This a heads up for the folks downunder who are using Telstra's BigPond Cable network for internet access. APCMag report that today Telstra have significantly boosted their network from what was previously a limitation of 17Mbit/s to near on double at 30Mbit/s. Though unfortunately this increase has only been made available to households located in Sydney or Melbourne.

Additional to the faster download speeds, Telstra have also increased the upload speed to 1Mbit/sec. However, for those of you who were struggling to max out your download speed at the original 17Mbit/s, keep in mind that you will most probably not see an increase in performance due to other network bottlenecks; WiFi users will also be limited to an absolute theoretical maximum of 20Mbit/s.

If you are on one of the 'Cable Extreme' plans and would like to make sure your modem has noticed the change, simply power-cycle the modem (turn off for 20 seconds, then back on) and you're good to go.

Telstra said that people with a 'compatible modem' and who were already signed up to a 'Cable Extreme' plan would only need to turn off their modem and switch it back on again to get the 30Mbit/s speed upgrade.