An NBN Question...

[ameerat42]

(I know: Where is it?)

No, but today I got a letter saying that they will soon be installing equipment at the premises
so that we can get the NBN. So, since it's inevitable, and since I will be departing from the excellent
Optus cable service, the following Qs came to mind,...

Does anybody in Sydney have an Optus NBN connection? Can you tell me what sort it is - FTTN or FTTP?
Which plan it is? (I still do not know what NBN Co intend for here:confused013)

Now, if you do not want to publicise your details, that's OK, I would be glad for a PM, and your info will
remain undisclosed.

If you want to talk about other providers then OK, but I'm more interested in Optus.

Ta.
Am.

[Hamster]

So do you have to depart from the cable service? The reason I ask is I currently have Telstra cable running at around 70 Mbps, and around my way NBN seems to only be delivering 20 Mbps. So whilst I'd welcome the ability to pick and choose my supplier, and the cost savings that brings, I don't want to have to drop to nearly a quarter of the speed when NBN reaches my suburb.

Sorry to reply with a totally different question..

OK, so Google is my friend and I found the below. Excuse the font, simple text and font changes don't seem to be fixing it.

Well that's crap if NBN speeds really are going to be worse. So much for progress.

Moving to the nbn™ network is not automatic and the following services will be permanently disconnected if you do not arrange to move them to the nbn™ network before the advised date.


Telstra Home/landline phone services (except some Telstra Velocity lines)
Home/Landlines phone services from all other phone companies, where the service is provided over Telstra's copper phone lines
All ADSL, ADSL2 and ADSL2+ internet services from all providers
Telstra BigPond cable internet services
Optus cable internet and cable phone services (switch off date yet to be determined)

The switch off only affects the above services. If your phone or internet is already provided over another fibre network, such as a network provided by your building owner, private enterprise network, health or education network, or a cable network that's not owned by Telstra or Optus (such as TransACT – excluding ACT customers being migrated to the nbn™ network, OptiComm, Pivit or others), they should continue operating unless your provider advises otherwise.


More googling - apparently they use hybrid fibre/coaxial where cable exists, so maybe the speed won't drop afterall. Hooray.
ameerat42, feel free to delete my thread hijack, I won't be offended.

[Tannin]

G'day Am,
There is no such thing as an "Optus NBN connection". There is only the NBN. NBN Co (who now call themselves "nbn" just to demonstrate that that it is not only their technical quality but also their grammar which has declined of late) do all the cabling, all the installation of boxes on walls, and all the on-ground service work. It makes no difference whether you are with Optus or Telstra or anyone else, it's NBN Co that does the work.

Your ISP (Optus if you wish, or any of dozens - most of them just different pretend names for one of the four or five majors) does not provide any hardware unless they choose to give you a new router. (They may refer to it as a modem, but it's normally a router which plugs into the Ethernet port on the NBN-supplied box on your wall.)

You can have any plan you want. Doesn't have to be Optus unless you want it to be.

All NBN connections in any particular local area are of the same type. In general, only those places lucky enough to be scheduled for early rollouts get the real thing. (If you haven't already, you are probably not going to get it.) Most current new installations are FTTN, which is 20% cheaper than FTTP and has an expected useful working life of about 10 years. (The useful working life of FTTP is unknown, but assume 100 years to start with and see what happens after that.)

Technically, FTTN is very similar to the HFC cable you have already got. Like HFC cable, it uses a fibre-optic connection to a local hub, then copper wires to each individual house. HFC cable provides a better quality of copper (co-ax is significantly superior to twisted pair); on the other hand, copper cable degrades over the years and a new NBN FTTN link would indeed be new. Most likely, however, they will use your existing phone wires.

Net result: unless you get lucky and have real fibre, there is no particular technical advantage to having FTTN NBN instead of cable. Note that NBN Co had planned to buy the Optus cable network and use that instead of FTTN/FTTP in suburbs where it was already installed. However the Optus cable network was in worse condition than expected (no doubt due to cheapskate maintenance in the past) and the current policy is to decommission it.

What speed difference can you expect? If your copper wire is in good condition, none to speak of. FTTN and HFC cable are about equal, and even a half-decent ADSL line can rival them. But even with a proper all-fibre link, your actual speed is largely determined by the throttling policies of your ISP. Cheapskate ISPs buy very little upstream bandwidth and your connection is slow, unreliable, and generally horrible. (No names here, but you might consider the initials "Dodo" and work up from there. Which way is up from Dodo? Well, which way is north from the South Pole?)

In a completely different category are the likes of TPG and Iinet. Still slow and annoying at peak times, but nevertheless a different world. Rough rule-of-thumb: anyone who offers you "unlimited" downloads reckons that their system is so slow that most people won't bother using enough to cost them serious money.

Then you get the quality providers, which fall into two categories. (a) Telstra and Optus, who are very expensive and frequently annoying to deal with, but deliver a good quality service. (b) High-quality smaller, specialist providers. The only one I know of personally is Skymesh who are very good and (extraordinary behaviour for a Telco!) remarkably honest in their promises. When you call them, you talk to someone in Brisbane who grew up speaking English and actually knows stuff about the network. (Compare with almost all others, where you get call-centre casuals, frequently in India or the Philippines, reading stuff off an on-screen script.) Very straightforward. I recommend them. Another one which, sadly, no longer exists is Internode. The excellent Internode sold out to the mediocre Iinet a few years back and promptly started deteriorating to the point where, after a few years, there was no longer any noticeable difference between Internode and the rest of Iinet. Worse was in store: then bottom-dweller TPG bought Iinet. I have crossd them off my Christmas list.

Disclosure: I hold shares in two telcos, Telstra and Amasym.

[Hamster]

few words

So it sounds like, I can expect similar speeds and maybe a slight drop in price through competition, but basically not much will change if I stick with Telstra or Optus. Amaysim seem to have pretty good prices ($90 unlimited data up to 100 MBPS). You like them too then?

[ameerat42]

Ta for the info, guys. No wonder Optus were being coy some while back and asking if I would want to stay with them after the NBN.
But they said I didn't have to. I didn't quite understand till now, when I see that I don't have to stay with their [proprietary hardware].
- There won't be any.

Well, my present plan with them is $90 for Unltd, 30/1.5 Mbps, all phone calls except to 1900xx, and un-ltd international calls to 25 countries.
If they had the same with - as I understand - 25 Mbps down, I would consider it, but I do not know if...

Certainly, the 12/1 speed that is offered around the place for basic NBN and pricing is an utter insult. I had a go at a local DoDo kiosk runner
recently when I picked up the small print and just blatantly told him that was not NBN and that it was nothing. The next level up was $70 odd.
But Exetel, IInet, etc are the same AFAIK.

[Cage]

I've had the NBN (FTTP) for twelve months and finally felt like I was actually living in the 21st century. I won't go into the crap I had for fifteen years prior to that.

As Tony succinctly explained the NBN is the NBN, full stop, and Optus, Telstra et al are just bill collectors.

I went with Telstra, whom I've been with in their various nomenclatures since 1968, but I'm pretty sure that didn't get me any brownie points.

Tony's comments on the bandwidth purchased by the bottom feeders is very pertinent. Just google to see the complaints from those whose download speeds are never even getting close to those promised.

