Telstra will start rolling out Top Hats in November
Filed under: ADSL, broadband, consumer, innovation, technology
Sometimes all you need is a person with a bright idea to solve a problem that has been affecting many. Earlier this year one of the NAT engineers, Darryl Dux, was idling at some traffic lights, and noticed a box mounted on top of the traffic light cabinet and had a light bulb moment. This doesn’t sound too amazing, but this observation is going to bring fixed broadband to many homes and businesses that could never have it before.
Telstra has approximately 5000 street side cabinets across Australia, mainly in housing estates that were developed in the late 1980’s – early 1990’s, that provide telecommunications services to the streets surrounding them. As they were installed before the internet was an everyday accessory, they weren’t designed to deliver broadband access.
Typically each cabinet can support up to 480 telephone services. Some we’ve been able to fit with ADSL technology, however only 120 services could be supported by some cabinets, and some cabinets could not support ADSL at all.
Darryl’s bright idea was to install ADSL2+ equipment on top of the existing street side cabinets but it took a lot more than this to turn this into reality. Telstra and Alcatel-Lucent engineers had to solve complex equipment cooling and cabinet upgrade challenges to make this process quick, economic and have minimal impact on existing customers. We even went as far as building the first prototypes inside an industrial toolbox to test the system end to end, this sped up our engineering processes and took up to 12 months off the time to get this solution up and running.
Dubbed a ‘Top Hat’ this new equipment means we’re now able to deliver ADSL2+ fixed broadband to all homes and businesses that are connected to an upgraded street side cabinet. It sounds simple now that we’ve come up with the idea, but will make a huge change to people who will be able to access video streaming, digital business and connected home services for the first time over a fixed broadband connection.
Telstra will start rolling out Top Hats in November, to approximately 2000 street side cabinets and expect the project to be completed within 18 months. At the same time we’ll be replacing the connection from the street side cabinet to Telstra’s core network with Gigabit Ethernet fibre. This sounds very technical, but in reality means that customers will get the best speeds possible from their ADSL2+ service, and will experience less contention even when many users are on their fixed broadband at one time.
In addition to having fixed broadband it means many customers will also now be able to take advantage of Telstra’s popular home phone bundles, making it a very economical way to access high speed broadband. As Telstra installs Top Hats into local areas, we’ll be letting the local communities know. You can see if your area is scheduled for an upgrade in the next few months by visiting www.telstrawholesale.com.au.
To see how Darryl’s idea came to life, watch this video.
Can someone tell me whether our community can buy a top hat for our area! Brendan can you tell me whether our area of Mount Nathan, QLD 4211 can get ADSL if we paid for our own!
Hello Beth, I’ve asked and your location is a few hundred metres outside the allowable transmission limits for ADSL broadband. This is not connected via a roadside cabinet so is not a potential site for a Tophat cabinet upgrade.
We are continually reviewing for opportunities to upgrade services for ADSL, but unfortunately there is no upgrade proposed for this area at this stage.
Brendan, are you able to find out if anything can be done in Katherine NT, 0851?? I think where I live is one of the only places that can’t get any ADSL 1 or 2.. It is very frustrating!!!
This is the best news i have read this year…. i hope.
Will more detail be made available as to where in the Distribution area access will be increased?
I am on Swanbank exchange (DA033) and would dearly love to join the 20th C with adsl. Will maps be made available so we can plan changes from satellite to “real” net access?
Thanks
How do areas get scheduled? On what priority? I am in ‘area 62′ in Point Cook which coincidentally is a mobile service dead zone, ruling out mobile broadband as well.
Brilliant! I am on the Caboolture exchange in QLD and my street (Parkridge Ave) is serviced by the DA089 RIM. Despite the Caboolture exchange being ADSL 2 enabled, the RIM can only supply ADSL 1 (which is fine by me) however there are never any spare ports available. I have been relying on pre-paid dial up for the last 2 years. We are also in a ‘known 3G black spot’ and any form of wireless internet is not an option. I see our cabinet is not currently scheduled for an installation of a Top Hat, can I ask if all Cabinets are going to be upgraded over the 18 month roll out schedule and that I should just keep checking back to confirm when our cabinet will be upgraded?
Hi Joe, I’ll ask for you.
