The "Never Never Broadband Network" - NBN complaints

Electronics & Technology NBN
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From a director on the NBN board comes this statement about people who complain about their connection (or rather lack of):
“If I was running NBN and they [complaining Service Class 0 customers] went to the media, I would put them to the back of the queue. Personally, that’s what I would do,” Malone said in an exclusive interview, adding that Service Class 0 issues would all get resolved and that people should be patient.

To read the full story head to:

No wonder we have such issues with the NBN!

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‘If it weren’t for the customers, I could get on with my job’. :tired_face:

This person is not suited to working with customers. Perhaps it is time for him to be looking for a back room job. :rage:

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Great link @grahroll. (Almost) unbelievable ! Especially given Malone’s history with iinet. The article makes me even more determined to use an ISP other than our current one to connect to the NBN when it arrives at our home next month. I’m going to keep our existing ADSL running side by side with the NBN HFC connection for at least a couple of months, until I’m convinced that it’s stable and I’m getting what I’m paying for.

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Making sure we peasants know our place! :rage:

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I often wonder why the folks at AARNet were not brought into the NBN, even if only as advisors. Or were they?

They had and probably continue to have as good or better knowledge and experience of high speed backbones and connections than anyone across the continent. They were provisioning 10Gbps pipes and their cross country backbones into our university world about the time NBNCo was sputtering into existence.

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I believe I have stumbled on the scientific advice that was taken by the coalition’s Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull, when they seized the NBN project.

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Nice one @PhilT :laughing:

Meanwhile, a 160% rise in complaints to the ACCC has now prompted a public inquiry into the NBN.

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Alway thought it was an either/or situation. I didn’t know it was possible to run the NBN & ADSL in parallel.

How does that work? Do you need two phone lines into the house, or can use split the one line as with phone & data on ADSL?

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ADSL operates with the old copper, the NBN with whatever alphabet service you are unlucky enough to get. As long as you do not have FTTN that uses the old copper to get to your house, you can have both running in parallel with separate providers.

My understanding is the problem is the NBN contract where once a company shuts down your ADSL ( or connects NBN) they are not allowed to reconnect it. If you are with the same RSP/ISP they are required to close your ADSL to start your NBN, but if it is two companies a transition works.

I could be corrected, but.

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Pretty much correct @PhilT. If HFC, FTTP, Satellite, or Wifi and can keep your copper path then you can retain ADSL and even with the same provider (just means two billing amounts). But it probably will take a bit of argie bargie to do so. Also you would have to trust the system which can’t be trusted to do the connection the way you request.

FTTC and FTTN require the use of your existing copper lines and once your RSP does the connection you lose ADSL.

Reconnecting is another issue and if you complain soon enough, in the situation where you could keep copper, you could get a re-connection but again this would require a lot of persuasion.

Of course once the 18 mths grace period runs out unless you are on the NBN connections that support copper retention ie Wifi and Satellite, you would have your copper connection terminated and ADSL would be gone.

I note that currently we have been arguing the re-connection of the copper for my Mother’s house (she is on the NBN Wifi) which was disconnected against her wishes so on this matter I have first hand knowledge of the amount of persuasion you have to exert to get what you are entitled to and the amount is a lot.

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Tamas @meltam, @PhilT and @grahroll have summed it up nicely.
We get HFC in the great NBN MTM lucky dip, so our copper will be put to ADSL use for a little while longer, whilst the NBN will come in on a coax cable.
I could persevere and have two accounts with our current ISP, but I think it will be much simpler to go with someone new.

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Telstra is planning to compensate customers for slow NBN speeds. If you’re experiencing problems, make sure you let your telco know about it.

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Optus comes to the party:

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RSPs fly somewhat blind when they sell a new FTTN/B connection because data on the maximum speed the line is capable of is poor or incomplete.

iTnews can reveal that the NBN dataset used to provide RSPs with an initial indication of the maximum attainable line rate for a new service is not only “theoretical”, but also only available for 80 percent of premises.