How does this help you? Optus or Telstra, Telstra or Optus, six of one, or half a dozen of the other. It doesn't matter until you get down to the best deal for you, based on your usage.
When I was negotiating with Telstra I kept mentioning how good Optus deals were (there was Jack Sh!t between them) and while I didn't get any big price reduction I did get the Speed Boost thrown in for gratis. That's the one offering 100mbps down and 40mbps up.

I've never seen it below 94mbps download, until I checked it just now and got 71mbps, surprised but not unexpected, as I'm on the end of the cable run about 9klms from the exchange and every school kid between me and the exchange is now online.

The bottom line of my waffle is to haggle with your chosen ISP, and haggle hard ! Be prepared to walk away, and remember the saying that 'He/She who speaks last, wins'.

[ameerat42]

Ta, Kev. It is the phone offer I'm particularly looking for.

[Tannin]

Hamster, I know absolutely nothing about Amaysim other than that they buy wholesale mobile capacity from whoever they want (currently Optus), have a reasonable price/earnings ratio for a company with their excellent growth rate, no debt, and that they closed at $1.68 today. :) But by all means sign up with them, and pay as much as possible. I have a chronic photography habit to fund and every dollar helps. :)

Am, I reckon I'd take it slowly, considering offers and waiting for a good one. They won't switch your cable off for quite a while yet. $90 for your current setup is pretty reasonable considering it is from a decent company. (The bottom tier would promise you all that for about $20 less and deliver half of it.) Hunt around, and pay particular attention to deals with no fixed term. The one thing you can cast-iron guarantee with a two-year deal is that you'll be paying well over the going rate by the time the second year rolls around - they get to sell you next's year's Internet at this year's prices, which is a very good deal .... for them.

Hamster, I understood that NBN Co were planning to retain at least part of the Telstra cable system and use it to deliver NBN services (rather than installing all-new cabling). But perhaps I got that wrong, or they have changed the plan. Here in Ballarat, the former Neighbourhood Cable system, which was bought out by Transact, which was bought out by Iinet, which was bought out by TPG remains active and will continue in competition with the NBN for the foreseeable future, I believe. Why we'd use it (and in doing so tie ourselves to a single vendor) when we can have any vendor we like on NBN fibre, I don't know. I'm actually using Telstra here (can't remember what speed tier: whatever it is is plenty) and pay about the same as Am for (can't remember) GB (more than I need anyway, might be 500 with three free double-your-allowance months, not that I've ever needed to) and a phone with free calls to Australian landlines only. Telstra are expensive but they were the only company who could transfer my old shop phone number, so I groaned and paid it. That said, they do a very good job. If it hadn't been for the phone number thing, I'd have gone with Skymesh. Skymest provided my NBN at the shop before I sold it, and they were the easiest telco I've ever had to deal with. No contracts, no "up to" BS, no complicated fine-print pricing. Sadly, I don't have shares in them, so please sign up with Amaysim or Telstra.

[Cage]

Ta, Kev. It is the phone offer I'm particularly looking for.

Yep, Optus beats Telstra hands-down with phone freebies.

[Hamster]

Yes, Tony, from what I read NBN would just use the existing cable from the node to the house, not lay new. So since I know this system will already deliver me 70 Mbps I'm happy and expecting no worse when the data are delivered to the node via fibre.
I'll bear your photography habit in mind when choosing. TBH, Telstra haven't lived up to their terrible reputation in the dealings I've had with them, so I may stick with them. Looking at plans it looks like I can expect things to be very similar to what I pay/get now, but with increased data, which would be perfect. Maybe if I switch a couple of mobiles too I can get an even better deal...

[Plays With Light]

Tony, I'm surprised that you put TPG in the lower categories, we are with them and are the furthest from the node in our suburb (about 650 metres away), getting constant (even in peak use times) 70/Mbps download speeds and about 40/Mbps up, with roughly 3-5ms pings. :confused013

[Hawthy]

Assuming that you will most likely package your ISP, home phone and mobile...before jumping to Optus, just check if their mobile coverage suits you. I had an Optus mobile for work a few years ago and the coverage was not as wide as Telstra. If you don't travel much it probably won't make much difference but when you are on the road it does.

[Tannin]

Cheers PWL. Your location on the system and performance relative to other houses in the area has nothing to do with TPG (or any other telco). That part of the network is entirely owned by and operated by NBN Co. (In the old days of copper phone lines, the same applied except that it was Telstra.)

Where TPG usually fall down is in their provision of data into the system (not out of it, and the "out" is not under their control). Have they suddenly started buying enough bandwidth to service their customers properly? Sounds pretty unlikely given their track record, but you never know. The big test is peak time usage, especially during the Netfix Hour, which lasts half the night.

Hamster, Telstra used to be really and truly horrible. I had to take them to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman. Twice! (And in both cases they were ordered by the authority to apologise and refund in full. I got the money but I'm still waiting for the apologies.) They reached their all-time low under Sol. Everybody in the whole country hated them, and rightly so. Then two things happened: (1) the NBN was announced, decisively breaking Telstra's fixed line monopoly and forcing them to compete for customers, and (2) new head David Thoday came up with a truly radical idea. Thoday decided that, seeing as Telstra was now going to be just another retailer competing for customers, that it would be a good idea if people actually liked dealing with them. After the initial gasps of shock and disbelief died down, he set about transforming the company by training and rewarding staff as if customer satisfaction actually mattered. And, broadly speaking, it worked. Dealing with Telstra can still be difficult, but now they really do try to get it right, and often succeed.

[Plays With Light]

Tony, we're still living in the dark ages, with copper wire runs to all the houses here. We're still as yet to find a website anywhere in the world that can deliver data fast enough to break 2Mbps! So we're not actually using what potential we have to the fullest. We have five of us using the web most all the time we are home. All I know is, we haven't had one complaint from the teens in regard to their online gaming lagging or getting booted since we switched a few months ago. Good lord am I glad not to hear that constant whinging anymore! ;)

[nardes]

Hi Am

We received a mass "the NBN is coming" mail out "promising" NBN connectivity last month (June 2017) and we are still waiting....it seems that it has been rescheduled to Dec 2017 now???

Anyhow, from what I understand, once an NBN box has been nailed to your property (and it seems you have little choice in this matter unless you protest loudly) your current ISP may decommission your current connection after x days (I think 6 months was the industry suggestion) forcing you to connect to the NBN. I understand that some ISPs are enforcing this after 90 days from when the NBN service becomes available in your area?

I have lost/binned all of the bulk mail-out letters from which the above recollections are drawn, so be sure to check your local policies as I may have misunderstood or incorrectly interpreted some stuff.

Cheers

Dennis

[Tannin]

Ah, then it's Telstra's copper doing the work. (Technically, NBN Co's copper now.)

EDIT: Dennis: i's usually 18 months after the NBN in your area goes live. Up until then, you are entitles to retain your old copper service, but not to have a new one installed or disconnect and them reconnect to it. But check in case it is for some reason different for you.

(Obviously, the aim is to decommission the old, difficult-to-maintain copper system because it costs a fortune to keep running. Sadly, most of the new replacement systems now use copper anyway, which is equally prone to corrosion and water ingress. Fibre lasts pretty much forever and does not care if it is wet or dry.)

