ISP woes

[RooFlyer]

Some recent experiences. Bit of a rant, sorry ... its therapeutic.

1. Telstra business services
I'm with Telstra - if you are outside the main cities in Tasmania (which I am), it has had to be Telstra for both phone and data coverage. Optus now covers some of the outside areas, but Vodaphone still way behind.

Last Jan I realised my ADSL 1 (yes, one) service has stepped down in speed to average 0.5-0.75 mbps. Investigation, tech comes out, tests everything, and reports: "Yes, it is slow. Its a known issue. I don't know why they sent me out - the exchange is congested and nothing to be done outside an upgrade, which isn't scheduled. It should be up to 6mbps, which for you means 3 mbps."

OK, that's clear, but I get travelling and I leave the issue.

I later get a letter from Telstra saying that all my services were just peachy: I was using 20GB/month (out of my allowance of 100GB), I was using zero phone calls from my fixed line (that they make me take for the data plan for business) and my mobile plan was doing well (this last bit was correct). So I call to follow up, making the point that I'm paying to use only 20% of my data, paying for a phone service I don't want or use, and paying for speed of 25% which I should be getting (or 13% of what its rated to be), with a known issue and no fix scheduled.

And I'm out of contract.

This threw the system into a bit of a frenzy, and I got escalated so fast my nose started to bleed. Finally some-one asked the magic question: what do you want Mr RooFlyer? So I told them, and after some more escalation, I got it!! :shock: Basically a non-standard, cheaper plan (yes, they can do it) and a on-going rebate off my mobile phone. Doesn't help with the data speeds, but the exercise (probably 3 hrs on phone in total) was worth it.

2. New NBN service
The NBN just commissioned a 'Fixed wireless' service to Coles Bay, on Tas east coast, where I have a holiday rental. ADSL not possible, only expensive and limited 3/4G internet, so my guests have gone without. Don't worry, thought of many solutions, just not possible without too great a cost.

Don't want Telstra NBN, as still very expensive, and limited plans. (Has to be unlimited, as it has to be free to guests as we can't administer as we would have to do if it was a paid service).

So - Dodo. $60/month, unlimited at "12mbps". I don't care too much about the speed, as long as its not too dear, and unlimited.

Well, it took me only the first call to end up going to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman. I'm a cynical old codger, so tested everything the sales guy told me would happen - re installation, costs, modem, availability, you name it. I told him the situation "remote Tasmania" yet, amongst other things he "guaranteed" connection in 2-3 business days, tech assistance with setting up my modem (blocking some web sites) and a bunch more.

Complete and utter b/s, I found out when I had signed up and was passed to the "welcome" team. Can't say at all when installation will occur (a third party contractor); I have to take their modem at $60 incl delivery fee; modem will only be despatched from warehouse 2 days before whatever installation date is given (guaranteeing it won't arrive I time, so the tech doesn't have to have anything to do with it); tech won't touch the modem anyway, etc etc.

There's a bunch more but I cannot get over how the sales guy was so ... what should I say? Not lying because he's just reading a script .. just that I was fed complete b/s as guarantees notwithstanding I queried everything. The complaint person I got onto couldn't even send me an e-mail repeating our agreed path forward - had to go through some other part, and would arrive 12-24 hrs later.

Farce has continued to day as I receive texts on various things with wrong details etc.

I feel sorry for those who have to use these cheap-and-nasty ISP outfits because they are driven by cost alone. As I say, I'm a cynic through-and-through but I was really shocked at how much cough I was fed (and ended up swallowing) in just one phone call.

BTW - result so far is that before the TIO, I have a tech visiting on a day of my choosing in a couple of weeks and 3 months free service. This was after I told them they will be getting a TIO complaint in ay event (I won't be asking for anything more- just a blot on their copybook).

Hard to make Telstra look good, but Dodo managed it very easily.

 

[theblank]

It sounds like your speed issue is a backhaul one, and you are on a RIM?
The link from my RIM To my exchange has been upgraded 3x in 12 years. When its increased, its great, a few more hundred houses gets built and its slow again and the cycle continues.