Just an update. Noticed last night that the street side cabinet servicing our estate had a top hat installed some time in the last 2 days! Checked the Telstra wholesale roll out spreadsheet this morning and yep, proposed service date of May 2012
Not sure if this is the result of your investigations Brendan but if so, on behalf of myself and many more residents in my estate I know of, thank you very much.
Glad to hear that Joe. Enjoy.
Hello,
For the past 3 years I have been a proud Telstra customer with a solid adsl and adsl2+ service without complaints. November last year I moved from Oakey to Westbrook Qld and attempted to get adsl right away. Unfortunately there weren’t any ports available at the time. So a telstra rep told me to call once every week to see if a port became availible and today we sit in the month of March. To this day a port has not opened up and I am still stuck on a useless 3G device. Telstra I have never had any issues with you before but there must be something that can be done about this situation, i read Kim D’s story and i would really appreciate a similar ending to mine.
Hi there, we live in Varsity Lakes but have been told we use the Burleigh Heads exchange we have haven’t been able to get ADSL with anyone due to the limited ports. Is our area on the upgrade list! and when would it be????
Hi Brendan,
Not sure if you missed my post – are you able to tell me anything about Katherine NT.. We are on a RIM, and the exchange is DA023. I believe it is the only “ADSL enabled” exchange in Katherine that cannot actually get ADSL…
Hi LR, I’ll need your address please. Use this form.
I have just found out that where I live the 89 Crane Crescent Nerang 4211is not on the NBN list for the next 3 years we only can get dial up or wireless . Is Telstra going to update this area so that we can get adsl?
John
can you tell me if your tophat upgrade is coming to albany western australia 6330- absolutely no ports left
This sounds good. The plan, however, does not list Pelverata Tasmania (7150) and I was wondering if this could be looked into. Our area only has dial-up and satellite generally available and Next-G/3G is mostly unworkable because of hilly terrain as we are at the bottom of a twisting valley. Considering most people have no type of broadband access I would expect uptake of ADSL (1or 2+) in this area to be quite close to 100%. I believe there are slightly more than 100 households within 4km of the Pelverata RIM. The NBN lists us for wireless access in the next decades but line of sight is unlikely to be very successful again because of the nature of the terrain. Use of the copper network makes the most sense and would be very cost effective.
Cheers
Mike Graham
Hi There
I live in new part of Roxburgh Park (Kelmscott close) area and only available internet is the wireless…Can you please advise if there are further plans to upgrade the network or if the tophat option would work for us.
I thank you in advance.
Leyla
Amendment to my earlier post. NBN have listed Pelverata, Tasmania as a red zone which means NOT to be commenced withing 3 years.
So, dear Telstra, if you feel like upgrading the Pelverata RIM, Tasmania, it would look like NBN may never be in competition with that infrastructure.
Kindest Regards
Mike Graham
Hi Mike,
I live in Point Cook and currently on ADSL 1, does this top hats will supply me ADSL 2+? Or what other information we need consider? Thanks.
Regards
Hi Telstra, if you could install for Pullenvale Road, Pullenvale, Brisbane, 4069. My exchange is three suburbs away at Chapel Hill. It does not give any ETA on when this will be installed on the Telstra Top Hat Web Site.
Regards
Warwick Mortensen
After years of putting up with radio based broadband, Optus 3G broadband and several failed attempts to get ADSL services from various “can do” ISPs, I finally got Telstra ADSL2+ service at home in Vermont South. I’m paying a premium for the 20Mb download speed with 100Gb monthly limit. What a disappointment! Some nights I’m lucky to get “dial up” like speeds less than 100kb/sec. Telstra Help Desk tell me that 1.5 Mb/Sec is considered acceptable! It might be to Telstra, but not to me, when I’m paying for 20 Mb/sec. When I heard about Tophat I thought “beauty, it’ll get fixed!” but no, Tally Ho exchange and Vermont South are not on the list! Will someone tell me how I can get a reasonable download speed with a reasonable data amount without paying a fortune for it?
Peter, Sorry to hear your ADSL2+ is a disappointment. I’ve asked for a local team to investigate and call you. Brendan
Hey Brendan,
The lovely folks over at the facebook page pointed me here.
I’m really struggling to run our business remotely, we have over 40 staff.
I know many cabinets in our area are getting tophatted, literally the street next to me. Yet ours is not.
What can we do to get this looked at, what if I get signatures from local’s in this area stating it is also wanted?
