NBN Discussion

[Quickstatus]

Not quite sure how to feel when NBN (or its contractors) turned up 2 weeks ago to attach this to the wall at the back of my shop/office a couple of weeks ago. Knew from my IT contractor they had done other streets around us:

What NBN technology are you prescribed?

 

[QF WP]

I'm prescribing myself a wait and see, like a good doctor. Have iiNet now so have to nut out relevant offers from the panel of suppliers and talk to my IT consultant to work out which is best. I'm less fussed about higher speed, I'd trade for less dropouts (we are 2kms from our exchange so by the time it gets here, its degraded a bit). Being in a strip shop from the 70's doesn't help either.

 

[Quickstatus]

FTTP/B/C/N, HFC,FW,Sat??

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

Got business's check if that's fiber from Vocus / TPG INTO YOUR building. They can offer pretty good deals since they don't have the high cost of CVC to provide the service

 

[QF WP]

I thought it was FTTB, but I'm soooo not into IT, so I'll ask my IT guru . Know it's fixed line

 

[Quickstatus]

I don’t think It’s FTTB because in FTTB the NBN fibrewould terminate in a main distribution frame which typically sits in a “Telecoms” room in the basement somewherex.

 

[QF WP]

No basement or telecoms room in a strip shop set up, but you made me find the main box for all the connections sitting on the wall at the back of the complex

 

[Quickstatus]

Does not look like a MDF. Back to base alarm?
Current internet is via phone socket or cable internet?

 

[QF WP]

That's where all of the cables from our shops go back into (the box is probably 80cms x 50cms). I have a B2B alarm in my shop/office so know that it's not that (most shops in this block don't have them, but I chose to install when I moved in). Internet via phone socket IIRC - no fancy cable internet here...

 

[straitman]

I'm getting emails etc from ISPs begging for my NBN business as it's now available in our area.

NBN on the other hand says that it is at least 6 months away!

Home ADSL2 is now effectively useless.

 

[Quickstatus]

I'm getting emails etc from ISPs begging for my NBN business as it's now available in our area.

NBN on the other hand says that it is at least 6 months away!

Home ADSL2 is now effectively useless.

Have you tried optus mobile broadband $70 for $140Gb contracted, 100Gb uncontracted.

 

[straitman]

Thanks.

Have you tried optus mobile broadband $70 for $140Gb contracted, 100Gb uncontracted.

I'll look into that as we get very good speeds from Optus.

 

[Legoman]

I'm getting emails etc from ISPs begging for my NBN business as it's now available in our area.

NBN on the other hand says that it is at least 6 months away!

Home ADSL2 is now effectively useless.

Are you saying your ADSL has been deliberately crippled since NBN became available to give you the incentive/push you need to pay more to get less?

I am dreading the day NBN comes here. Fortunately that's not until the second half of 2019 on present estimates, by which time I'm hoping all the free beta testers... ahem, excuse me, the early adopters of the tech will have found all the problems and solved them, so that by the time I have to deal with it, the conversion should be seemless and problem-free. That's probably being stupidly optimistic, but until then I'm hanging on to my 12/1 Mbps ADSL2+ connection for as long as I possibly can!

 

[Quickstatus]

Thanks.

I'll look into that as we get very good speeds from Optus.

I believe the data is shareable if you get 2 data sims on the one account. Leave one in drawer.
There are 4G sim routers which accept a SIM card and routes via Ethernet lan port or wifi. See telcoantennas.com.au - industrial modems

This is optus mobile broadband and is different to optus home wireless broadband which only gives up to 12/1speed but 200GB via an optus locked and supplied modem and sim

As a trial you can get a $19 optus 4g Huawei USB stick from officeworks. Comes with 4gb prepaid data.

 

[equus]

telcoantennas.com.au

Those industrial ones are a bit on the pricey side, although I did get the Cel Fi repeater kit and external antenna from them (fixed all the reception issues).

The other option for more data, is to get more data on a phone plan, and then data share that. I am moving to a 200Gb + 50Gb on phones, which is shared with iPads (got the $0 data share plan that was available a few years ago) - for the computer connection, had to add the cheapest additional plan $15 for 3Gb to add - if I need more data, I can up that plan.

As I have not decided to ditch the slow ADSL just yet, I used a Netgear LB2120 for the modem and then used a TP-Link TL-R480T router. This allows simultaneous multiple connections, and can be configured to use one link as a backup, or what I am doing - using both to increase effective bandwidth. Have gone from 4Mbs connection to about 25-30Mbs.

 

[amaroo]

Received today...

You are currently on a 100/40 plan. You are paying to receive internet speeds up to 100/40 Mbps.

The maximum speed you can receive is 88.873 Mbps download and 34.295 Mbps upload.

This means that you are paying for speeds of up to 100 Mbps download and 40 Mbps upload, when in fact, the fastest speeds you can actually receive are 88.873 Mbps download and 34.295 Mbps upload.

Have three options 1) cancel contract FOC 2) reduce plan 3) do nothing.

The speed result is pretty much spot on to the numbers my local phone man advised when I signed up.... happy to do nothing as I'm getting around 77/32.

 

[Legoman]

I'd prefer to be artifically throttled to what I'm paying for rather than hard limited under that by the deficiencies of the technology, but each to their own.

 

[amaroo]

$90/month .... not sheep stations

 

[jb747]

The general consensus on Whirlpool is to keep away from any plan (or ISP) offering ‘unlimited’. Normally they become so congested as to be self limiting. iiNet, Internode, TPG are the same company these days, and whilst the individual components were good before falling under the same company, all are terrible now.

I’d suggest givIng Aussie Broadband a go. No contracts, so you can move on if you don’t like them. Call centre in Morwell, which immediately ranks them well above any company using Mumbai and Manila.

 

[Legoman]

The general consensus on Whirlpool is to keep away from any plan (or ISP) offering ‘unlimited’. Normally they become so congested as to be self limiting. iiNet, Internode, TPG are the same company these days, and whilst the individual components were good before falling under the same company, all are terrible now.

In all fairness and with full disclosure, I am not on the NBN yet which I acknowledge is the subject of this thread, however I am a former iiNet customer who churned to TPG when they offered 'unlimited' for $10/month cheaper than iiNet would do and iiNet refused to price or plan match to their own parent company. I had lots of complaints about iiNet post their take-over by TPG. Customer service went sub-terranean. Their invoicing methods were completely unintelligible and followed no conventional accounting practices anyone has ever seen. They took their app offline and didn't bother telling anyone, so all their fault reports and callback requests just disappeared into thin air and were ignored. They had a famous 5 day complete breakdown of service one year between Christmas & New Year in WA that was widely criticised and covered in the local media and they wouldn't provide anyone local to front the media or talk about it. Basically, in 18 months they went from being the best ISP in the land, to the worst (leaving out DoDo obviously).

All that said, since moving to TPG, I've had no complaints. Yes, I'm talking to Filippinos when I call, but even that's better than talking to Yarpies in Cape Town with iiNet. I've noticed no slowdown whatsoever with TPG unlimited, however, I concede that being on ADSL2+ I am more than likely connection limited by my copper wire to the maximum 12.86/0.88Mbps speed I can get regardless of which ISP I was with.