thank you PHB for your reply and your input to this very important issue, re- your quote “This electricity use, while modest, will cause a minor increase to ones power bill and a cost which would not otherwise been the case if a decision had been made to retain the existing copper phone network.” unquote, …this is not really about the costs involved, although they do raise some concerns, its about the rights of everyday Australians, and in particular the elderly, to maintain their rights to choose how they want their services delivered in their own homes, and not to be given ultimatums, i quote…“To keep your home phone and internet working, you’ll need to connect to nbn.”…and this… "Please also note that your current service disconnection date is the 11/09/2020."
thanks again for your reply, im glad to see so many different views on this subject, isn’t it great that everybody can express their opinions openly and freely on this forum and many other social media platforms, not everybody has the same views, so when posts are submitted there will always be negative and positive response’s, and i respect everybody’s right tho express their views whether they are right or wrong, factual or fictional, and in most cases most people stick to their views irrespective of other individuals persuasions and influences…NBNHASBEENFORCEDUPONU.
Fair enough and that is what ‘we’ did and their phone usually was working. When in dodgy or no mobile service, one has dodgy or no mobile service, and your neighbours probably have the same reliable mobile service, especially outside of metro areas.
As it has been an option for many years pre-NBN for those with service. I was in a remote part of SA a year back and mobile service was available ‘in an airplane above 2000m’ if you needed it. Many locals had sat services but for those who did not internet was available in the ‘hall’ from 10-3 M-F if I remember correctly.
Am I moving into a ‘good old days’ mode? Apologies.
I’ll simply point out the obvious, and apologise in advance if my comments seem blunt.
Do you need to call the operator to put your call through? Is your phone on a ‘party line’ where all of your neighbours can hear exactly who is talking to whom and the subjects they discuss? Does anyone in Australia still have and use a ‘dial’ phone that requires the dial length to be transmitted to the exchange for the latter to figure out the numbers you’re calling?
I agree with other comments on the utter failure of the current model NBN. If everyone got FTTP, then a local battery would be enough to enable you to make calls during a power outage. My general point, though, is that technology changes. Very few people use a fax machine any more (unless you’re in Japan). Our television stations (and the TVs to receive them) have moved from analogue to digital, and exponentially increased the amount of junk you can choose not to watch at any particular time of day. The Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) has changed enormously over the last hundred years, and we cannot expect it to stop changing. I’m sure there have been people who struggled with all of the changes I listed above, but ultimately we live in a world of change - whether for better or worse at the individual, community or planetary level.
I realise that my answer does not solve any problems for anyone who has to cope with these constant changes, but Australia cannot afford to run two wired telecommunications systems side by side and so the old one is being taken out back for a metaphorical bullet to the head in order to make way for the young buck.
Yes, going mobile is a sensible option for many people - but not for all, especially not in rural and remote parts of the country (who are shafted either way). I provide tech support to elderly relatives, and they find some of the changes incredibly frustrating - but the only constants in this universe are Planck’s and change. And the speed of light in a vacuum. And… well, you get the idea. Change is a constant, and we either cope or we drown under its weight.
I can remember my grandmother complaining bitterly that her six-digit telephone number had been used for years and years, and she saw no reason why she should have to change to an eight-digit number. Oh, how she deplored the extra time it took to dial longer sequences, let alone write them into her Teledex. She would be spinning in her grave to hear that Japan is introducing 14-digit telephone numbers.
I can also remember dialling five-digit numbers when I was a child. This was in Sydney. I realise that people in remote and rural areas had even shorter numbers, or no number at all !
We had 4, in Wagga, in the 50s.
Opinion interspersed with a bit of news, aka ‘expert opinion’ based on evidence. Not pretty but seems right on, even as filtered by a reporter.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/tech/2019/05/16/nbn-national-disaster/
Same problem you would face if your copper line was down on ADSL and phone…you would either need a friendly neighbour or family’s phone to report it or a mobile or if lucky enough to actually have one nearby a public phone.
None of these ever had perfect answers, just we had become used to a way of addressing the issues. FTTP (considering it’s resilience and ability to be emergency powered quite simply) is a far better choice than even copper. In your house with FTTP you still use your handset (albeit that it does need power supplied) and in most it is still a plug into the wall wire. The flashing lights are in a box that most do not even look at and likely stuck on a wall in the garage or similar. Granny, Grandad, Mum or Father or really whoever else that need a simple phone with large numerals can still use one, with very little or no change to their past behaviours.
As you know I do not like MTM NBN at all and see it as a great failure of opportunity to move us all forward into new and better communications. The choice of what you use in your home for the most part re: phones has not been taken away, only how those phones now make that connection eg into a modem, into a wall socket, into a FTTP box are the main differences (outside of power failure) and all of these can be wired into a house to present exactly what a person plugged into before ie a socket on a wall. What was outside your house, led to your premises and provided the copper connection of old was never the owner’s choice and that has not changed, it is still not the property owner’s choice.