[ameerat42]

Assuming that you will most likely package your ISP, home phone and mobile...before jumping to Optus, just check if their mobile coverage suits you. I had an Optus mobile for work a few years ago and the coverage was not as wide as Telstra. If you don't travel much it probably won't make much difference but when you are on the road it does.

Yes, that's right about coverage. But would you believe in parts of Central Oz ALL fail!!!

--And then one day, whiile stumbling about Kata Tjutja, there was an Optus signal:eek:

A pleasant surprise (therefore some sort of trick:cool:) was quite viable WiFi at Kings Canyon.
Clearly, they want YOU to promote the place.

[Tannin]

If you want coverage in the outback, it's Telstra or bust. No-one is going to build towers out there. Telstra only built them because they had to, and they lose a lot of money maintaining them, which they are required to do under what is called a Universal Service Obligation. Retaining a given level of loss-making outback service was a condition of the original Telstra sale. (This was part of the price the Nationals extracted from John Howard for their support.)

Just a month or so ago, the other telcos applied to the regulatory authority for compulsory roaming rights on the Telstra outback tower networks, but that was refused. Telstra argued that they built them and pay for their maintenance, why should freeloaders be allowed to take advantage? Optus and Vodafail argued the reverse, of course.

Optus generally have good coverage in major country towns and tourist destinations, but if you want coverage in (say) outback Queensland, then it has to be Telstra or else a sat phone. I shouldn't think there would be an Optus tower anywhere between Cunnamulla and Birdsville. (There certainly wasn't the last time I was out that way with my old Optus phone. After a while I got sick of driving hundreds of kilometres just to call home and say "I'm fine. How are you? Good. Call you next week. Bye." and switched to Telstra.)

[sanger]

We've had 25/5 FTTN connected for about 12 months and speeds are usually around 24, upload rarely gets near 5.
Like ADSL dropouts are common.
Gaming teenagers are happy so it must be ok.
Personally for what I do the better speeds make bugger all difference to me.
We're with the number 1 ISP in customer service which funny enough are also number 1 for complaints, iinet.
As mentioned we get regular dropouts and have contacted support but their support is appalling.
Hours on hold and if you get through they have a ridiculous trouble shooting procedure that leaves you dumb founded and you give up.
I thought I was alone until I checked Product Review.

[ameerat42]

Hmm! Sounds bad, Sanger. I've had pretty plain sailing with SS Optus, with absolutely none of the above.

--And now I just H8 myself for sounding like an ad campaign.:(

Tannin. With an attitude like the one you describe for Telstrap, guess who gets the rough end of the tropical fruit!!
Surely Telstrap would charge other carriers so that there wouldn't be any "freeloathing". - And ultimately the user
would pay.:(

[Tannin]

Apparently not, Am. I'm not across the detail but I possibly there are regulated charges for roaming, which would go nowhere near compensating for the actual cost.

But we don't need to know the legislative detail, we can work the realities out just by thinking it through from a business point of view. The cost of all that high-tech equipment being used by just the handful of people in the outback at any one time is such that even the telco with by far the largest number of customers to amortise the investment over (Telstra) doesn't go anywhere near covering its outback service costs. Adding some small amount from the (relatively tiny) customer base of an Optus or a Vodafail would be a drop in the bucket. (Remember that if you gave (say) 1 million Vodafail customers roaming rights onto the Telstra network, the number who would actually use the outback towers so much as once in any given year might be ... oh ... perhaps a couple of thousand. Even if you charged them an outrageous $10 per call, that's twenty grand - an utterly trivial amount which wouldn't even cover the administrative cost of billing them. (Add a few zeros to my estimate if you like - it's still not enough to make a worthwhile difference.)

Telstra, on the other hand, can spread that cost across their entire customer base. All Telstra customers (no matter whether they live in Balmain or Brunswick or Birdsville) pay the so-called "Telstra tax" which, among other things, goes to fund the outback network. Telstra is by far the most expensive major mobile service provider. How do they get away with it? By having the best network. Without a clear network advantage, Telstra could not charge their 10 or 15 million customers Telstra's usual 10-20% over the going rate. From Telstra's point of view, the millions they lose each year maintaining uneconomic outback services is repaid with interest by the massive marketing advantage it gives them. In short, they would be completely crazy to ever let an Optus or a TPG use their outback towers. All of a sudden, they would have to compete on price instead of quality - and any business that is reduced to competing on price alone is usually doomed to failure.

Put it another way: if the Telstra board decided to give a competitor outback roaming rights, they'd spend the next three years defending class actions from angry shareholders - and almost certainly losing.

Of course, Optus, VHA, and TPG are perfectly entitled to build their own towers if they wish, and they do - but only in places where they can anticipate a reasonable return on their investment. For them, it would be completely useless spending hundreds of millions improving their outback coverage because, in reality, they are not going to go close to equalling the reach of the Telstra network without spending insane amounts. And if they go crazy on spending and started getting anywhere near Telstra, what would stop Telstra putting up another hundred towers just to stay in front of them? Nothing. It would cost a bit, sure, but because of their huge existing advantage, Telstra is always going to be well-placed to win a spending war without even raising a sweat. The boards of the other two (soon to be three) mobile operators know all this, of course, and aren't daft enough to start a war they know they cannot win. (But, as we have just seen, they are bang alongside the idea of persuading the authorities to simply gift it to them. Who wouldn't like to get the use of some other company's very expensive capital equipment without paying for it? Bit of a no-brainer. You'd be nuts not to try it on.)

In short, the current situation cannot and will not change without legislation. Given the number of retired people with large amounts of their savings held in Telstra shares and depending on those fully-franked dividends for their living expenses, it would be a brave government which acted on this. (Look at the flack they took after putting a very, very minor extra tax on banks this year - a tax so small that share prices only dipped for a short while and rapidly recovered.)

Is this a sensible way to run a country's telecommunication network? Of course not. Telecommunications is a natural monopoly and, like all natural monopolies, it works best and stays cheapest when an organisation tasked with operating in the public interest and owned by the entire nation operates it. Unfortunately, we went through a period of economic madness between about 1980 and 2005 or so and gave away our hard-won assets to greedy private interests. The result has been disastrous. Telecommunication got worse and worse and worse until the original NBN effectively renationalised the fixed-line component and restored some sanity. (Far from perfect, and now crippled by cheapskate reversion to outdated copper for most of it, but vastly better than anything on the horizon in the pre-NBN era.) And as for the spectacular failure of a similar sell-it-all-off policy in the electricity sector, nothing I can say is remotely as persuasive as the very large numbers on your latest bill.

[ameerat42]

Ah, profiteering! - From ALL sides:(

[merlin1]

I have Telstra. Wireless NBN 25ms ping, 10.73 Mbps download and 4.59 Mbps upload.

Ross.

[ricktas]

My suburb got the NBN in 2013... well some of it, cause part way through the build they decided to cut the suburb in half and so I don't have the NBN. Well at the end of June, with much fanfare, the NBN was turned on for my half of the suburb. So off I goes to arrange to get it connected... ha bluddy ha.

