100Mbps upgrade for Telstra HFC cable
Telstra said today that it intends to invest $300 million this year to upgrade its hybrid fibre coaxial cable to 100Mbps, with Melbourne to get the upgrade first, which is due to be completed by Christmas.
The Victorian capital will be the first to get the revamp, with the installation of DOCSIS 3.0 software and related infrastructure to start immediately. The upgrade will increase the peak download speeds in Melbourne premises to 100Mbps and further upgrades could achieve speeds of up to 200Mbps.
Telstra's cable currently reaches 2.5 million homes in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth; 1.8 million homes are able to reach up to 30Mbps with a further 700,000 reaching speeds of up to 17Mbps. Telstra did not specify which city would next receive the upgrade.
After the news that it was excluded from the National Broadband Network process, Telstra said it would look to upgrading its fibre cable network.
"Late last year, Telstra foreshadowed that we would continue our investment in our cable network and, with the DOCSIS 3.0 software now well-established internationally, we have the ability to dramatically increase speeds into Australian homes," outgoing Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo said.
He laid out some of the benefits of the higher speeds, including downloading high-definition films for viewing in a very short time, as well as controlling camera angles in a sports game.
Telstra would use the cable as a platform to deliver new services. "As well as super-fast broadband, it is important that this upgrade will turn the cable network into a two-way, fully interactive platform paving the way to an array of existing and next generation services for customers," Trujillo said.