NBN Discussion

[Pushka]

@Buzzard This is the likely answer ...

Actually we’ve now bought an Optus modem for the office so our plan is up to 500gb a month but costs an extra $65.

 

[Hvr]

An internet service provider lied to their customers. Now is anybody surprised?
Good to see they've been punished.

Not so perfect for streaming: Dodo forced to repay 16,000 NBN customers

Internet provider Dodo will repay 16,000 customers who signed up to the NNB after the competition watchdog bit back over claims its plans were perfect for video streaming.

www.smh.com.au

Internet provider Dodo will repay 16,000 customers who signed up to the National Broadband Network after the competition watchdog bit back over claims its plans were perfect for video streaming.

...

Dodo had advertised NBN broadband plans with the video streaming claim even when the plans were for maximum speeds of 12Mbps and had 10GB of included data. The advertising ran from November 2015 to March 2018.
Streaming video service Netflix recommends 25Mbps for ultra high-definition content and 5Mbps for high-definition.

 

[Quickstatus]

If you want to sell cheap cheap, then sell cheap cheap. Dont dress it up as though its premium.

However, the NBN market understands that the majority of NBN customers will buy to a price point. Unfortunately for the NBN, that price point is not what they would like it to be.

The problem is what to do with customers who cannot afford a "normal" NBN service as NBN is constraining the CVC for the 12/1 service in an attempt to push people to more expensive plans. I think many in that segment will abandon NBN.

 

[DaveB]

Gotta love government monopolies for ineptness.
So nearing completion of our new business premises, organised a month ahead for the date we want a new connection with their first available date being a good fit - luckily we gave four week notice. At this stage we were dealing with TPG as NBN will not deal with you directly though TPG has now given us their details.
So the guy rocks up on site to make the new connection and sees he has to hand dig 1.5m from the boundary to the Telstra pit across a soft muddy section of nature strip. He said he can't do it and declines our offer to to do the excavation saying it has to be referred to a civil works crew. We make contact a day later and find out the crew will be there sometime over the next three weeks.
Frustrated, we remember their was still the old pit leadin from the site in place so we we make connection to this to take away the need for the civil works crew. NBN take our word for it but it does not change the three week date.
So yesterday, three NBN guys arrive without any notification as stated and proceed to only install a cable duct rod and not the cable required over a 20 metre length. When asked when is the cable going to be installed, they advised that is a different crew and no idea.
NBN is just a hopelessly inefficient rebirthed Telecom and should allow the service providers to get directly manage and install the cabling to individual premises.
Can't wait for TPG to make lay their high speed cable, currently 2km away which will give me 1Gbps.

 

[moa999]

Same old staff either way.
And a very inefficient subcontracting system that will only pay contractors for approved work, meaning they can't deal with any changes.

 

[Buzzard]

Gotta love government monopolies for ineptness.
So nearing completion of our new business premises, organised a month ahead for the date we want a new connection with their first available date being a good fit - luckily we gave four week notice. At this stage we were dealing with TPG as NBN will not deal with you directly though TPG has now given us their details.
So the guy rocks up on site to make the new connection and sees he has to hand dig 1.5m from the boundary to the Telstra pit across a soft muddy section of nature strip. He said he can't do it and declines our offer to to do the excavation saying it has to be referred to a civil works crew. We make contact a day later and find out the crew will be there sometime over the next three weeks.
Frustrated, we remember their was still the old pit leadin from the site in place so we we make connection to this to take away the need for the civil works crew. NBN take our word for it but it does not change the three week date.
So yesterday, three NBN guys arrive without any notification as stated and proceed to only install a cable duct rod and not the cable required over a 20 metre length. When asked when is the cable going to be installed, they advised that is a different crew and no idea.
NBN is just a hopelessly inefficient rebirthed Telecom and should allow the service providers to get directly manage and install the cabling to individual premises.
Can't wait for TPG to make lay their high speed cable, currently 2km away which will give me 1Gbps.

I think the Telstra pit you are talking about is actually called a money pit.

 

[serfty]

...
These days I would be happy with a consistent 3.9Mbps, but a lot of the time now,our 'phones simply reject the wifi while waiting for "the connection to improve" and use 4G. Of course this is little help for the desktops and other devices.