So far, since 3rd July (when I first booked an apppointment for the NBN Co to come and do my installation), I have booked and had cancelled 17 appointments. So at this point in time I have given up even trying to get it. My ISP blames NBN Co, the NBN Co is blaming my ISP. Either way it seems they are conspiring to ensure i cannot book an appointment no matter how much I try and re-try.

[nardes]

My suburb got the NBN in 2013... well some of it, cause part way through the build they decided to cut the suburb in half and so I don't have the NBN. Well at the end of June, with much fanfare, the NBN was turned on for my half of the suburb. So off I goes to arrange to get it connected... ha bluddy ha.

So far, since 3rd July (when I first booked an apppointment for the NBN Co to come and do my installation), I have booked and had cancelled 17 appointments. So at this point in time I have given up even trying to get it. My ISP blames NBN Co, the NBN Co is blaming my ISP. Either way it seems they are conspiring to ensure i cannot book an appointment no matter how much I try and re-try.


Wow - 17 broken appointments - how sad.:(

Someone in the respective organisation at fault should own this, get hold of it and fix it.

Good luck!

Cheers

Dennis

[Tannin]

Rick - wow! That's a disgrace. I'd be writing to your MP about that.

My own experience with two different NBN installations was the opposite. In both cases, they turned up at the agreed time, did the job, and everything worked first time.

Two little tales to add to this. The rules about cabling are quite clear. If you have an underground phone line, the new line goes underground. If you have an existing overhead line or no line at all, the NBN fibre goes overhead. No exceptions. I had an overhead phone line (which has always been an eyesore and a nuisance because it is so low - it's a small house set well back on a large block so the wires dip quite a lot and it's easy to hit them with, for example, garden tools). So I rang them to find out how much extra it would cost to have it underground. Just a rough idea would have done. If it was (say) $300, I'd be happy to pay for it. If it was $3000, not a chance. But no-one could answer. I got shuffled from department to department, call your ISP, no call NBN Co, round and round. I spent a couple of days on the telephone without result. Eventually, on NBN Co advice, I delayed the install by 6 months because they though that might bring clarity. It didn't. The only very vague hint I got was that it might be very expensive.

So I gave up and decided I'd just have to put up with an overhead cable.

Meanwhile, I met a customer who had exactly the opposite problem. He'd just been to a heap of trouble landscaping his garden and wanted an overhead line. Nope, says NBN Co, it has to be underground. You have no choice. We wished we could ring them up and arrange a swap!

The day before the work at my place was to commence, as arranged, the NBN Co foreman arrived to eyeball the site. He glanced at the long, low existing utility cables and said "I'm sorry mate. I'm afraid we are going to have to put it underground. It won't cost you anything but we will have to dig up your garden." I reckoned that was a very good time for me to shut up!

Second story. When they lay the fibre-optic cable, it goes inside a protective sheath, which in turn is inside a length of conduit, all at the bottom of a trench. At the wall of the house, it comes up and, still protected by conduit, into a small white box. From there they drill a hole through the wall to the inside box and feed the cable through. Curiously, they don't protect the part of the cable which goes through the wall. That seemed a bit weird.

Sure enough, my spiffy new NBN service lasted exactly one week. Then dead. I was furious with Telstra, because it went off at the exact same time they switched my phone service over from the shop to my house. Obviously, they had stuffed it up at the exchange and now I had no phone at either end, and no Internet at home. Poor Telstra - it was nothing to do with them. They eventually sent the same two NBN Co technicians who had installed it. They disassembled the boxes and one of them, in his broken English, showed my the tiny fibre-optic cable. "Can you see?" he said, "It is the bite of a mouse."

Well, it is a 130-year-old wooden house, of course there are mice. But the policy was to simply replace the cable. "Won't it happen again?" I asked. They said "Yes, probably. Ring up your ISP and they will send us around to fix it."

"Why not put some conduit in so you don't have to come back?"

"Is not policy. Unless maybe three times."

Sigh. What can you do. And, sure as sunrise, it lasted exactly a week. Again. This time, I pulled the box apart myself, drilled a new, bigger hole through the wall, and glued in a length of conduit. (Actually a bit of garden hose I had lying around spare.) I figured that since it was already broken, I couldn't get into trouble for messing anything up. (I've spent a lifetime working with computers but don't know anything about how to handle fibre-optic cable.)

Same two blokes turned up, approved of my home-made conduit, rewired it, and it's worked perfectly ever since. :)

But they commute to Ballarat from their base in Melbourne. They would get to more than one job in a day, of course, but on a conservative guess, it would cost NBN Co maybe $500 for each extra visit. So their policy not to fit 5 cents worth of plastic conduit cost them something like $1000. Go figure the economics of that.

[ameerat42]

That's what we get for living in the MALARKY Country:nod:
(Eh? What's that? - Oh, is it really world wide?:()

- - - Updated - - -


I have Telstra. Wireless NBN 25ms ping, 10.73 Mbps download and 4.59 Mbps upload.

Ross.

Pitiful, isn't it!! - And they call it NBN:rolleyes:

My cable is typically 10-12pigs, 30/1.5. Sadly, this (relative) Nirvana
will not last much longer:(

- - - Updated - - -

Hmm! I really meant "pings" before, but maybe...

[Hawthy]

[QUOTE=merlin1;1418389]I have Telstra. Wireless NBN 25ms ping, 10.73 Mbps download and 4.59 Mbps upload.

We are on ADSL2 here and the good old Ookla speed test shows 24 ms ping, 6.83 mbps download and 0.22 mbps upload. That sounds slow but we have no problems downloading 4K videos via Netflix or running four computers at once on wi-fi. Maybe I am missing something? NBN are cabling the area right now but not sure that I really want to change. I know that I will have to but it seems ok to me.

[Tannin]

I seldom bother measuring speed: either you don't notice it (in which case it's plenty) or you do (in which case it's not enough). But just for fun, Ookla gives me 4ms ping, 16.65 down and 4.82 up. That's on Telstra NBN fibre. No idea what my contract says I get. Don't really care so long as it doesn't annoy me, which it doesn't, so that's fine.

[stephendean]

Some interesting NBN stories. Our's was painless. We already had reasonable speed as we had Foxtel cable. So Telstra rings us and makes an appointment. All cool with that. The tech turns up on time and it is a painless process new cable unit and wireless modem. Then my wife arranges the rest of it. We now are paying less a month than before. We have 100/40 and it is often close to that speed. 1000gig a month. We still have foxtel, Stan and Netflix for about 80/ month less. Been a couple of glitches which they have fixed quickly. One trick thier tech department taught me, is to regularly reset the modem. Takes up to 10 minutes but it does fix a few simple problems.

[Hamster]

Some interesting NBN stories. Our's was painless. We already had reasonable speed as we had Foxtel cable. So Telstra rings us and makes an appointment. All cool with that. The tech turns up on time and it is a painless process new cable unit and wireless modem. Then my wife arranges the rest of it. We now are paying less a month than before. We have 100/40 and it is often close to that speed. 1000gig a month. We still have foxtel, Stan and Netflix for about 80/ month less. Been a couple of glitches which they have fixed quickly. One trick thier tech department taught me, is to regularly reset the modem. Takes up to 10 minutes but it does fix a few simple problems.

