Fibre to The Home - Jordan Springs

I thought I'd share some info in regards to Fibre to the Home at Jordan Springs after the info night last week. I was surprised to see so many people on the night with very little understanding of the FTTH network and what they had to do. Saying that this is new for Australia so I can understand the lack of push from builders and the little information available to Lend Lease also. Unless you were brought up around technology it can be hard to.

After receiving this information myself I now need to go back to Sentinel Alarms and have my quote changed. My original variation with them for example included a weatherproof casing for outside the house. A box basically on the outside of the house to put Opticoms ONT in it, basically a modem and backup power type thing. I discovered on the night that Opticom will install one when they come out to connect.

Jordan Springs is a FTTH community so Penrith Councils guidelines need to be followed. You're not allowed to install TV antennas and there's no Telstra or Optus copper cable in the area so connecting a phone at the moment is impossible. If your house is almost finished don't worry. Lend Lease a providing free use of 3G home phones and you're allowed to install an aerial now but you must remove it once the Opticom network is available.

The cost to connect the Opticom equipment is $330. Considering an aerial is $500 and telephone is $295 this is pretty good. The ONT installed by Opticom prepares you for Internet and phone, and comes with perfect free to air TV with no more aerial reception issues. It can also be used for perfect Pay TV.

Basically once it's connected you then ring up the different service providers to get what you want. You can find companies offering both phone and Internet packages, or sign up with a provider for each service you want. At this stage the Internet plans are a bit pricey but I'm assuming by the time Jordan Springs is ready there will be some more options and better pricing. Download limits are the issue at the moment. With a faster connection you will download more, simply by watching higher definition You-Tube videos for example. Saying that if you're just a normal Internet user then download won't be an issue, you can easily get a plan with 10-20gig download which should be enough.

Here's some of the current providers on Opticoms network. Click the links to see more. Exetel have some great prices already for Internet but I know from experience they can have network issues and customer service can be a bit worse. The issue with Internode and iinet (Owned by the same company now) is their uploads count to your download usage. Need to be careful with that type of plan.

-	Name		URL	Services
	Internode		http://www.internode.on.net
	iiNet		http://www.iinet.net.au
	iPrimus		http://www.iprimus.com.au
	Prodial		http://www.prodial.com.au
	Integral Energy		NSW Smart Grid Program
	Exetel		http://www.exetel.com.au
	Fuze Connect		http://www.fuzeconnect.com.au
	Foxtel		http://www.foxtel.com.au

For anyone wondering how to set-up their home, here's my minimum recommendations.

Pretty much these type of devices would be best with a wired connection. (wireless OK but you tend to slow the network down when streaming HD)
Smart TV's, Main Home Computer, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Blue Ray Player, Media Centre PC, Fetch Tv, Foxtel.

These devices could cope with wireless.
Laptops, ipads, Smart Phones, Tablets, Smart Fridges, Wii Console

Minimum Room Ideas

• 1 TV, 2 x Data to each TV point.
• 1 x Data, 1 x Phone to computer study.
• Optional - 1 x Data behind fridge (Future Proof)
• For Bedrooms I've left it, will use wireless connections as I plan not to have kids with gaming consoles in their rooms, just laptops or wireless PC's.
• To future proof install CAT 6 Cable.

* You may need to purchase additional hardware, like a switch or wireless access point in a tow storey home to connect it all like this. I plan to place a switch in my cabinet and star network it out from there.