Earlier today, NBN Co proudly announced that the rollout of the National Broadband Network was halfway complete, with 5.7 million homes and businesses connected. But not everyone is excited to have the NBN connected – and its new promo did an unfortunate job of showcasing why.
The screenshot is from the NBN’s latest ad, which I’ve embedded below. And if you can’t see the problem, here’s a second shot:
And to think people were impressed when that Aussie won a Quake tourney on 200+ ping. Imagine that on nearly triple the lag.
The full video is below, with the offending shot at approximately 28 seconds.
Update: An NBN Co representative contacted Kotaku Australia to explain that the speed displayed in the ad was “exceptional service” for satellite connections “in global terms”. The user was, as Zombie Jesus pointed out in the comments, a Sky Muster customer. NBN Co also added that the ping time was standard for satellite broadband customers.
Thanks Freeze!
Comments
50 responses to “Who’s Keen For 598 Ping On The NBN”
Please down vote that joke of a commercial.
e: you can also report the video for a ‘scam’ which it is…
You have to laugh at the comments being disabled on the video as well. Nothing screams ‘job well done’ by silencing absolutely anyone and everyone who can point out otherwiss
They’re in Adelaide so I’m assuming Wireless NBN?
It’s just the test point that’s in Adelaide, the little person icon is in the centre of Australia because the service can’t geolocate the address properly. Which is probably also why it picks Adelaide, which is the closest test point to the centre of Australia.
Two other IP geolocation services place the address in Pingrup WA under the ISP Skymesh, so for that location (if accurate), they only offer satellite NBN.
In the event you’re implying that Wireless NBN must just be awful, I’m gonna throw my two cents in.
I actually had a wireless NBN connection where I used to live in Victoria and it was actually rock solid, surprised the hell out of me. Made the ADSL2+ I have where I am now look like a joke.
I think the implication was that wireless would be the main cause behind the high ping. Was your connection rock-solid in terms of latency too?
I got better pings on the Wireless NBN connection than I do on my current ADSL connection.
Worth noting, fixed wireless and satellite are different technologies. Fixed wireless has pretty decent bandwidth and latency since it’s LTE. Satellite has average bandwidth and terrible latency, but it’s only used in places where fibre won’t be used and LTE either isn’t available or can’t meet the minimum speed guarantees.
Yeah, I only wanted to relay my experiences with the wireless solution it in the event he was talking about that and not satellite.
Because usually the reaction is “Its wireless so it must be bad!”, and it simply was not the case at all for me.
I’m sorry but just over 20mbps is hardly something to be gushing over either…
if my connection goes from what it is now to 20mbps, I’ll be pissed.
haha totally!
mine went from 12 to 95 on a HFC connection. You’ll be fine
There are some bad screw ups in that advert. Apart from the ping, the speed of only 22Mbps is not worth publicising.
And at 44seconds there is an appalling cable-spagetti modem installation in view that looks like an unskilled DIY job. It’s not what you’d hope is the norm for a new NBN modem installation.
It is satellite. That is something to be gushing about. The ping isn’t actually bad for a satellite connection from my experience. Last one I used was about 1200ms.
@alexwalker I certainly don’t want to stop the NBN bashing (it deserves it) but that IP address geolocates to Pingrup WA, which is only serviced by Sky Muster (satellite NBN) with a speed cap of 25Mbps. With that in mind, both the speed and ping are pretty reasonable.
For sure – but that’s the kind of thing you explain in an asterisk, not the kind of speed you highlight front and centre in an ad.
Definitely agree. At the very least they should have mentioned somehow that it was a satellite connection.
The ping is not reasonable, I am in Alice connecting through Darwin and still have less ping to the Adelaide test server. Even with my two housemates currently torrenting I sit at 126ms at over what appears to be double the distance from a server in the same city. It isn’t acceptable, when you are seeing times to server over double while providers “grandfather” old plans and shift people to NBN in order to take strain off their own infrastructure.
We have been sold a lemon.
And are you using satellite?
My Mum was on NBN satellite and had about 600ping. She was in the middle of nowhere so fair enough. Got another friend less than 30 mins from Brisbane City and he’s stuck on satellite too, 600ish ping for him as well. Seems about what you’d expect on satellite, the question is why are people so close to “civilization” being stuck on satellite.
There are people not on Sat that are getting around that though thanks to how NBN handles network traffic, it is one of the reasons why we divert through Darwin instead of going to ADL, even though it is the shorter line. Nbn is kind of a joke for the vast majority.
NBN has nothing to do with how traffic is routed. There are 141 POIs, the connection from your premise will terminate there, after that it’s the responsibility of your ISP.
I would expect even bouncing through Darwin is going to be a lot quicker than satellite. Hell, I get better ping to the US than mum gets on satellite.