This is what I'm hoping will be my situation. Only time will tell.

[ricktas]

Soooo....

After yet more cancelled NBN appoinments, I am now apparently waiting on confirmation of an appointment on the 8th August...BUT... This text message arrived whilst I was on the phone to my ISP this morning ?!?! I shall now wait and see what happens. What's the bet I get a 'you were not home so we could not install your NBN' note stuck under my door or in my mailbox on the 28th August. :D

[ameerat42]

Preamble...
Today a letter arrived in our letterbox, addressed with an incorrect
version of the first name and a comPLETEly dIFFerent surname that was
NOTHing like ameerat42, though the address was correct.

The sender had hand-written it was from LendLease:confused013
After a few minutes I decided to open it anyway.

Inside was just a pamphlet giving notice of connection to the NBN via
Hybrid Fibre Coaxial. I wondered if this was because we have Optus
cable BB here already:confused013

Anyway, there was no number back to LL, only to the NBNCo, so I
could not ask about the name.

Question...
Is anybody connected using this HFC method? What's it like?

[Hamster]

Preamble...
Today a letter arrived in our letterbox, addressed with an incorrect
version of the first name and a comPLETEly dIFFerent surname that was
NOTHing like ameerat42, though the address was correct.

The sender had hand-written it was from LendLease:confused013
After a few minutes I decided to open it anyway.

Inside was just a pamphlet giving notice of connection to the NBN via
Hybrid Fibre Coaxial. I wondered if this was because we have Optus
cable BB here already:confused013

Anyway, there was no number back to LL, only to the NBNCo, so I
could not ask about the name.

Question...
Is anybody connected using this HFC method? What's it like?

This will just be using your current coax which is what your current Optus is using. Most people will be fibre to a node then "normal" copper from there to the house. You and I have "cable" so they use this "cable" for the final bit of connection and call it HFC. Mine is Telstra. At least this is what I have gleaned from reading on the NBN site.

I can't directly answer your question, and will be interested to know too. But assuming they don't stuff up the connection point between fibre and coax, it should be no worse than you a currently have in terms of its potential performance as a system. How it works in reality when managed by whatever provider is used, will be another thing.

[ameerat42]

Ta, Ham.
The info they sent puzzled me, because some time ago I got an Optus missive "from which I understood" that
they would not be using their cable.:confused013 I guess as the time nears... [the picture may clarify]
--or not!

[John King]

As I understand it, the current plan is to use the existing optical fibre/coax (HFC) where it is in good condition. After all, it already serves some 2.5 million premises! It would be wasteful in the extreme to ignore it's existence! That was exactly what was originally proposed ...

Our existing HFC broadband has a download speed of around 115 Mbps. Limited by the exchange equipment (servers/routers etc).

[ameerat42]

Ta, John. I wonder wattle happen here?

[John King]

Am, I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Optus cable (HFC) network from the 1990s is in pretty bad shape. However in most areas served by the existing HFC network, both Optus and Telstra run in parallel. After the switchover I expect the NBN to use whichever one is in good nick. We have two HFC systems here, and that's a commonplace!

[ameerat42]

Hmm! Can't remember when our area was cabled. Usual case of "Dunnowatts", I suppose.
When they said the time frame, I remember it was anywhere in the next 8-9 months.

[tandeejay]

it looks like if your in an area that is getting HFC, and you don't currently have a HFC connection, then you get put to the bottom of the connection list... the priority is those who already have the cable going to their house...

- - - Updated - - -



Today a letter arrived in our letterbox, addressed with an incorrect
version of the first name and a comPLETEly dIFFerent surname that was
NOTHing like ameerat42, though the address was correct.

The sender had hand-written it was from LendLease:confused013
After a few minutes I decided to open it anyway.

Inside was just a pamphlet giving notice of connection to the NBN via
Hybrid Fibre Coaxial. I wondered if this was because we have Optus
cable BB here already:confused013



I think you'll find that once NBN is activated in your area, you may start to get letters from lots of wannabe ISP's seeking your business.

I know we've received about 3 pamphlets from 3 separate companies telling us that NBN is now active in our area, and to "call this number" to arrange for connection... But I'd already pre-ordered with my current ISP... unfortunately I don't currently have foxtel cable... so I've been told there is currently no ETA on when I'll be connected :confused013

[ameerat42]

Ta, but I do have cable internet at present.

[tandeejay]

so you won't get bumped to the bottom of the list like me then...

There is no overhead power lines in my suburb, so they will have to put the cable underground...

[ameerat42]

I might not lose that way, but we all will lose in some way with this blurry NBN.

[tandeejay]

Too true! :(

[ameerat42]

It came today...!!! We have been propelled headlong into the 10th Century:eek:
It's the HFC solution in all its (little) glory...

Look! Up in the air...!
131910

[Hamster]

Skymesh seem pretty good at price matching. I hope they are still doing this when I need a provider and haven't assimilated all they need to by then.

[John King]

It came today...!!! We have been propelled headlong into the 10th Century:eek:
It's the HFC solution in all its (little) glory...

Look! Up in the air...!

Ta Ra! So what speeds are you getting, Am?

[ameerat42]

I have not switched to it yet, JK, so it's still the cable 30/1.5 speeds with old
ISP.

I do not know if I will take a cut to 25/x or go up to 50/x. That depends on
what phone service offers they can include. It's all priddy good at present
(all relatively speaking of course), so I'm not succumbing to any "incentive"
to give it up yet.

[John King]

As I mentioned in my earlier post, Am, the current HFC is hobbled by the equipment at the exchange rather than the technology. When the NBN is connected, that old equipment is replaced.

It is recommended to connect on the slowest plan at first (unless with Telstra), and then have the maximum line speeds measured by your ISP. This cannot be done until the NBN is actually connected and operational at your premises.

With Telstra, they will connect you on your selected plan, and refund you if your connection cannot deliver those speeds.

[Hamster]

, the current HFC is hobbled by the equipment at the exchange rather than the technology.

So does that mean that if I'm currently "hobbled" to 70 Mbps I can expect similar levels of hobbling when I eventually switch to NBN?

[tandeejay]

You will probably be at least as hobbled as you currently are... but... hfc speed is susceptible to the number of people actively using it, and as everyone will eventually be forced to NBN, there will be an increase in the number of people connected over your bit of HFC wire, which may see you hobbled even more..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ameerat42]

Sorry! I couldn't help over-hobbling your conversation.:D
-Oh, how the mighty are fouling:rolleyes:

[John King]

So does that mean that if I'm currently "hobbled" to 70 Mbps I can expect similar levels of hobbling when I eventually switch to NBN?

The "hobbling" is far more the case with upload speeds. I am almost always getting higher than 115 Mbps down, but never more than 2.55 Mbps up. With NBN (due here next August/September), we should be getting around 100/40 Mbps. I can currently get around 40/40 if I tether through my mobile, but that's a real PITA to organise.

- - - Updated - - -


You will probably be at least as hobbled as you currently are... but... hfc speed is susceptible to the number of people actively using it, and as everyone will eventually be forced to NBN, there will be an increase in the number of people connected over your bit of HFC wire, which may see you hobbled even more..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Actually the coax part only goes to the fibre optic cable break out box across the street. We are the only household connected to this coax run.

