Anthony Doesburg: Better broadband nice work - if you can get it

Wires in the Ponsonby phone exchange. Photo / Greg Bowker

It's heartening to be told by the Commerce Commission that New Zealand broadband speeds improved significantly last year. The bizarre thing is, mine got much worse.

According to Epitiro Technologies, contracted by the commission to produce a quarterly broadband report, performance more than doubled during 2008.

That is based on eight variables measured by Epitiro, which then combines the results into a broadband index. Last year New Zealand's overall score went from about 2300 to 4860, passing Britain's 4000 or so, Epitiro says.

If Epitiro had asked how my broadband behaved during the year, I would have told them that it was about a third as fast at the end as it was at the start. Many others, I suspect, would say the same.

The performance increase reported by Epitiro had nothing to do with local loop unbundling, because it didn't measure the speeds experienced by users of unbundled services from the likes of Orcon and Vodafone. I am one of that group, which numbers about 25,000.

If unbundled services had been measured, it might have revealed whether my experience was widespread, or reserved for me because I'm so obsessive about getting the service I pay for.

First though, for those whose eyes glaze over at the mere sight or sound of the phrase "local loop unbundling", or LLU, let me remind you what it is.

In regulatory terms, it was the most important action of the last Government's ICT minister, David Cunliffe. After a succession of ministers before him got nowhere in persuading Telecom to give other phone and internet companies meaningful access to its network, Cunliffe threw open the doors to Telecom's exchanges and invited its rivals in.

Orcon and Vodafone didn't need to be asked twice and soon had their gear in the Ponsonby exchange, one of the first in the country to be unbundled. When Orcon launched its unbundled service, I got to poke my nose inside the Ponsonby exchange where the ISP's shiny broadband gear was on display.

Also to be seen was yesterday's technology - several rows of Telecom NEC NEAC switches; reliable gear, but unable to provide such basic services as caller ID.

Orcon and Vodafone were so quick to jump (Actrix has since joined them) because at last they could put together their own offerings, rather than being limited to reselling a Telecom wholesale service, which squeezed their margins.

Since I'm connected to the Ponsonby exchange, I happily signed up to get all my phone services from Orcon. The attraction was that Orcon was using the latest ADSL2+ broadband gear, which promised download speeds of up to 24Mbit/s, I could get caller ID and, as the new kid on the block, its prices were keen.

I've written before about the hiccups in transferring to the new service. But once the problems were ironed out I was enjoying broadband speeds of around 9Mbit/s. And as someone who works from home, I appreciated caller ID telling me whether to answer the phone with my work voice or the off-duty one.

Towards the end of last year, though, things changed. As Telecom said it would soon after having LLU imposed on it, it has been installing optical fibre-fed street-side cabinets up and down the country.

For broadband subscribers, this should be a good thing. ADSL2+ is great if you're within 1km of an exchange, but any farther and it's not much better than its predecessor, ADSL. The cabinets, about 3000 of which are being installed, are like mini exchanges and allow many more subscribers to see ADSL2+'s real potential.

When a cabinet came to my neighbourhood, I couldn't wait to be connected to it, thinking I'd see an already fast connection run faster. But mysteriously, my broadband speed went from about9Mbit/s to as low as 0.5Mbit/s at times.

It turns out that this is a result of interference between the ADSL2+ service Orcon provides from the Ponsonby exchange and the Telecom gear in the cabinet that my line now passes through.

This mess comes about because while the regulations covering LLU are in place, sub-loop unbundling - or access for Orcon and others to the new cabinets - is still the subject of Commerce Commission deliberations. Once the commission has laid down the law - perhaps by June - Orcon etc will be able to stick their gear in the cabinets and offer services on the same basis as Telecom.

Orcon and Telecom soon sorted out my gripe, perhaps indicative of a more constructive competitive landscape - or maybe because I'm in a powerful position to complain. Orcon now supplies me with a Telecom wholesale service running at a stunning 17Mbit/s.

But, alas, I've lost caller ID - it's not supported by Telecom's NEC switches. And it's anybody's guess how many more of the 25,000 unbundled service subscribers are being affected.

Better ... but

While the number of broadband connections and quality of service rose last year, says the the Commerce Commission, speeds vary greatly "and have little relation to the theoretical maximums. Consumers still have little way of knowing what the quality of service will be like when contemplating purchasing a broadband service".

Anthony Doesburg is an Auckland technology journalist.