I was going to wait at least a year, but feel this is no longer viable, so have bitten the bullet and arranged to have the FTTC connected. I managed to negotiate a deal with my existing ISP (Telstra) for the same monthly cost as current, no "connection fee", same data more inclusive home landline IP phone call rates and retaining our 20+ year old email addresses.

...
On Sunday I turned them modem off for two hours to perhaps help by letting it 'cool down'. After that it would not turn back on. A quick check with the multi-meter showed the issue to be the 22v power pack. Opening that up revealed a blown diode in the interestingly complex circuitry.

I was not going blow $30 on a replacement, nor try to repair it given it would be redundant in three days.

Bring on FTTC FTTK!

The Telstra Hub arrived 10 days ago and on Wednesday, the tech. arrived 90 minutes early (they called first) to connect FTTC.

They could not find the PIT to access my copper! He showed me a map that indicated the area of the nature strip where the pit was supposed to be but there was nothing to be seen or discoverable with a probe. The area indicated has been nothing but grass in the seven years I have resided there. He checked all nearby pits as well but was unable to locate the specific wires.

So, he has referred it to "civil works", who apparently will come along and send a signal along my copper and use detectors to trace the wiring. (There was a sort of suggestion that when "the NBN" workers came through in January, they would not have been able to find the pit either; despite this, documentation exists that shows my address as having been NBN readied at that time.)

After two hours he left.

My ISP account page yesterday shows my NBN as being "On Hold".

Last evening I received a text "... NBN has updated that they have as issue with your NBN connection to your home and we will get back to you on 22/07/2019 ..."

The good news? The Telstra Hub has 4G backup (albeit shaped) and I am now getting a reliable 6½ Mbps which is better than I have ever had from ADSL 2+ at this location and certainly better than the unreliable 2½Mbps that we have lived with for most of this year.

 

[moa999]

One of the advantages of Telstra (or Vodafone).

Suspect you might be in for a bit of a wait if the DPU hasn't been installed.

 

[Quickstatus]

Jindy friend tells me he got an email from Aussie Broadband.
Apparently the "speed potential" on his FTTN line is 121 Mbps.

It appears that ABB is hoping the email will get subscribers to supersize their plan to 100/40. Currently he is using a 25/5 plan and has no plans to go quicker. He says he was on 100/40 originally and changing to 25/5 did not make any difference.

Anyone here got a 100/40 plan?. If so were you on a slower plan previously and did the plan change make any discernible difference?

 

[DC3]

... He says he was on 100/40 originally and changing to 25/5 did not make any difference ...

I’m interested in your post.

I’m looking around for an RSP now that the NBN is available (HFC).

Was the friend’s 100/40 plan so bad that it only provided about 25/5?

Edit: Although I would like 100/40, like many, I’m thinking of trying 50/20.

 

[Quickstatus]

No this is the Jindy friend who has the FTTN speed potential of 121 Mbps - one of those where FTTN actually works. For his purposes he did not see any difference between 100/40 which was what he was originally in and 25/5 now. When he was on 100/40, the line speed was over 100. Maybe it’s a bit higher now that the adsl-FTTN coexistence period has finished for his area.

He does a bit of Netflix

 

[Daver6]

Anyone here got a 100/40 plan?. If so were you on a slower plan previously and did the plan change make any discernible difference?

Are you asking whether paying for the faster plan actually got them better speeds or if you have the higher speeds, will you notice a difference? If the latter, then answer would depend on what you're using it for and how many people in your household trying to do things concurrently. One person just brownsing the web or streaming a movie, highly unlikely. Downloading files, you'd expect it to complete in half the time. Same applies to uploading.

I’m interested in your post.

I’m looking around for an RSP now that the NBN is available (HFC).

Was the friend’s 100/40 plan so bad that it only provided about 25/5?

Edit: Although I would like 100/40, like many, I’m thinking of trying 50/20.

I'm on HFC. Provider is ABB. I get about 48/19 on my 50/20 plan. With ABB its easier enough to change plan speeds on a month to month basis.

 

[Quickstatus]

Thats what my Jindy friend says.

Downloading or uploadling files in half the time makes no difference. i guess for him its just uploading some files from time to time to dropbox. whether it takes 5 minutes instead of 2.5 minutes is neither here nor there.