Even though you have changed providers you will still be on Telstra infrastructure. There is a spreadsheet on Telstra website somewhere, that will show the upgrade plan for your RIM. If google cant find it, your local Telstra office should be on top of that info anyway

 

[moa999]

Complete and utter b/s, I found out when I had signed up and was passed to the "welcome" team. Can't say at all when installation will occur (a third party contractor); I have to take their modem at $60 incl delivery fee; modem will only be despatched from warehouse 2 days before whatever installation date is given (guaranteeing it won't arrive I time, so the tech doesn't have to have anything to do with it); tech won't touch the modem anyway, etc etc.

Defintely agree complete and utter cough from the sales guy...
No chance the installer (who is actually contracted by the NBN) would touch the RSP device.


From a setup perspective Fixed Wireless and Full Fibre (FTTP) are quite similar.
You don't actually have a modem rather you have an NTD.

Dodo will supply you with a modem/router (because like most RSPs they use the one device for FTTP/FTTN/FTTB/FW) but you will essentially only be using as a router.

I believe Dodo supplies an Audiocodes MP-264 (one of the better RSP devices) with N300 Wifi, 4-port Gigabit, 2 x VoIP FXS, 2 USB2.
So it has VOIP if you want a landline phone (you probably don't).
Fairly coughpy N300 wifi but probably sufficient for a 12/1 connection and gigabit ports.

It might have a manual access control list, but I suspect its difficult to stop guests accessing what they want without a different router.

 

[RooFlyer]

It sounds like your speed issue is a backhaul one, and you are on a RIM?
The link from my RIM To my exchange has been upgraded 3x in 12 years. When its increased, its great, a few more hundred houses gets built and its slow again and the cycle continues.

Even though you have changed providers you will still be on Telstra infrastructure. There is a spreadsheet on Telstra website somewhere, that will show the upgrade plan for your RIM. If google cant find it, your local Telstra office should be on top of that info anyway

Re RIM - I had to look that up . I don't know - all the tech said was that they had over-extended the local (small, rural) exchange and hadn't left any ports; it was over-loaded hence slow speed, which is not 'solvable'. I'm on ADSL1, as the ADSL 2 ports disappeared many years ago.

They won't be upgrading the local exchange - or RIM - as "NBN is coming". Which it is, scheduled for later this year as 'fibre to the node'. That doesn't fill me with much confidence other than it should give me better than 0.5-075mbps! (BTW, these speeds measured via the ookla site).

Defintely agree complete and utter cough from the sales guy...
No chance the installer (who is actually contracted by the NBN) would touch the RSP device.


From a setup perspective Fixed Wireless and Full Fibre (FTTP) are quite similar.
You don't actually have a modem rather you have an NTD.

Dodo will supply you with a modem/router (because like most RSPs they use the one device for FTTP/FTTN/FTTB/FW) but you will essentially only be using as a router.

I believe Dodo supplies an Audiocodes MP-264 (one of the better RSP devices) with N300 Wifi, 4-port Gigabit, 2 x VoIP FXS, 2 USB2.
So it has VOIP if you want a landline phone (you probably don't).
Fairly coughpy N300 wifi but probably sufficient for a 12/1 connection and gigabit ports.

It might have a manual access control list, but I suspect its difficult to stop guests accessing what they want without a different router.

OK - I had to look up NTD as well

Dodo supplies a GoHub modem/router (whatever). For practical purposes, all I need is a box to convert the FW to wi-fi for the guests. But I also want to log into it to check on status etc, and my own tech guy is going to fix me up wrt that set-up (not difficult I know, but I just don't want to need to focus on it). Might want to block some sites .(like Windows updates and Netflix etc) .. have to see how it goes.

I also don't care too much about speed, as long as its decent. Its free to my guests and almost certainly will be better than what I've been running my business off for the last year or more!!

 

[theblank]

Re RIM - I had to look that up . I don't know - all the tech said was that they had over-extended the local (small, rural) exchange and hadn't left any ports; it was over-loaded hence slow speed, which is not 'solvable'. I'm on ADSL1, as the ADSL 2 ports disappeared many years ago.

They won't be upgrading the local exchange - or RIM - as "NBN is coming". Which it is, scheduled for later this year as 'fibre to the node'. That doesn't fill me with much confidence other than it should give me better than 0.5-075mbps! (BTW, these speeds measured via the ookla site).

Whether you have a RIM or an Exchange, there is a major link between that, and the next leg in Telstras network. Upgrading these is no small task. Just like our highways, over time they get too busy and we need to add more lanes.