Coax can easily handle Gbps speeds, but can be overloaded if one cable has many downstream connections. A single fibre optic cable handled all of Seattle, for example.

[ameerat42]

...A single fibre optic cable handled all of Seattle, for example...

How H:eek:rrible! You'd be up awake all night!!

[Hamster]

The "hobbling" is far more the case with upload speeds..



Ah yes, I notice that upload speeds rarely exceed 2 Mbps

[Hawthy]

The NBN is now available in my area so I trundled down to the Telstra shop to sign up. The good news is that our "bundle" pricing is unchanged. The other good news is that because it is fibre to the node they just change some stuff at the box on the corner and we should be right to go. Not sure what speed we will get but we are in an acreage area with only a few dozen homes past the Telstra box so I am hopeful. They provide a new modem / router which supports WiFi 802.11ac, which is apparently superfast. .However, as is the case with networks it will only be as fast as the slowest point and all of our computers WiFi adapters are 802.11n which is limited to 56 mbps. Still, being on under 7 mbs at the moment any increase would be welcome. 56 mbps would be spectacular.

Cutover is 8 am on 28 August. Will keep you posted (provided it all works).:crossed:

[ameerat42]

Hawthy. You should be aware of what speeds you will get. You sign up for a package mostly based on
"speed", ie, Download/Upload speeds, cited in Mbps (Megabits - not bytes - per second). The lowest,
12/1, is most ISPs tout on their billboards. Next is 25/x, 50/y, and 100/z, where I don't know the x, y, z
values off-hand.

From the sounds of things, you've got FTTN, where N is (phone) Node in the street. The rest is over
phone lines to your house, with an "NBN" modem that can also handle phone signals over the NBN.

Your N-band WiFi should not be a problem, as you may well end up being on the base 12/1. Also,
the NBN modem you get may well be a base model 56Mbps, though AC band beast.

In all, prepare to be underwhelmed, and good luck if you get more.

- - - Updated - - -

PS: N-band is NOT limited to 56Mbps, as many can do 300 (and I think higher).

[Hawthy]

Thanks AM. You are correct. I took my advice about 802.11n versus 802.11ac from this website https://www.howtogeek.com/234751/what-is-802.11ac-and-do-i-need-it/

There is a difference between Megabits (Mb) and Megabytes (MB). There are 8 bits to each Byte. So, you are quite correct the N-Band can provide up to 450 Mbps, which is about 56MBps. Talk about confusing.:confused013

The internet speeds offered are: "Fast", which is up to 25 Mbps download; "Very Fast", which is 25 - 50 Mbps; and "Super Fast", which is 50 - 100 Mbps. The standard plan is up to 25 Mbps but you can pay extra to get the higher speeds and they will refund that if the infrastructure in your area can not deliver that speed. Given that I am currently operating pretty sweetly at 6.97 Mbps and the NBN should be that at least, and that there is no additional cost to me, I think that I will stick with the base package and see how that goes.

If people need a higher upload speed I can understand upgrading but I don't think that I need that.

[John King]

If people need a higher upload speed I can understand upgrading but I don't think that I need that.

Andrew, that's the reason I have my current 100 Mbps plan, the 2.5 Mbps upload speed instead of 1.5 Mbps! Since I occasionally upload 50 or more images at once, this makes a considerable difference.

I'm really looking forward to having 40 Mbps upload - about 16 times faster!

My web site has unlimited storage on fast SSDs with fast connections and routers. Unlimited bandwidth and data. The last link in this chain is a decent upload speed. Roll on the day ... :nod: :D.

[flashc]

There's a couple of sayings in the world, "You get what you pay for" and "Better the devil you know "
Based on this, I decided to stay with Telstra with my phone and drop Dodo and Tpg as I had 2 separate phone lines and 2 ADSL providers...
A Telstra tech, some years ago, declared my copper phone lines (1960's ?) dreadful and should be replaced..
This never happened probably due to staff cuts
So, I put off my NBN connection until the last moment...
I searched my area looking for Node boxes and also found a map of node locations..
100metres from a box looked ok but I thought my old copper lines would be a major bottleneck
I spoke to Dodo on the phone and had to explain that we had several systems in Australia and not all FTTP as they were telling me it was fibre all the way everywhere
Only Telstra has something called Telstra Air and I wanted this...
Tpg with their "deceptive" advertising and not being up front with publishing their slow speeds lost me straight away for my NBN
I have a Telstra NBN bundle still currently available for $99 and I also paid extra to upgrade my speeds to 50/20 rated speeds to see if my copper lines could cope
Using my phone or Laptop connected by network cabling, speed check mostly reports about 49 down and about 19 upload speed ratings
I have 2 Telstra modems
One is the standard modem with dual band connection frequencies
The other is a Telstra Frontier modem and it's claim to fame is that if the NBN line drops out, an internal mobile sim card will automatically connect me to the mobile network and I can continue on until the modem detects the NBN line is re-established and no extra charges to pay...
Wireless N on my laptop only connects at 72 and I believe it's slow due to the default configuration setup when new...
I'll get around to checking it out one day...

[ricktas]

I am now up to appointment 22 trying to get the NBN connected and guess what.?.?.?. They have overnight cancelled that connection appointment as well. I know of no other business that manages to cancel 22 booked appointments and thinks it is still offering its customers any form of customer service. If this was a Doctor, Bank, hairdresser, they would have lost the customer ages ago. My opinion is that the entire workforce of the NBN from the top down needs a decent review and anyone contributing to their ridiculous inefficiency should be sacked. They should also put a stop to the multiple layers of sub contractors. If a company bids for an NBN job, then they should only be allowed to subcontract it (once). Speaking to a worker in my street the other day, he has 5 levels of subcontractor companies above him. He stated it was not unusual to get a job request to install someones NBN after the date on the job sheet, cause the request went from the ISP the the NBN, and then down through all the contracting companies, and finally it was allocated to him. He said sometimes the job request date was over 3 weeks prior to when he got the job tasked to him.

About to call my ISP today and tell them that I give up and will keep my ADSL service for now.

[ameerat42]

--And you'd probably be better off, for a while at least, until you finally have to
get the NBN:(

[merlin1]

I guess they are still looking for Tassie.

Ross.

[Mark L]

I guess they are still looking for Tassie.


Was one of the first places NBN rollout was started I think?
Sale is where?:D

[ricktas]

Was one of the first places NBN rollout was started I think?
Sale is where?:D

Yes. my mum's town was the first place in Australia to get the NBN. A lot of Tasmania was done before any other state even started. But once they did start the other states, the rate of installation for the rest of Tas has trickled to a slow drip.

[Hawthy]

Connected to the NBN as of about an hour ago. Getting around 23 Mbps using Wi-Fi so pretty happy.:th3:

[ricktas]

Well i was supposed to get the NBN today...and guess what.. NUP! NADA ZILCH.

But they have managed to disconnect my ADSL service. So now I have no internet..except using my mobile phone data. And my ISP has raised a ticket with the NBN to question what is happening.

