NBN reports promising internet speed tests

NBN Co’s trial of the cheaper and slower broadband technology favoured by the Coalition has delivered internet speeds similar to those offered by the company under Labor.
But the trials held in Umina near Woy Woy, NSW involved a node cabinet erected just 100 metres away from the test site, which is closer and therefore faster than what a large portion of Australian homes and businesses will experience.
The company’s chief executive, Bill Morrow, said the tests were an important milestone at NBN Co with the tests getting download speeds of 105
megabits per second and upload speeds of 45 megabits per second.
Where Labor prefers fibre-to-the-premise technology that connects fibre-optic cabling directly into homes and businesses, the Coalition supports fibre-to-the-node technology (FTTN), which relies on Telstra’s existing copper network.
FTTN internet quality and speeds vary depending on how far a premise is from the node cabinet. Installing cabinets 100 metres away from every home and business in Australia would likely require a significant increase in funding.
Labor’s preferred technology was more expensive to deploy and was capable of delivering download speeds that were 10 times faster at 1 gigabit per second. However, most end-user customers were only able to purchase plans with download speeds of 100 Mbps due to technology constraints.

Source: http://www.afr.com/p/technology/nbn_reports_promising_internet_speed_Sphx7vboUY6mkx8LYfCHVP