 

[amaroo]

Anyone here got a 100/40 plan?. If so were you on a slower plan previously and did the plan change make any discernible difference?

Have been on 100/40 since joining.... actual speeds are 72/32. Received a letter regarding the diff, bit couldn't be bothered following it up. I'm happy with the speeds / data allowance I'm getting for the price paid.

 

[Hvr]

I'm on HFC. Provider is ABB. I get about 48/19 on my 50/20 plan. With ABB its easier enough to change plan speeds on a month to month basis.

Same plan and RSP as me. So far so good and I can watch the Fetch TV internet channels and still have fast internet even during peak hours.

 

[Quickstatus]

I’m sure this has been discussed but 100/40 is not necessarily for most residential customers (presently). Some will want it a few may actually need it. I think a small minority will have it for bragging rights like a massive flatscreen TV.

In any case it’s a moot point for me as the ADSL is only 2.5 down. NBN in a years time apparently

 

[Lynda2475]

I also recommend Aussie Broadband - no contracts so you can change your speed tier month to month if your needs change.

I have 50/20 on HFC, usually get about 48/18 in peak periods, never have issues streaming or using the web. From a Netflix/Stan performance pov as a single person household i noticed no observable difference on 25/5 vs 50/20 plan. The reason I have 50/20 is because when I do elect to work from home, the faster upload makes all the difference for submitting large files and doing video conferencing.

 

[drsmithy]

Anyone here got a 100/40 plan?. If so were you on a slower plan previously and did the plan change make any discernible difference?

In our previous house I was on a 100/40 plan with ABB. Since we were literally a stone's throw from the pillar, the modem actually synced up at about 150/50.

At the time I was able to saturate both down and uplinks. I used to keep a Plex server at home I'd stream from while travelling, and for that the 40Mb upload made a significant difference - the current place with only 100/5 cable is all but unusable for it.

I also notice the slower uplink when I'm working from home if it happens to be particularly big documents.

 

[Legoman]

Finally just got connected to NBN long after the other 99% of the country. Went with Exetel 50Mbps supposed plan speed FTTN connected and I must say I am completely underwhelmed.

I honestly can't tell any difference at all from the ADSL I had before. Yes, technically speaking if I go to speedtest.net the numbers that come out are three times higher than before, but this does not translate into a faster feel browsing the internet. The ping speed is exactly the same as before, which translates into page switching speed which is exactly what you feel when browsing and that hasn't changed at all.

Everyone I know who is also on FTTN is saying the same thing. They can't tell any difference at all and are wondering what the hell the $50bn spend has got us? Is this the biggest, most fraudulent scam in history? Did Bernie Maddoff burn more than $50bn in his Ponzi scheme?

Admittedly I had pretty good ADSL before at 12-13Mbps easily and reliably, so I didn't have a lot to complain about and I realise that others had much poorer ADSL speeds than I had, and for sure people so afflicted will notice a much greater improvement, but is it unfair to say that all we've got for $50bn is an upgrade from bad ADSL speeds to good ADSL speeds? That's my experience so far of having it connected for a week.

On another note, my supposed 50Mbps speed translates into a maximum I've seen so far of only 32Mbps which seems a very long way from what's being paid for to me, though I doubt I would notice another 18Mbps speed anyway. If I barely notice any difference in going from 12 to 32, then it's highly unlikely I'm going to notice another 18 on top again.

Another trap for players not familiar with the technical sides of it is that Exetel use CG-NAT on their servers which makes forwarding ports completely impossible for things like p2p sharing and access back into a private NAS. Of course Exetel don't tell you this before you sign up and it's definitely not something you think of to ask beforehand either. I'm now in discussions with Exetel to get the CG-NAT turned off and it's meeting some resistance. They don't wanna do it (though they admit they can) without a justifiable reason.

 

[DC3]

Finally just got connected to NBN long after the other 99% of the country. Went with Exetel 50Mbps supposed plan speed FTTN connected and I must say I am completely underwhelmed ....

Thank you for posting. I had been considering Exetel due to their good pricing. I was already aware of their overseas Call Centre and long wait times.

I need to take your post onboard.