on cable
One issue is that since it’s a shared medium (I think 5G relies on OFDMA for multiplexing?), if popularity of this service rises in an area (eg – one where NBN is not available), that high performance that’s being touted will take a nose-dive.
With unlimited data, and the relatively aggressive price-point (thanks NBNCo), it’s certainly somewhat interesting though.
hate how maidstone is always the last for rollouts adsl and adsl2+ were the same when most of the suburbs surrounding me have nbn and we are so close to the cbd. ill be holding onto my telstra cable for as long as possible with constant 100+ speeds unlimited