I seriously question to competence of these mobs. If they could find a harder way to do a job, I am sure they would implement it just to test it out and see if it really was harder, and then after a three month trial, they would pay each other on the back for a job well done, in testing how hard they could make something. :eek:

[ameerat42]

Maybe it'll be there "tomorrow":confused013

[Boo53]

"Rick

In the early days one would expect to have some teething problems, after all we are the first place on earth to try this sort of thing (insert your own snide sarcastic emoticon).

But after all this time .... really ...!!!!

[Hawthy]

Well...don't get too excited about the NBN. My download speed went from an ADSL average speed of 6 Mbps to about 23 Mbps yesterday when we connected but has since plummeted to 3 Mbps tonight. On the upside, upload rates went from a pathetic 0.22 Mbps to around 5 Mbps, which has remained unchanged. So, I suppose the message is that it will improve upload speeds but download speeds depend on who else is downloading? [citation required]?

Just for fun, I checked download/upload speed for my iPhone via the 4G network. It was 29.51 Mbps down and 13.46 Mbps upload. Makes me wonder why we are investing in a "fast" broadband cable network when we can get faster speeds via our mobile network? Any thoughts, tech-heads?

[Craig Zilko]

Well...don't get too excited about the NBN. My download speed went from an ADSL average speed of 6 Mbps to about 23 Mbps yesterday when we connected but has since plummeted to 3 Mbps tonight. On the upside, upload rates went from a pathetic 0.22 Mbps to around 5 Mbps, which has remained unchanged. So, I suppose the message is that it will improve upload speeds but download speeds depend on who else is downloading? [citation required]?

Just for fun, I checked download/upload speed for my iPhone via the 4G network. It was 29.51 Mbps down and 13.46 Mbps upload. Makes me wonder why we are investing in a "fast" broadband cable network when we can get faster speeds via our mobile network? Any thoughts, tech-heads?

Research codependency on NBN I think it is, apparently NBNCo can turn it on/off at will to resolve issues in an NBN/ADSL area. I hear all this from my tech savvy sister who has a real love/hate relationship with NBN FTTN [emoji3]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tannin]

Nothing we don't already know here, but a useful reminder:

NBN congestion woes won't go away just because providers increase spending : http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/nbn-congestion-woes-wont-go-away-just-because-providers-increase-spending-20170829-gy6vos.html

[deathrox]

G'day Am,
Worse was in store: then bottom-dweller TPG bought Iinet. I have crossd them off my Christmas list.

Disclosure: I hold shares in two telcos, Telstra and Amasym.

Well I agree with most of what you were saying. Except your slights on TPG. I had used TPG exclusively, untill I moved out here to the back of woopwoop, the best possible ADSL2+ speeds and amazing data-allowances.

Owning their own network allows them to have excellent speed. If you are on ADSL then you will be using one of only 3 networks, no matter who your provider is, TELSTRA, OPTUS or ....... TPG!

The first 2 have rubbish plans and Optus have dodgy speeds. I managed a guest house in Brisbane for a few years, whe I got there the boss had one Optus ADSL link for the whole place so I talked him into a second link. I naturally connected it to TPG. Speeds test showed the Optus link to be 4-5/1 mb/s the TPG link was a consustant 12/1 mb/s. Contacting Optus did no good at all.

TPG's network is excellent, I've been using them for around 20 years or so.

[ameerat42]

Interesting! I don't want to toot anytelco's trumpet, but "over the years" I've come to the
opposite conclusion:confused013

Perhaps they're all the same.

[phild]

I work in the communications sector (PBX install and VOIP telephony) and deal with NBN issues every day.

Often problems like Rick's inability to action an installation are caused by record anomalies. We've had several cases where customers have been unable to get services on simply because NBN co has incomplete or incorrect address or cable/fibre details. It's not uncommon for a fibre connection reserved for address to be connected to the wrong property, when this happens the install bombs.

@ Rick, I suggest you contact the Federal Minister for Communications, that action will likely resolve your problem quickly. One of our customers tried unsuccessfully get connection to a multi tenant building for over 12 months, it took just one week after ministerial contact and the installation was complete.

There are a couple of misconceptions regarding NBN.

NBN co does all the work. Not correct, in fact NBN co does very little, most of the work is done by contractors. In our state at least, the guy who rocks up to do the initial pre install test is actually a Telstra employee. They also jumper the copper connection at the nodes. Fibre installs to the propery are mostly done by electrical contractors, basically any joe can pay their money to sign up to an NBN installer course and become an accredited installer. We often see a poor standard of work by installation contractors.

Telstra Air, an earlier poster mentioned the "desirability" of Telstra Air. Anyone who signs with Telstra has Telstra Air capability. What this does is allows you to use your data allowance on any of the Telstra Air hotspots in the country. Not overly generous as there are plenty of free wifi hotspots around the country.

What's not explained is that the prolific Telstra Air hotspots are rolled out using Telstra customer's own routers and bandwidth, that's right every Telstra customer has a Telstra Air hotspot configured on their router. It's buried in the fine print of your contract but never explained. Browse your Telstra router and check the settings, you'll see the Telstra Air wifi config.

In my day to day work I see lots of NBN problems, invariably they are with Telstra services.

ATA (the hardware that supplues the VOIP telephone connection) and router issues, call dropouts one way transmission. Service disconnections due to administrative errors and copper disconnect are common with customers being left with no service and no option for timely reconnection.

Regarding TPG/iiNet, most users I encounter are satisfied with the service, my own iinet connection has performed as expected.

Netflix streaming. There is some anecdotal evidence that general internet traffic is "shaped" to maintain bandwidth for video streaming. I did some testing which seems to bear out that theory. My service rarely drops below 20mb/s but, on the odd occasion, I have seen it as low as 12mb/s. I did some testing during a slow peak period, 12mb/s download and had no issues streaming video on multiple devices. While streaming the connection test speed returned to my nominal 24mb/s..

[ameerat42]

Interesting, Phil. There's 1 Q that came to mind as I read the word "VOIP".
There used to be phone/internet bundles that INCLUDED calls to 13xx numbers.
Now they are non-existent. You still get "Unlimited standard national calls", but they
want about 30c each for 13xx calls. Is this marketing, or (which I can't believe) is it
due to using the NBN?

[John King]

I helped my brother in Brisbane convert from ADSL2 to NBN a couple of days ago.

He has FTTN, and is about 800m route length from the node. He is getting around 23.56/4.64 Mbps, i.e. better than the Telstra advertised speed of 22/4 Mbps on the lowest tier Telstra offers. Drops a little bit between 7-11 pm (about -15% - nothing to even notice).

All went smoothly, considering my brother's technical acumen ... He is a happy camper. His ADSL2 speeds have varied from 2.78/0.5 to 5.8/0.5 Mbps over the last 12 months, mostly around 4/0.5. The NBN speeds make these look putrid, even on the lowest tier that Telstra offers.

[sanger]

Interesting, Phil. There's 1 Q that came to mind as I read the word "VOIP".
There used to be phone/internet bundles that INCLUDED calls to 13xx numbers.
Now they are non-existent. You still get "Unlimited standard national calls", but they
want about 30c each for 13xx calls. Is this marketing, or (which I can't believe) is it
due to using the NBN?

Yep that's the situation with our plan but never bothered questioning why....use the mobile for those numbers.