In other words, for one in every five new FTTN/B connections sold, the RSP has no idea what speed the copper line is capable of.

That makes recommending an appropriately tiered NBN plan to the customer at the outset difficult.

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Oh well to add to the problems of the speed at which the NBN has been provisioned they are now placing a 6 to 9 month hold on HFC connections. This is to allow the NBN to fix the problems of those already connected. It appears that NBN Co are responding to the growing issues but there has been some talk that the delay was not sought by NBN Co but was rather in response to an ACCC demand.

I smiled at this piece from the Australian Financial Review and have included some sections below that I think are worth their weight in gold

"On Monday NBN introduced Australia to yet another new phrase to add to the broadband list. Alongside fibre to the node, fibre to the premise and fibre to the kerb, we can now add ‘glitter to the turd.’

…//…

HFC was one of the key aspects of Malcolm Turnbull’s pitch for switching from Labor’s “gold plated” fibre to the premise NBN, to a multi-technology-mix. He regularly pointed out the folly of Labor discarding it because it is capable of delivering fast speeds in the right conditions, and said it was already laid and good to go.

The fact that NBN is scrambling to fix problems should be acknowledged as yet another embarrassing setback, rather than dressed up as some kind of triumph of customer service."

"This is how NBN announced the delays in its press release: “NBN Co takes customer experience improvement program to new levels … New HFC rollout initiatives announced to help improve end user experience and retailer satisfaction.”

I’m all for looking on the bright side, but that is like an attempt at satire that would be rejected by the writers of ABC’s Utopia for taking things too far .

“NBN acknowledges problems for HFC customers and suspends rollout,” would have been the honest headline, but boring old sanity has long since departed the NBN narrative.

Disgruntled customers aside, Telstra certainly isn’t applauding NBN’s good news either, telling investors today that the surprise delay will affect its earlier financial guidance, as it will now have to wait longer for some of its NBN payments for the HFC network.

So rather than applauding NBN for its latest efforts in “raising the standard of service quality” (yes really) … the majority of us will just mark today down as yet another dispiriting stop off on the tortuous journey for a travel diary that will one day be entitled “How the bloody hell did we get here?”"

Some further articles on the delay (including one that refers to the possible involvement of the ACCC):

http://thenewdaily.com.au/life/tech/2017/11/28/nbn-hfc-accc/

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A friend of mine has just been advised that he will be shortly introduced to wonders of the NBN . He is not that tech savvy and told me that he was advised by Telstra his download speed world be 25 Mbps. See what bothers him is that I managed to get him high speed cable which has an average down load speed of 36 - 38 mbps which he needs for streaming hi def 4k or some new fangled TV out there … /

He asked me " Mike how can this be so ?" Stuck for words , for once in my life ,I said " Darren it is what it is but you can rest assured Malcolm Turnbullshit will put it right. After all as they say if you can break it you should be able to make it " /

I’m due for NBN next April 2018 -19 -20- 21-22… Unfortunately .

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Real news or circling the wagons?

http://thenewdaily.com.au/life/tech/2017/11/28/nbn-hfc-accc/

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They updated the article to add the feedback from the ACCC and NBN Co, which had not been forthcoming when sought before the article was originally posted. But at least the article does name at least one “insider” who tells the “tale”. With all the “double speak” we have had from the NBN Co and their masters some cynicism is probably fair in relation to their claims.

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“A National Broadband Network spokesperson also denied that NBN Co was “ordered” by the ACCC to stop the rollout.”
ACCC: “We’re not ordering you to stop, but if you don’t we will”.
nbn™: “OK, we’ll stop”.
:laughing:

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These guys seem to be getting some good press - not all good, but enough good -

Any experience here with them? If I have to pay for NBN one day they’ll be on my list …

Internode, iiNet, TPG - all lowest common denominator ISP’s now from what I can see …

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