We first heard about them a year ago, but Telstra’s ultra-fast cable plans are finally on sale to selected Melbourne consumers. On offer from the BigPond Ultimate plan is a theoretical maximum speed of 100Mbps, but you’ll pay for the privilege.
Recognising that cable speeds rarely hit the maximum, Telstra’s announcement shies away from specifying an actual speed. What it does specify is a price for a 12-month contracts: $89.95 a month for a standalone service with a 50GB download limit and shaping to 64Kbps once you exceed that, or $109.95 a month with a 200GB download limit and 256Kbps shaping. If you have other services with Telstra, the price drops. (The equivalent Elite plans are $10 a month cheaper.)
Details of the plan are online, but you have to contact Telstra by phone to find out if your area is covered and to sign up.
Aristatech
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 2:18 PMAny idea of when Sydney will get to see this speed?
Angus Kidman
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 2:20 PMNo time frame has been announced, but we’ll be keeping an eye on it.
Bill
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 3:04 PMI’ve had Ultimate cable since September last year, and it has been on sale (and discussed extensively on forums such as Whirlpool) for months longer than that.
Actual real-world performance varies substantially and I have hit 100Mbps rarely but generally it’ll sit around 50Mbps.
Calvin Lichty
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 3:57 PMI love how they, and any Australian ISP really, can justify speed throttling a 100Mbps connection to 64 Kbps. So much for their ‘blazing fast speed’ and ‘broadband’ connection. At that throttled speed, your connection is pretty much useless unless you’re just getting email.
Andrew
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 9:52 PMNot as unreasonable as they used to be when they would charge $0.15 a Mb for exceeding the monthly cap.
Andrew Barras
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 9:26 PMWow, 200gb @ ~100mbps for $79.95 isn’t too bad (with a phone or foxtel)
Might try and convince my folks ;D
Paul cahill
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 11:35 AMAny idea what the upload speed is like?
Is it still only 1mbps?
thestudios
Monday, July 4, 2011 at 2:03 PMI’m in Melbourne and tried to get Ultimate cable last year. After much stuffing around and getting no-where, I gave up.
Now this year, for my troubles, I get an upgrade to the new 200Gb Bundle, FREE, (which is good), BUT still NO Ultimate Cable, and no-one contacting me to tell me otherwise (I was sitting here like a fool, waiting for the new Cisco Modem to arrive, as I was told it would).
And I also get my SILENT NUMBER PUBLISHED in the White Pages!
One more stuffup Telstra, and I’m cancelling ALL my services and going back to ADSL! I’ve had enough!
edwin
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 3:56 PMHi all, I live in Liverpool area in NSW. I have the Ultimate plan since Feb 2012. The sped is slow, Im only getting 1.1MBS download speed.
edwin
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 3:57 PMI have been complaining to Telstra, took a day off and no one showed up. I have been on the phone with them for over 2 hours today. I call lasted 135 minutes. Shame Telstra