Yes, as I responded above, and the (in retrospect) satire intended on the fully charged mobile was lost on everyone. Satire missed is satire failed 
While your point is made those pretty lights are not always front and centre they can be daunting to many, especially the less technically literate. I venture to think a great many houses, especially in inner suburbs, as well as apartments do not have garages, or garages where the comms are terminated. Many installations are on a convenient wall where the old cable came in for the TV, or in a den/computer room/nook and the kit is on a table or behind furniture.
It is curious so few ‘boxes’ have a button to turn those lights off since their usefulness is primarily setup and troubleshooting.
FTTC also provides similar resilience to FTTP as the end user fully powers their end of the connection. Assumes you have a UPS or other backup source, as for FTTP.
Unfortunately until recently FTTC was an outlying solution for the MTM NBN! And still not as future proof as FTTP.
Yes, the cover shot of Scott Morrison and Minister for Comms Mitch Fifield is a classic. They appear to be looking into an NBN pit. Like they are staring into a giant abyss.
ScoMo with the glint in his eye of an ex used holiday salesman holding a Kmart inspired modem and Mitch at the ready with an arts degree and fibre optic tester in hand. (My best guess at the tech content.)
Perhaps the caption on the photo has a message in it too? What might they be saying?
Nothing to see here Mitch, can you see anything? No, Scotty, absolutely nothing at all!
A Google image search says the subject of this image is “jigging”, as in fishing with a jig not dancing. Can algorithms have a sense of humour?
It appears then they could be having doubts about the bait they are using? 
One holding what appears to be a dPU unit for FTTC the other a modem that might be of a Telstra type or even perhaps a Huawei model. ScoMo looking to somewhere else for inspiration and the Minister for Communications Fifield wondering where he sticks the box.
Slowest plan speeds available are 12/1 Mbps (12 megabits per second download and 1 megabit per second upload) and this is about the best many people had on ADSL with probably better upload than when on ADSL. Prices start around $30 per month with Pay As You Go (PAYG) phone calls, cost wise very close to what an old copper line phone plan cost. Included calls can be added for reasonable added cost per month if wanted.
A typical FTTP box and battery setup on a wall in a house. The wall plate underneath the boxes is for the phone RJ12 and the Internet RJ45 connections but you can also plug those devices directly into the box itself. The lights (other than the battery lights) and most of the wires are under the opaque cover and so are not really noticeable. In a darker room you can see illumination of the lights to a very small degree above the FTTP box.
FTTC, HFC and others certainly do have more noticeable modems/routers in place but placing them somewhere out of sight eg in or behind a cabinet, would certainly help stop any confusion for more elderly and less tech minded persons who are not used to such devices. Getting the phone line socketed into the wall would also help.
Sorry that I missed the sarcasm but your point of a mobile is still a recommendation of NBN Co as we all know, but even in the days of copper they always asked me for a mobile number in case they couldn’t get me by the home phone (which generally was why I was ringing them ie no home phone). To date since being on FTTP there has been no issue with phone calls or internet connection. When on copper it was more and more frequently a problem (same when they switched us to FTTN the pit connections were atrocious particularly in wet weather).
In suburban Brisbane, my house has the NBN box mounted on the outside of the garage wall, conveniently located where the hot water system sits inside the 2 car garage.
There is generally a box on the outside for either FTTP or Wireless for cabling into the house. This is just a junction box then the cable that continues into your home connects to a internally wall mounted device (box like) which is called an NTD (Network Termination Device). FTTP is fibre optic all the way to the NTD, Wireless is 8 strand network cable eg Cat 6 from the antenna to the NTD. The FTTP NTD is also the Fibre Modem and in the Wireless NTD it also a modem though not Fibre based and so you can plug your phone or computer or routers network cable directly into them so placement can be very important.
The placements of the outside junction box and the internal NTD are able to be negotiated with the installer. Not all installers listen or negotiate as they are required to do. They also may not be able to install either one or both where a householder would like but they should explain the reasoning (they do have rules to follow regarding placements).
HFC has a junction box on the outside wall. A householder should be able to negotiate the placement to some degree if the installer listens and then the cable is then fed into the house to the Cable modem. Generally a wall plate is placed on the wall where the internal cabling finishes eg in a computer room or study (this is also negotiable as to placement of the wall plate in the house).
Satellite has a dish then perhaps a junction box or the cable is directly passed from the dish through a wall into the home to a wall plate. Again it is normally a wall plate but I guess you could bypass one and just have a RJ45 plug terminating on the end of the cable in the house. The cable then plugs into the Satellite modem.
In all of this though is that if the placement outside that they suggest is not to your liking you should negotiate for better placement eg in your case the hot water system directly inside is not a suitable placement. If their reasons for the external placement make sense then you can always get them to run the internal cabling to a more convenient spot inside rather than just a straight through to the immediate internal wall. In a perfect world this would happen but it isn’t a perfect world so if they do a job you aren’t satisfied with then take photos, get the installer’s details, and make a complaint to both your RSP and the TIO to get them to hopefully have the issue rectified.
I am guessing in your case this has been in place for some time but even now a complaint might get them to better adjust placements.
