Spirit deploys 200Mbps FTTB to Southbank

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blog It’s only a very limited rollout so far, but Melbourne residents might be interested to know that local telco Spirit Telecom has deployed what appears to be a Fibre to the Basement broadband rollout in the Triptych apartment facility in the Southbank area. It appears that Spirit has been able to achieve speeds of up to 200Mbps by using Fibre to the Basement and then deploying its own in-building network to extend broadband to each apartment — skipping the existing in-building copper infrastructure. The full media release:

“Triptych apartments in Southbank, Melbourne in collaboration with Spirit Telecom has now made up to 200Mbps Internet available to each resident in their prestigious high rise building. Spirit has lifted the ‘how fast is fast?’ argument to a new level with the introduction of the 200Mbps unlimited fibre optic plan.

As ‘smart’ network enabled devices continue to demand additional bandwidth, this new Internet speed benchmark has enabled Triptych residents to enjoy the fastest Internet available and future proof their building with speeds twice that of the NBN. Recently installed, residents are already enjoying the benefits of speeds of up to 200Mbps.

Triptych owner’s corporation chair Larry Howard said that the fibre network Spirit has delivered was critical in providing their residents with the best services available, and with Internet being such a valuable asset, speeds of up to 200Mbps was the obvious choice.

“We have one of Melbourne’s best residential buildings and it is appropriate that we provide access to the best services. Spirit has helped us in delivering the best Internet available,” he said. “Our fibre optic install has been configured to allow for in-apartment download speeds of up to 200Mbps. I believe that makes Triptych Australia’s fastest building”.

Spirit managing director Geoff Neate said that the growth in demand for bandwidth has been brought on by the proliferation of Internet connected devices the average household now uses, such as smart TV’s, phones and tablets simultaneously.

“Copper networks were fundamentally intended for phone services, they were never designed to handle the amount of bandwidth we require now or in the future,” he said. “Using fibre to the basement and a private internal network, we have bypassed the buildings’ copper and created a network of switches that allow the delivery of much faster speeds throughout the building. When a building commits to such a network, they want to be comfortable in the fact that the residents Internet requirements are future proof”.

Spirit general manager product and sales Joe Tigel said: “We are now at the forefront of residential Internet, offering customers superior speeds to access and embrace the new world of media and web innovations. It is the residential Internet game-changer by offering a product that is truly Different Better” he said.

11 COMMENTS

  1. The service provider MyTelecom has been serving many Southbank apartment buildings for over 10 years with FTTB.

    http://www.mytelecom.com.au/

    Using their 32/32 service currently, and it works great.

    Their customer service is very responsive and personal, offering to help fix some SIP issues I was having.

    (Disclaimer: I do not work for them).

    • I’m using Telecom too, though $99 for 600GB (combined peak/offpeak) at 33/33 is not great compared to the NBN or this new Spirit.

      Mytelecom have a 100mbit service though only 60GB downloads which seems a very strange product decision. I’d gladly pay more for a faster service as long as it allowed sufficient downloads.

  2. So as to avoid confusion with what the NBN is proposing, would this rollout be better off being called FTTP? The differentiator is that Spirit are skipping the copper, where as the CBN FTTB is all about utilising the copper. Don’t want Turnbull claiming credit for the whizz bang FTTB speeds if they are based on a different setup but the same name. We have already seen enough of that confusion with him using the term NBN over the years ;)

  3. Perhaps we should be calling it Fibre To The LAN? Because that’s certainly what is sounds like.

  4. from here http://www.zdnet.com/au/spirit-rolls-out-fibre-to-the-basement-in-melbourne-7000030454/

    “Spirit’s speed tiers mimic those offered by the government-owned NBN Co, starting at 12Mbps down, 1Mbps up, up to 100Mbps down, 40Mbps up. The company also goes one higher with a 200Mbps down, 80Mbps up connection”

    and:
    “The recently completed Triptych building in Southbank is equipped with CAT6 ethernet cable connecting up to all 150 apartments.”

    so i would call it FTTB; it looks to me they are skipping the built in copper but overlaying fresh ethernet for the last hundred m or whatever – which offers more copper pairs per run than POTS will; i can see how they are achieving 200mbits there.

    its definitely better than FTTN if the standard pots is only 1 pair, theres 4twisted pairs in ethernet so its basically a remediated and upgraded copper run with an effective bonded link? not what Mal is offering at all, or at least not without shovelling another ton of money at it…

  5. See Malcolm’s ideology was right… private enterprise will deliver (ahem).

    But Malcolm, what about….a, b. c thru z, all still unanswered?

    “Fibre zealot…”

    *sigh*

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