Both a RIM or Exchange has a limited number of ports, that doesnt impact speed.

They won't be upgrading the local exchange - or RIM - as "NBN is coming".

This doesnt really make sense. Now I am out of the loop on NBN, but that is not going to replace local exchanges or rims. The network is a series of hubs, spokes, and more hubs at the end of each spoke.

When your local area is upgraded to the NBN, everyone is getting faster internet. that means increased load on the link from your Exchange back to their major hub, which is the backhaul. If they dont upgrade your backhaul, your internet will get slower, because the coughmongers and gameof thrones downloaders are going to be saturating your area even more!

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks again. As you may have gathered, I'm yer typical mug punter when it comes to these broadband thingys (that is, I switch the laptop and phone on and say 'where's the damn data?').

Re the exchange upgrade, I interpret what they were saying is that they weren't going to install more ports etc for ADSL (ie ADSL2) and/or whatever currently carries the 'signal' into town to allow more ADSL 2 capacity, when optic fibre will be strung through the place as far as the nodes and then carried on the copper so people will switch over to that. I visualise it as a new, parallel, bigger pipe for data - if you tell me, no, it still has to flow through the same exchange and will be subject to the same constraints, then I'm just going to pretend we didn't have this conversation and stick my head in the sand, and wait to see what happens

Telstra vans have been gratifyingly present around town for a while now, busy at the 'pits' and at the local exchange, so I hope they are doing something to facilitate the NBN when it comes!

I'm in a rural town with a standing population of maybe 500 that swells to several thousand during the summer. I guess its hard to put infrastructure for the peak or even close to it when its so seasonal.

 

[RooFlyer]

This is getting interesting. Just had a call from Telstra. It was from a Melbourne number that came up on the phone - not the usual blocked ID. I had the satisfaction of giving them a grilling to establish their ID.

Anyway it was an 'account manager' who, in a nutshell, was offering me a whole bunch of add-ons to my current mobile plan for no additional cost and no additional T&Cs. Such as $150/mo of international calls, and a MUCH bigger data allowance (I share the phone data allowance with my sim-equipped laptop, so this is quite significant for me). I'm currently on their 'all you can eat' mobile plan (now with a monthly discount ), which is a 'legacy' one and I will be going onto one of their 'current' plans at the same cost, so I guess this is a way to get people to shift onto plans they can change, rather than the legacy ones they are stuck with. Anyway, I couldn't see any downside (I'm off contract in 2 months, and the add-ons stay), so I agreed. No personal info was asked for, so I'm reasonably content with the call.

Although the guy was, dare I say, probably originally from the sub-continent (and hence my suspicion at the start), from the number and quality of the call, it was one from within Oz and he was not bad to chat to. So I threw him the bone of getting the NBN data service I'm chasing for my other place. Alas, as I thought, they can only offer a phone-bundled service at double the cost of [gritted teeth] Dodo [/gritted teeth].

Marks for trying, Telstra. Its not going to make me like you, but I dislike you less.

 

[Princess Fiona]

We switched our internet over to the NBN early March kept account with Telstra.
Switchover didn't work out completely as they failed to switch over the land line.
Spent the following few weeks making calls to them to get it fixed. Finally fixed up early April. Since then have had a few calls asking for "Mark". We don't have a Mark residing with us.
My mobile rang earlier in the week with a local number I didn't recognize. Answered it and it was one of the kids calling me from our landline. Or should I say Mark's telephone number. Calls to my own number go straight to message bank.
Mark has now called me. Since early April he has been without Telstra Internet or landline and unable to get it fixed.
Calling Manila and trying to explain any of this is useless as both of our accounts still show the existing phone numbers. Obviously all of our data usage is going through his service that he doesn't have.
The level of incompetence is astounding.
Have a Technician coming around on Tuesday to check my connection and will hopefully be able to get it resolved.

 

[Pushka]

Good grief. Similarly Telstra 'sold' our telephone number to a third party Telco who then promptly sold it to a customer. It had been our business line since 1999. We could prove our usage, obviously, so Telstra had to scramble to retrieve it from the Telco who had to cancel the customer's account. Fortunately Telstra shot it to the highest level and after a month got it sorted. But how on earth does such stuff happen?