Tag Archives: mobile

Slow and steady [Internet] wins the race

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One year Australia ends up being ranked as the best country to live in, the next it is Norway takes first place. Therefore it is important to keep in mind that these rankings are based on statistics. When used correctly, statistics can be extremely valuable, but they only show a partial story.

One thing I noticed when being back in Norway over Xmas was that the communication infrastructure is far better in Norway than in Australia.

During our stay there, to stay connected to the Internet, we used a 3G mobile router. It provided us with a 3 Mbit connection which was far more responsive than our 40 Mbit [fibre] connection we have here in Australia.

I understand it might be very tempting to say that Norway is much smaller than Australia, but that doesn’t mean anything, and I doubt that this is the issue here.

Especially when connecting to servers outside of Australia is an absolute nightmare.

It wasn’t until we reached Singapore I could finally use a free VPN service called Cloak. Since I signed up for it I have never been able to connect to it from Australia.

There are one major factor that might have a huge impact on the communication infrastructure in Norway. The high competition between different service providers. Meaning, that they spend a lot of money on their infrastructure to compete with each other and please their customers.

When in Norway I saw an ad for 200 Mbit Internet connection, no download capping of course. It is an expensive subscription, but it is available. While here in Australia [capped] 40 Mbit is considered fast enough for customers.

I guess they are right tho, because when 3 Mbit via 3G is far more responsive than 40 Mbit fibre, I really don’t see how 100 Mbit is of any use in Australia – until they fix that bloody bottleneck.

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Visiting the future

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Going back to Norway for the holidays has made me feel like as if we have also ventured forth in time. It started when we arrived in Singapore, our first stopover.

Free WiFi is available at the Singapore Airport. Being used to Australian standard of free I did not expect much from it. Which was wrong of me.

When Cloak [VPN service] was released I signed up for it as it is a great service, just incase you are going to use shared, free and unencrypted WiFi. But even from our 40 Mbit connection at home, in Australia, I have still not been able to connect to the Cloak service, as it always times out.

However in Singapore it worked great. Connected within seconds, with still an amazing speed.

Then when we arrived in Norway, at the Oslo Airport, WiFi was not only free there, but also on the train. Again, the connection was fast and responsive.

While being in Norway we are using a WiFi mobile router with 3G, usually providing a 3 Mbit connection [with no d/l cap]. Again, far more responsive than our 40 Mbit speed back in Australia and puts 3G back in Australia to shame.

4G already started to be rolled out in Norway back in 2010, and one of the biggest telecoms hopes that they can provide 4G to 9 out of 10 Norwegians by summer next year.

The poor telecom infrastructure in Australia is shameful, and trying to make excuses for it is just pathetic.

It might be easy for Aussies to jump on the defensive and claim that Norway is smaller than Australia. But Norway has a smaller population, while Australia has a much larger population. A larger population should mean a larger income for telecoms, which in turn means more money to invest with. But alas…

The difference is that telecom companies here in Norway spend a lot more on the telecom infrastructure. Not just because they want to, but because the customers expect and demand them to.

And do not get me started on the fact that you can sign up for a 200 Mbit connection with no d/l cap here in Norway.