- - - Updated - - -


I helped my brother in Brisbane convert from ADSL2 to NBN a couple of days ago.

He has FTTN, and is about 800m route length from the node. He is getting around 23.56/4.64 Mbps, i.e. better than the Telstra advertised speed of 22/4 Mbps on the lowest tier Telstra offers. Drops a little bit between 7-11 pm (about -15% - nothing to even notice).

All went smoothly, considering my brother's technical acumen ... He is a happy camper. His ADSL2 speeds have varied from 2.78/0.5 to 5.8/0.5 Mbps over the last 12 months, mostly around 4/0.5. The NBN speeds make these look putrid, even on the lowest tier that Telstra offers.

Have had FTTN for 18 months and speeds are the same as those.
Multiple dropouts recently which took the NBN guy half a day to fix....problem with node.
Touch wood but all good since.

[John King]

My existing cable broadband is HFC. Wonderful download speed (115-116 Mbps), but the exchange end equipment can only manage about 2.55 Mbps upload speed. Poorly planned architecture in the early 1990s!

I am really looking forward to having 100/40 Mbps when we get connected to the NBN exchange end equipment towards the end of next year.

[ameerat42]

I care less about the speeds - 30/1.6 at present - than about the gouging phone charges.
:angry0::angry0:

That's why I'm waiting for the last possible moment, and then even trying some "negotiating".

[Mark L]

I care less about the speeds - 30/1.6 at present - than about the gouging phone charges.
:angry0::angry0:


I'd be happy with those speeds. Currently have about 8/0.71. So, although secound rate, even FTTN would be an improvement.
Phone and internet plans might be an interesting threat to start AM so we can combine our research on the best plans available.
NBN not coming to our place any time soon though.

[ameerat42]

I thought the NBN - FWIW as FTTN - would have made it up the hill my now, Mark:confused013

The base (pejorative meaning) of the service in town is 12/1:rolleyes::rolleyes: If you want more,
you pay much more. -- But that doesn't mean you get much more:rolleyes:

[John King]

Am, Telstra don't offer any plans as sluggish as that.

My brother's on their bottom plan at 22/4, and he is reliably getting better than that speed.

[ameerat42]

Am, Telstra don't offer any plans as sluggish as that.

My brother's on their bottom plan at 22/4, and he is reliably getting better than that speed.

John. These are a "plans" by both DODO and Exetel up there. I don't know what [bankruptcy plans] Telstra
offer.

[John King]

John. These are a "plans" by both DODO and Exetel up there. I don't know what [bankruptcy plans] Telstra
offer.

Check them out here:

https://www.telstra.com.au/broadband/nbn/nbn-speeds-explained

[ameerat42]

I guessed right - bankruptcy! Bundles including home phone with PAYG?!!
Will check their "Belong" arm plans. - Probberly won't, though:p

- - - Updated - - -

--Nope! Can't get past entering a phone number. NUMBskulls!

[Hamster]

One of the only reasons I was looking to move from Telstra is to get a larger monthly allowance. Otherwise all is good as I have a fast reliable connection for $80/month to month. So it was handy when they recently upped my monthly allowance from 200 Mb to 1000 Mb. I don't suppose anyone has experienced going from cable to HFC NBN with Telstra and can tell me what to look out for. They've already told me I can keep my current naked plan and not have to shift to a more expensive bundle. So I'm not after Plan advice, more hardware.

[ameerat42]

Now a long thread, and I'm sure I've posted this before in it, but how can you beat for $90/mth:
30/1.5 unltd; unltd calls with only exception 19xx and satellite; unltd international calls, though to
only 25 countries. That's cable. NBN will be much worse. I'm not changing for ALAIC :angry34:

[John King]

Now a long thread, and I'm sure I've posted this before in it, but how can you beat for $90/mth:
30/1.5 unltd; unltd calls with only exception 19xx and satellite; unltd international calls, though to
only 25 countries. That's cable. NBN will be much worse. I'm not changing for ALAIC :angry34:

Am, for about $92.87 a month with Telstra cable broadband, we get:

115/5.25 Mbps, unlimited bandwidth, a fixed line with calling number display, all calls (except the ones you mentioned). We have had two outages in about 30 years of ADSL and cable.

I uploaded 101 large images today to my own web site. 326 MB took just under 9 minutes.

When we get NBN here in the next 6-9 months, we will be on a 100/40 plan. They have already upgraded the hardware in part, as our download speed is more variable than it has been since 2014 and the upload speed has gone from a miserable 2.42 Mbps to 5.25 Mbps, which is acceptable for my uses.

This makes our existing service about five times faster than the USA average for download, and just over half as fast for upload.

On Telstra NBN basic plan, my brother is consistently getting 22/6. He is 800m from the node.

[ameerat42]

JK. Do you know "Emma Chisit"? - Your future plan, ie.

[John King]

Lovely woman, Emma ... ;).

I expect it will cost roughly what we currently pay, Am. After 46 years with Telstra, I expect to get all the changeover costs free.

[ameerat42]

Hmm! Hard to put a $ value on it:eek:

[John King]

My brother didn't have to pay anything to change over from his ADSL AFAIK. New modem and connection all included.

[ameerat42]

Lovely woman, Emma ... ;).

I expect it will cost roughly what we currently pay, Am. After 46 years with Telstra, I expect to get all the changeover costs free.
Priceless!

My brother didn't have to pay anything to change over from his ADSL AFAIK...
The same!

Let me try "How much will it cost you?":confused013

[John King]

It currently costs us $92.87 p.m. for our cable internet plus one fixed line phone and all calls except 1300 calls.

Our other fixed line and mobiles are not included in this figure.

I expect Telstra to give us a free Telstra NBN compatible modem, if our current modem is not compatible (I do not think it is).

More about NBN tiers (speeds) here: https://www.telstra.com.au/small-business/broadband/nbn/nbn-speeds-explained

Even more info (opinion piece ... ) here: https://www.whistleout.com.au/Broadband/Guides/best-telstra-nbn-plans

As you will see, there is considerable disagreement about speeds! I do not expect that I will be speed limited after the changeover. I cannot see how a service that currently runs at 115/5.25 Mbps will be slower at downloading, and I expect to see a significant upload speed improvement. We shall see.

Our "inferior" Internet solution will be faster than most countries bigger than a postage stamp. Dunedin in NZ has gigabit speeds, but it is about the same population as the City of Bayside, and about the same size! Or about the same number of computer terminals as Monash University ... Australia wide is just a tad bigger than that.

It seems to me that what the media is whinging and moaning about is that the fastest speeds are not available at the cheapest cost. What a surprise!! That was never going to be the case, even under the previous "platinum with diamond sprinkles" scheme! It is also my understanding that a number of premises in the main street of Ballarat cost between $50,000 and $100,000 each to connect as FTTP (Fibre to the Premises). What this grandiose scheme would have ended up costing (and how long to roll out ... ) is anybody's guess, but it would have been far more than the (eventually) projected $50 Bn ... And would have taken until around 2150 to implement ...

As for scrapping the existing HFC network that currently serves over 2.5 million premises - what goose thought up that piece of idiocy?

Sorry for the rant.
Don't start me on sewerage treatment, waste disposal and recycling ... :eek: