Telstra boosts Melbourne cable to 100Mbps

Telstra has announced an upgrade to its HFC broadband network within Melbourne as well as its Velocity fibre-to-the-home network and will begin trailing a new TV set-top box.

Both networks have had their download capacity upgraded to 100Mbps, with the HFC upload having an upper limit of 2Mbps. The HFC upgrade will reach one million residences in Melbourne.

"This means the actual download speeds an individual customer will receive on the services will depend on factors including customer equipment, server limitations, Wi-Fi reception/capacity, and so will be less than the total capacity into the home," Telstra said in a statement.

Telstra said in August that it had spent $1.5 billion on the upgrade.

The telco also announced a new set-top box called T-Box that uses two digital TV tuners and has the ability to record, rewind and pause live free-to-air television. The device also connects to BigPond's TV and movie rental services.

"T-Box also gives users unmetered access to the seven BigPond TV internet channels including live news, sport and online music all streamed directly to the television set," Telstra group managing director of product management, Holly Kramer, said.

The T-Box will be trialled by Melbourne customers, due to the network upgrades, over the coming months.