Within a year we should have fiber broadband to the house. Today, 2018-01-24, we have to make a decision and sign papers ordering products.
Currently we have a «Bredbånd 5» ADSL subscription from Telenor. It offers 0.2 – 6 Mbit/s (down) and 0.1 – 0.6 Mbit/s (up). We pay NOK 358 per month for this. In addition, we pay NOK 196 per month for telephone, for a sum of NOK 554 per month.
Our new broadband supplier will be NTE. They want to supply us with «100% trønderfiber helt inn til husveggen» = 100% Trønder [an adjective referring to people and things from our county] fibre right to the walls of the house. This presents a conundrum, since the fiber is being sold under the brand name Altibox, which is being used by over 35 local Norwegian and 6 Danish FTTH (Fiber to the House) networks, and was originally set up far from Trøndelag county by Southwestern Norwegian multi-utility firm Lyse Energi in 2002 under the name Lyse Tele. It became Altibox in 2009. Since 2002, over 360 000 houses have been connected, the majority self-install (over 80 per cent).
At the top of the information sheet provided by NTE is their blurb about fremtidens tv-løsning = futuristic television solution. I didn’t even know that there was a future to television. Personally, I am very happy to decide what I want to watch, and when to watch it. So, we won’t be watching television, or buying any of the packages that cost NOK 1 099 or 1 599 per month, [providing storage, television options and standard 500 or extra 1 000 Mbit/s up and down, respectively.]
After having consulted with our children, we decided to buy the lowest speed product available: 50 Mbit/s up and down. Here is a breakdown of the costs, compared to the standard package. At a 30% income tax rate, NOK 6 588 per year after taxes is equivalent to earning NOK 9 411.
| Product | 50/50 Mbit/s Internet | Standard Package |
| Monthly cost | 549 | 1099 |
| Annual cost | 6 588 | 13 188 |
| Startup charge (NTE) | 4 900 | 2 400 |
| Connection charge (Inderøy) | 12 500 | 12 500 |
| First year costs | 13 988 | 28 088 |
| First year cost savings | 4 100 | |
| Subsequent year costs | 6 588 | 13 188 |
| Subsequent year cost savings | 6 600 |
This weblog post was updated 2021/12/21. to eliminate Needs from the title. This post formed part of a Needs, Seeds and Weeds website that belonged to my daughter, Shelagh. In addition, other things are also out of date, or my opinions have changed. Apart from the title, updating the text to a block format and other minor formatting changes, the text above this paragraph remains as it was before. Any significant content changes are found below this paragraph
At the time of this update, we were paying NOK 659 a month = 7 908 a year, for 80 Mbit/s up and down. A speed test was conducted to confirm this, which it did. This is no longer available as a new product, but continues to be provided to those who opted in at an earlier date. Broadband, without television, now provides 150 Mbit/s for NOK 719 per month, or 8 628 per year. So, today, we ordered this, which required a telephone call. About five minutes after the order was placed, a second speed test was conducted. This confirmed that the new up and down speeds were available. The price for the standard and extra packages deliver the same content (storage, television channels and broadband) as before, but now cost NOK 1 229 or 1 729 per month, respectively.
At tonight’s meeting we learned a few new things. First, NTE has an agreement with Inderøy municipality that they cannot change more than NOK 2400 as a start-up fee. This will mean that our first year costs will be NOK 21 488, which will give us a cost saving of NOK 6 600 each and every year compared to a standard package. We also learned that the 50/50 solution may be phased out, but no one knows what the rates will be. During the first year they cannot exceed NOK 549 per month. We can at any time increase speed, but not decrease it. The fiber cable and router are equipped to handle speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s delevered to the door. It was claimed that the fiber itself was good for 1 Tbit/s. I cannot find any documentation for this.