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Home - Residential - Wireless Broadband - Fixed-Wireless - Performance


Wireless DSL

Just like ADSL, the actual speed of Fixed-Wireless Broadband services is affected by several technical considerations.

As with most wireless systems, our Fixed-Wireless Broadband network capacity is shared across multiple connections, and this involves a degree of 'contention'. This means that the available network bandwidth is shared across all users, which can affect the download speeds.

Read on for further information about the factors that may affect your actual performance.

Factors Affecting the Performance of Fixed-Wireless Broadband

When connected on a service with (for example) a 12 Mbps peak download speed, you should not expect that everything that you download from the Internet will be received by you at 12 Mbps!

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 Internode and the destination host computer;
  • the backhaul network connecting your community to Internode; and
  • specific technical aspects of the Fixed-Wireless Broadband access network.

In addition, local factors affecting performance include:

  • the hardware that you use to terminate your Fixed-Wireless 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 Fixed-Wireless Broadband line speeds may be beyond the speeds achievable with wireless home networks; and
  • the limitations imposed by the hardware, software and protocol stack operating in your PC.

Hence Internode Fixed-Wireless Broadband can be described in terms of 'theoretical network maximum speeds' - noting your actual speeds may be slower due to a number of factors beyond Internode's control.

Fixed-Wireless Broadband Technology Factors

Internode currently supports three types of equipment for Fixed-Wireless Broadband connections:

  • SmartBridge Airbridge Total - this supports the 802.11b standard with a theoretical maximum throughput speed of 11 Mbps. The throughput is dynamically shared between download and upload.
  • Motorola Canopy - this supports a theoretical maximum download speed of 2 Mbps, with a theoretical maximum upload speed of 1 Mbps. The actual speeds will vary below these theoretical maximums.
  • Airspan Networks WiMAX - this supports the 802.16d WiMAX standard, with the following variations:
    • The Coorong region is serviced with base stations that utilise FDD duplexing scheme. Services delivered by these base stations support a theoretical maximum download speed of 9 Mbps, and a theoretical maximum upload speed of 8.8 Mbps.
    • The Yorke Peninsula region is serviced with base stations that utilise FDD or TDD duplexing scheme. Services delivered via the FDD base stations support the same theoretical maximum download/upload speed as in the Coorong region. Services delivered via the TDD base stations support a theoretical maximum download speed of 16 Mbps, and a theoretical maximum upload speed of 3 Mbps.
    • The Riverland/Murraylands region is serviced with base stations that utilise TDD duplexing scheme. The TDD base stations support services with a theoretical maximum download speed of 16 Mbps, and a theoretical maximum upload speed of 3 Mbps.

Once again the actual speeds will vary below these theoretical maximums.

Both download and upload speeds may also be limited by the specific Fixed-Wireless Broadband plan that you select. Furthermore, speeds may also be reduced when you have exceeded the monthly Internet quota allocation of your plan.

Your Location and Local Conditions

As with any radio technology, your connection will be affected by local conditions such as adverse weather, the distance to the tower, and whether you have a clear or obstructed 'line of sight' to the tower.

The speed can also be reduced if the radio path is traversing over water, and also if there are any other operators in the same frequency band in the area causing interference.

Fixed-Wireless Broadband Base Station Factors

Fixed-Wireless Broadband customers use a network of base stations across Coorong, Yorke Peninsula, Riverland and Murraylands to access the Internode network:

  • Each base station has a defined radio spectrum that can be used. Depending on the number of active users connected to a specific base station at a specific time, this spectrum can become congested. This is a transient effect that results in a reduction in the speed of your connection.
  • Each base station is connected back to the Internet via a transmission path called the 'backhaul', and for both commercial and technical reasons, backhaul links do not have an infinite bandwidth. Depending on the number of active users connected to a specific base station at a specific time, this backhaul link can become congested. This is a transient effect that results in a reduction in the speed of your connection.
  • As explained under 'Technology Factors', the base stations are not identical in their technical capabilities.

General Internet Factors

Not everything connected to the Internet has been dimensioned to operate at maximum possible bandwidth to every other device connected to the Internet, at every moment in time. In fact, quite the opposite!

Hence - as with any other Internet connection type - the speed of your connection will vary with the capacity of, load on, and access data rate of the destination host computer which you are accessing.

And just like any other Internet connection, the speed of your downloads may be reduced because of the hardware capabilities, software configuration, operating system and software applications on your computer.

So What Speeds Should I Expect?

As a minimum you should normally be able to get speeds of at least 1000 kbps download and 256 kbps upload speeds. However you should also expect your download speed to vary on Fixed-Wireless Broadband connections, for reasons as described above.

The maximum possible speed can also be limited by the plan that you have selected:

  • WDSL-Home-Starter and WDSL-Home-Explorer plans are limited to a maximum of 512 kbps download and 128 kbps upload speeds.
  • WDSL-Home-Standard plans are limited to a maximum of 1500 kbps download and 256 kbps upload speeds.
  • WDSL-Home-Advance plans are limited to a maximum of 6 Mbps download and 512 kbps upload speeds.
  • WDSL-Home-Power and WDSL-Home-Extreme plans are limited to a maximum of 12 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds.

Please note in contrast to the WDSL plans, the new generation of Easy Wireless plans do not impose any specific speed restrictions on the service.

Test Results

We have conducted numerous tests on the Fixed-Wireless Broadband network, using local Internode content sources on connections without any plan speed restrictions. This showed that in practice:

  • Download speeds for Airbridge customers usually exceeds 4 Mbps, along with an upload speed of around 1.5 Mbps.
  • On Canopy network equipment, typically an average of 1.5 Mbps can be expected as a download speed, along with an upload speed of around 512 kpbs.
  • The typical download speed using WiMAX via an FDD base station usually exceeds 5 Mbps with an upload speed around 4 Mbps.
  • WiMAX connections via a TDD base station showed a download speed of around 12 – 16 Mbps along with an upload speed of around 1-2 Mbps.

The degree to which the speeds differ from the theoretical values, in practice depends on the extent of influence from all of the factors noted above, your specific location, and the specific time that you use the service.