Satellites in geosynchronous orbit are ~ 35,786 km above sea level at the equator. They’re going to be further away, but that means packets are travelling at least 70,000 km to reach the base station.
Compared to this, the distance from Darwin to Adelaide is about 3,000 km. Even if we allow ground based communications to run half as fast, the latency from bouncing packets off a satellite is going to dominate. That’s the reason why the NBN is trying to use other technologies for as many people as possible.
That’s nothing… Back in my day I used to walk 70,000km in the snow, uphill both ways to get to school and back.
Luxury.
And then your dads would poison you, dancing on your graves and singing Haleluja?
And tied an onion to your belt, which was the style at the time.
And had to lay your own copper cables on the way.
Barefoot right? don’t forget barefoot
Part of the controversy with the NBN is the surprisingly large number of Australians that will be moved from copper to satellite and lose quality of service in the trade when their entire copper network is replaced by satellite services.
Not to mention their already under provisioned satellite service will be shared with in-flight entertainment streaming services on airlines, load that will only grow as airlines offer more in-flight entertainment and communication services.
The nbn is great for those of us in the city, but we can’t use our experiences to dismiss the concerns of the hundreds of thousands of Australians that don’t share our geographic good fortune.
Many residents in regional Australia are getting screwed for purely political reasons.
As others noted already, 600ms is a pretty decent ping for any relatively modern satellite connection. The theoretical minimum for a complete one-way IP packet transit is 500ms under ideal conditions and directly beneath the satellite.
The NBN rollout has been handled badly since its inception, no question, but that’s a different argument. I’m just saying that for a satellite connection, 600ms and 22Mbps is pretty good.
They called me last week about switching over. My current deal is faster, cheaper and with more data than the NBN. God knows what is going on…
Yea I’m the same. Have been on standard Optus Cable fore a few years now and am getting 9ms ping with a 30.12Mbps speed test. Why the hell would I pay more for less under the current plans 🙁
Unfortunately though they will force us all over to the new NBN system at some point, I just pray it’s better by then.
http://www.nbnco.com.au/connect-home-or-business/information-for-home/will-it-work-over-the-nbn/what-services-will-be-switched-off.html
Where is that guy, Port Augusta? In Alice I get way lower ping to Adelaide (78).
In retrospect it is likely diverting to DRW like we do and then going back down, but for some reason incurring mad spikes between network nodes. Every couple of weeks we get some days sitting on around 200-300 ping to east coast though.
Is it a bug plaguing the edit button or a change in policy? Either way is annoying.
my parents recently got upgraded to NBN in Tassie. The adsl they had before was really slow but just fast enough to run netflix and the fetchtv internet channels.
After switch to NBN their connection has gotten so much worse that they can’t do any streaming and struggle to even load a webpage. Speed tests show speeds of less than a mb a second.
What a joke
I’m happy with my HFC service. Few extra ms compared to low latency (un-interleaved) dsl from Internode, but it makes up for it by being cheaper, having more data, and having enough bandwidth that I can stream high quality and it won’t affect my ping.
Also it doesn’t mess up my latency when other people use the net in my house.
And I’m only on 50/20.
I’m in country NSW with NBN through Optus. Initially got a “speed boost” package that promised 100 meg down.
When I found out I was only getting at best 12 meg down I cancelled the extra package. Typical Optus wouldn’t refund despite not delivering what they promised.
Prolly cause they can’t promise it, check your t’s and c’s
Pause at 34 seconds
Thanks?
If we had better internet we wouldn’t have to resort to things like this!
The video stopped to buffer for me just as it hit that 598 ping screen lol
I was connected to the NBN 3 months ago and I am very disappointed, the best I can get is 11 Mbps, made so many complaints this RSP and NBN and other government departments without any success, very disappointed
Could be your shitty ISP. I switched and speeds have gone up something like 2000%
I don’t drop below 30mbps download unless there’s slight congestion OR a problem over Telstra’s network. I was asked if I wanted to go ahead with the NBN last week…. I called back and cancelled days later when I did more research (people in my area had agreed back in February……. but are still waiting for it to be done ? That and the speeds have been less than desirable in nearby suburbs). I certainly don’t want to be forced onto a replacement service that is worse than what I am currently on. Internet sure is going backwards here.
Good to see we are stil the backwater nation for internet. Maybe something to do with our government being run by clueless dinosaurs.
Amusingly, I tend to keep moving to areas that are about as far from the rollout as possible.
… I live in one of the most lovable cities in the world, apparently.
as @zombiejesus pointed out, this appears to be a satellite service – in which case this ping is very respectable; certainly better than the days of 2800ms when playing Diablo 2 back in Dubbo on the 256k satellite.
Getting mine connected on Monday here in Adelaide 100 dl/40 up. Better be fast with good ping or I’ll be pissed.