Is there any solution to have it added?
Area is:
Oxen DA144
Walter Court is my street (in wongawallan)
I appreciate any advice you can give.
Brendan,
My family and I have recently moved into a house on the Springthorpe estate, Macleod (3085), VIC. Our problem, and the problem of many of our neighbours, is that all the ports on the RIM’s in the area are taken and we are not able to connect to internet, apart from wirelessly. The NBN is coming to within 1km of where we are living on at least 3 sides but we aren’t on the list for installation in the next 3 years. Tophats have just been installed but not activated yet. Many in our community are wondering whether this will open up more ports or will this simply provide an upgrade to those already connected to ADSL1?
Hi Brendan,
Recently moved into Newington on the Silverwater Exchange in NSW. There are no ports left on the exchange and there are no plans to upgrade. Just like Anna above, the NBN is being rolled out to all surrounding suburbs, but not us. There is no information for Tophat to be installed in our area, but it’s the only realistic way of us getting ADSL at any stage.
We just can’t afford nor rely on wireless and would appreciate any help you could provide.
Hi Mathew, Right now the best way to find out is from the advertised list online in Excel format. It is updated regularly.
Thanks Brendan. As of the last spreadsheet, the Silverwater exchange area (incl. Newington) is not listed.
What can we do to get it on the list?
Hi Brendan,
I looked up the Spreadsheets and find no plans for RIM in Pelverata TAS 7150. Any Plans for Pelverata? Ever? Never?
Regards
Mike
Hi Mike, We will add more to the list when the information is public and we’ll also letter drop the neighbourhood.
can anyone tell me where I can put my letter of interest into A Top Hat Project to us on the list for faster internet!!!! I have googled A Top Hat Project but not sure where to leave my message
Hi Lisa. I’ll ask for you. Brendan.
The relatively new estate that I live in at Monarch Place, Mons QLD 4556 does nor have ADSL available, despite several Telstra salesmen saying it was only to be turned down on a few occasions by the Telstra technical support section. Is TopHat coming to our street? Why isn’t a link provided to the “spreadsheet” so that I can check for myself as to whether or not Top Hat is to be installed, and if so how soon?
Hi Matt, The link is just under the YouTube video in this post. Brendan.
Hi Brendan, thanks for your reply and yes I found the spreadsheet thanks. There was no Mons, QLD listed at all. Could you please advise if Top Hat is being made available for us as I know of several neighbors in our street called Monarch Place who will sign up if is made available. Thanks
Is there any chance that areas of Ocean Shores NSW will finally be able to get ADSL? I live on Boondoon Crescent and have been told by many isps that there is no ADSL here despite there being an exchange close by. As far as I can tell there should be no reason why I cant get ADSL here but everyone tells me I cant. Please help! I’m sick of using Optus wireless!!
Hi Brendan I am moving to Moorebank on Wellwood Ave in NSW and the only option on that street for me and my new neighbours is wireless internet which is very slow and making it almost impossible for me to work from home or my daughters to do school work via the internet. Please let me know if and when the Tophat will be coming to my area and what I can do to get it on the list. Thank you
Any chance that Noarlunga Downs SA will see a Top Hat install? The Lonsdale exchange supports ADSL2+ but my service is connected to it via a RIM so I would love a speed upgrade as the NBN is only planned to Seaford SA at this point. So I can see homes with high speed ADSL2+ in either direction.
Hi Brendan,
Like Anna (above) we also live in Springthorpe estate, Macleod, VIC and are very frustrated operating on wireless broadband. We also do not understand whether Tophats will provide more ports or just better speeds for those lucky enough to already have ADSL1. We would really love a reply. Thankyou.
Hi there. As I’ve mentioned previously we keep adding to the online spreadsheet and that’s where you can find out the progress of any roll outs. Brendan
Sorry didn’t see the link information above, great news for next month!
Thank you very much
No problem Adam. I’ve updated that area to make it more obvious to get the speadsheet.
Hi Brendan, the spreadsheet shows CA31 (Point Cook) scheduled for update ‘second half 2012′, but I can see the box has physicaly been updated more than a month ago. What else needs to happen between ‘box being upgraded’ and ‘customer can apply for ADSL2+’? What is the likely approx timeframe between these two events? Thanks.
Howdy Brad. I’ll ask for you and see if we have any info we can share with you.