Pittwater Life March 2017 Issue

of houses for sale, and the
information is attracting
400,000 page views per
month. Around 3,000 of
its users have reported
that speedy broadband is
now more important than
transport links or schools.
One estate agent lamented
that a buyer pulled out of
bidding on a £6m house in
the Cotswolds in England
because the internet access
was so poor. “Some buyers
have the broadband tested
and subsequently pull out
because it isn’t fast enough,”
says Rupert Fisher of real
estate agency Savills.
While demand for highspeed
Internet in Australia
is ever-increasing, the actual
fibre roll-out is a different
story. NBN Co has plans
to use the existing copper
to deliver the ‘last mile’
connection to apartment
units rather than utilising full
fibre connection as it had
done during a trial roll-out
phase.
This unfortunately will
eventuate in less-thanstellar
speed performances.
Even more unfortunate is
that other telcos are using
a similar technological
approach. Only residents in
Australia privileged enough to
receive true Ultra-Fast speeds
rather than ‘up-to’ speeds
could conceivably see their
property value going up, as in
the US and UK.
To shine some light on why,
one needs to understand the
Contention Ratio (or over
subscription ratio) which is
the number of users sharing
the same data capacity. The
lower the contention ratio the
higher the quality of service.
A 50:1 contention ratio means
that up to 50 broadband
customers are sharing the
same bandwidth at any one
time.
So, if you are on the
top tier NBN connection –
which is tier 5 – you
will get “exposure to” 100
mbps down and 40 mbps up.
With a contention ratio of say
15, this means your average
speed down will be 6.66
mbps down and 2.66 mbps
up.
Not enough to lift the
value of your place sorry
to say – but the good news
is newportnet.com.au is
bringing TRUE gigabit fibre
internet to Newport, so we
may yet be able to add some
value to your place! Stay
tuned…
* Disclaimer: Simon Bond is
co-director of NewportNet.
Simon Bond of Morgans Newport (9998 4200) has been actively
involved in all aspects of Stockbroking since 1987. Simon’s area
of expertise includes equities, portfolio management, short-term
trading, long-term strategies, derivatives and fixed interest. His
focus is on how technology is changing the investment landscape,
demographic trends and how they influence equity markets.
Business Life
MARCH 2017 51