Today (13th March 2008) Orcon Internet released ADSL 2 to lucky subscribers in certain areas of Auckland. I was one of those favoured ones who got to trial the service over the last two weeks.

I don’t get particularly fast broadband where I am and I never have – I’m not sure if it’s my own wiring or the distance from the exchange, but with Orcon able now to install it’s own state-of-the-art switching gear into Telecom exchanges, the whole broadband map of the country will soon change alter for the better.

So although I don’t appear to be getting speeds that I could be getting theoretically, the typical speed boost I have received from ADSL 2 is awesome. I was already on a fairly strong scheme with Orcon – a high data cap and a fast plan – but during a weekday speeds were usually around 2127kbps download and just 136kbps upload, which was already faster than I had ever achieved on other ISPs.

Upload is almost always slower, meaning when you send files it takes way longer.

Now however, I get 5700kbps download and 874kbps upload. Now I don’t actually do a lot of downloading – I don’t have an Apple TV, I don’t do Bit Torrent, I don’t buy movies on iTunes. My downloading is restricted to a few product shots, the occasional iTunes song and podcasts, and Apple Software Updates. However, every morning I update this website. Uploading that used to take 20-60 seconds – now it’s more like 6-8 seconds. I process the site afterwards with iWeb Buddy to add Google Analytics. The commercial version of iWeb Buddy (I was previously on the iWeb Buddy Beta Program) came out about the same time as I went onto ADSL 2 so I’m not sure what had the most influence, but now processing the entire site takes 2 minutes 36 seconds. This used to take almost 30 minutes!

Understand my site is one of the more complex iWeb-built sites Marcus Zarra, iWeb Buddy’s developer, had seen. So I’m loving the better upload speed and no mistake.

Podcasts arrive in seconds and updates from Apple don’t bother me a jot any more. 

Note that it might pay you to run a broadband speed test yourself – this one has a groovy interface. How do you compare to my figures?

Broadband ... faster still?

Yes, technically it’s feasible, either with faster cabling like fibre-optic installed into NZ suburbs instead of the old copper wires we’re still using, and/or a second cable installed under the Tasman, as all (scarily) telephone and internet traffic is currently transmitted over that one existing pipe. Anyone got a spare billion? As that might be a wise investment. Not to mention prudent – if you feel distant living in NZ now, imagine how you’d feel if there was an undersea earthquake or a very angry octopus having a good old go at that single link?

Yikes! We’d really be cut off.

Mexico

At the launch of Orcon’s ADSL2+ today, we got a tour of a creaking old Telecom (ex NZ Post) telephone exchange in Ponsonby. Oh how strange the gleaming Orcon switch gear looked next to the old bundles of wires poking in and out of the Telecom phone equipment. Weirdly, since Orcon CEO Scott Bartlett had pointed out that our broadband was barely faster than Mexico’s, I noticed that a lot of the equipment in the Telecom rack was assembled in ... yeah, Mexico. Weird.

iHug (a division of Vodafone) also has ADSL 2 gear installed in there, by the way. I wonder when their launch will be?

Orcon meanwhile is staggering the launches as the Internet Service Provider installs the gear into exchanges around Auckland. If you sign up to the service called Orcon@home+, you end up being completely free of TWWKLTH, (That Which We Kiwis Love To Hate – Telecom) as you get phone as part of the service, including free calls all over NZ depending on the plan you choose. Currently ADSL2+ is available in Ponsonby, Glenfield, Browns Bay, Ellerslie and Mt Albert with another five exchanges soon to be added. 

You get the option to keep your existing phone number or to go with a new phone number. A new number is a faster transition, apparently, but keeping an older number only meant less than an our changeover for me. And now the phone makes a different noise.

The real pay-off will be for those businesses in the Auckland CBD which will be able to use ADSL2+ shortly.

Technispeaki

If you’d like a better technical rundown of the ADSL2+ launch, check out Russell Brown’s Hard News column published today.

Conclusion: ADSL 2 can give us the speeds we’ve been dreaming of

What’s new: the use of new gear and an alternative hardwired system to Telecom’s means proper unbundled fast broadband at last.

What’s great: I live in an area that already has the ADSL 2 service and Orcon has always been the best provider for us Mac users.

What’s not: I wish I was closer to that gleaming new box in the Ponsonby exchange instead of in Grey Lynn, but I’m still one happy bloke.

Looks: 10/10

Usability: 9/10

Value for money: 9/10 (if speed and capacity is critical to your life)

> Orcon ADSL2+:

$79.95/month for Orcon@home Purple (10GB, free one-port modem)

$99.95 per month for Orcon@home Gold (10GB data limit, unlimited local and national calls, unlimited calls to one of 15 international destinations, free one-port modem.

$119.95 per month for Orcon@home Platinum (25GB data, unlimited national calls, voicemail, call waiting, caller ID, free calling to one of 15 international destinations, free Homehub modem.

Description: faster broadband using new equipment being installed by Orcon at Auckland exchanges now.

System: any Mac or PC that can connect to broadband. Go to Orcon’s website and enter your phone number to see which Orcon service you qualify for.

Contact: Orcon@home, Orcon@work

>>>In response to the two comments below:

Indeed, I have since had four major outages since I wrote this review, so it might be wise to wait until Orcon sorts out problems in the exchanges.

The worst outage lasted almost 24 hours and on the one after, the fourth, Orcon’s telephone help line stopped working.

The HomeHub is great though, giving us fast networking for three computers – that has worked flawlessly.

On speeds – I acknowledge that my own home is slow, it always has been. Combination of distance from exchange and old wiring I guess. Do the speed test at www.speakeasy.com (Seattle) to see how your broadband compares directly to mine and do the math.

On what Orcon charges – they have had to import, trial and install a lot of new tech and they did it before anyone else – costs would be involved. Whether Orcon will offer better pricing once ihug, for example, rolls out competing ADSL2 – well, I couldn’t tell you.