Getting Connected...

Thursday, August 24, 2006

How is it that I can live 5 minutes drive from a major metropolitan centre and yet the only connection options available to me are dialup or satellite...

We've moved into our little 8 acre hide-away and are loving the peace and quiet. One reason for the quiet is that we still have no phone after a month. Telstra have informed us that required work will not commence until September 23rd. This is for a standard phone service. Further research has shown that we are 8km+ away from our ADSL enabled exchange (on a line with all sorts of crazy devices on it) and that ISDN is also not available. Amusingly this qualifies us for the full Australian government Broadband Connect subsidy!

Our new house seems to be in some sort of communications blackhole. We're just ouside of the metro area (literally 5 minutes drive) and are classed as regional 1. Oh, Wireless broadband is available but only at CDMAx1 speed which isn't broadband at all (~80k).

Well for better or worse, satellite seems to be the only option available. I can get a 1024/256/5GB connection for $140 a month. And alas, the latency makes fast internet gaming impossible... oh the humanity.

Random outings from a chaotic mind