Understand Community Broadband speeds (Ethernet and DSL2 services)

Community Broadband can provide for a much faster and more superior performance than a regular broadband ADSL service and is not affected by the distance from your telephone exchange, however many of the same factors that affect your ADSL2+ performance can also impact upon Community Broadband speeds.

Factors Affecting the Performance of Fibre To The Home

When connected on a service with (for example) a 50 Mbps interface speed, you should not expect that everything that you download from the Internet will be received by you at 50 Mbps!

Important external factors affecting the actual speed include the capacity of, load on, and access data rate of:

• the destination host computer which you are accessing;
• the global Internet links between Clear and the destination host computer; and
• the backhaul network connecting your community to Clear.

In addition, local technical factors affecting performance include:

• the hardware that you use to terminate your broadband connection; for example the capability of your Ethernet router to firewall and address translate at these speeds;
• the performance of your home network; for example line speeds may be beyond the speeds achievable with wireless home networks;
• the number of users using the network simultaneously; and
• the limitations imposed by the hardware, software and protocol stack operating in your PC.

Hence Clear Community Broadband services can be described in terms of ‘theoretical network maximum speeds’ – noting that your actual speeds may be slower due to a number of factors beyond Clear Broadbands’ control.

Theoretical Maximum Speeds

The following theoretical maximum speeds are provided for the interest of technical enthusiasts. In essence, these are the specified “line interface synch speeds” of the last mile connection to the premises.

However these should not be relied upon in making a purchasing decision, as real world usage is unlikely to consistently achieve such speeds, due to the factors described above.

The theoretical maximum access speeds for Clear Community Broadband plans are:

• Intro – 6/1 Mbps – which means that the theoretical peak download speed (from the Internet) is 6 Megabits per second, and the theoretical peak upload speed (to the Internet) is 1 Megabit per second. This is the basic service, comparable to an average ADSL2+ connection.
• Budget – 12/1 Mbps – which means that the theoretical peak download speed (from the Internet) is 12 Megabits per second, and the theoretical peak upload speed (to the Internet) is 1 Megabits per second. This is ideal for most home applications.
• Standard – 20/1 Mbps – which means that the theoretical peak download speed is 20 Megabits per second, and the theoretical peak upload speed is 1 Megabits per second. This may deliver a better outcome if there are multiple online users at your house.