And update a few years on -Tophat introduces ADSL2+

A bit of an update:

Yep that's right a few months back I whiched over from ADSL1 speeds to ADSL2+ speeds - Never thought that would ever happen!

I knew some was up at the time as I saw a new cabinet housing top of the CMUX/RIM (Green box at the start of the estate) that my Phone lines Distribution Area (DA) is on.  Did think much of it but throught ask on whirlpool.net.au and was promptly directed to a thread on a Telstra project called Tophat.    Here's the Thread.   Basically Telstra started a project earlier this year to install new hardware in a "tophat" Cabinet that upgrades the DSL equipment in the CMUX/RIM adding ADSL2+ compatible ports!  Apparently this equipment renders the old ports in the cabinet below useless and all ADSL subscribers get moved up to the new system.

Now, the catch you have to ask for a change in speed from your ADSL if you know your Tophat as been activated - that's the fun part .  There are two ways to know -1) if you notice the Labels on the green box have change  and 2) you run a check on your phone line at https://www.pacific.net.au/servicequal/ and look in the results for an OPEN2 Pass  with a Y00 number then you can go call your ISP.  WhenI rang my ISP at the time they really didn't know much about Tophat - they told they'd log a job to Telstra Wholesales - long story short the next morning I was on 22mbit connection up from around 8mbit!

It's currently sitting on 16-17Mbit  ...