Telstra Switches On

September 12, 2007: Telstra has switched on what its calling Australia’s fastest consumerable cable broadband, targeting over 1.8 million Sydney and Melbourne based homes and businesses.

Launched in Melbourne this morning, the BigPond Cable Extreme offers 30 Megabits per second (Mbps) to most Sydney and Melbourne locations and up to 17 Mbps in others parts of the Telstra network.

The news comes as Telstra moved to seek a court injunction against the Communications Minister, Helen Coonan. Tensions have been increasing between the Federal Government and Telstra due to the Government’s attempt to prevent Telstra from switching off the CDMA network in regional areas.

The cable just switch on will offer broadband speeds almost double as fast as previous Cable Extreme speeds in metropolitan areas.

BigPond group managing director, Justin Milne, says the cable will mark the “next big thing” for the digital lifestyle. “Higher speeds turbocharge websurfing, emailing and downloading,” he says.

Milne likened the 40 cent per day price increase from the standard BigPond Cable Broadband to “turning a V8 street car into a V8 Supercar for $10 a month extra” and claimed customers will now be able to download Hollywood blockbuster in less than five minutes.

Milne also used the launch to hit back at public critisisms on Telstra’s broadband performance. “It (this) shows that Telstra is determined to provide its customers with world-class broadband services despite the political and regulatory roadblocks that are put in our way,” he says.

“If regulators get out of the way, Telstra invest in high speed broadband for Australia.”

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