As mentioned at the beginning of the review xDSL and Cable are just two of the broadband delivery services in Australia. But there are a variety of wireless and ISDN also kicking around. ISDN is limited to 64Kb blocks, needing a dedicated copper line from the exchange, which means you would need a separate phone line to be able to make/receive phone calls. Most ISDN services are delivered in 128Kb services but are also available up to 2Mb, which is 30 lines (and the associated costs).
DSL or not DSL? Cable is the question
DSL technologies are mostly now Asynchronous (ADSL) as opposed to Synchronous (SDSL). Newer services are DSL2 and DSL2-RE. To access a DSL service one needs to subscribe to a provider who has a DSLAM (provider termination equipment in the local exchange) with spare ports. Traditional DSL technologies are limited to a 4km radius of the exchange and the quality of the copper cable the service is running across to reach the customer's premises. Newer DSL2-RE addresses this limit somewhat by offering Reach Extension (RE) of up to 9km in radius from the exchange but at the same speeds of traditional DSL1. xDSL ranges from 64Kb/s through to 12Mb/s.
Cable providers are in limited supply in Australia, most choosing hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) technology to deliver services with great speeds possible (most range between 4Mb/s to 15Mb/s on the network).
Wireless
Wireless is an emerging battlefield, particularly in the commercial data and Internet service provision industries. It has settled down somewhat with the usual 802.11a/b/g and the upcoming WiMAX offerings for most corporate and home networks. The carrier or commercial equipment is still in a state of flux, falling into two categories. Firstly there is the mobile/portable broadband market catered mostly by the incumbent mobile telecommunications carriers and covering varying technological platforms, 3G, GPRS, CDMA, EVDO etc. Secondly there is the newer wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) who are using carrier or commercial service-grade wireless equipment such as Motorola's canopy system or Airspan's BWA family of products, to deliver wireless Internet access to a fixed point (buildings etc) with a range of up to around 30km from their access point (AP). This generally involves mounting an external antenna.
Another wireless technology becoming more prevalent these days is two-way satellite services which can deliver Internet data. These services are limited to a maximum of just over 100kb/s and have a relatively high latency due to the distance of the satellite from the Earth as well as the high forms of compression and tricky packet handling that needs to go into making every last bit of data sent via a Satellite pay for itself. The longer the latency the worse it is for "live" streams of data such as VoIP as there is a delay introduced. For most data services just shuttling data from one point to another, latency (unless extreme) is barely noticeable.
What do we do with all this extra bandwidth?
Specific services that can be run across broadband technologies are also driving demand, similar to the way multimedia and more graphically and processor-intense applications were developed increasing the need for faster, more spacious desktop computer systems. More bandwidth-hungry Internet applications are being developed and driving broadband bandwidth needs. These are commonly known as triple-play services or voice, video, and data (VVD). As the name suggests, these involve delivering voice telephony services, video (television, video, and movies on demand etc), and data (Internet, VPN, LAN etc) over the one medium -- in this case a broadband service. And in the case of voice at least, it needs to be a very reliable and relatively high-quality service.
Wow what an excellent review, keep up the great work. This is what we love to see