Anecdotal, but.
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Compared to:
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Aussie has show stoppers for some of us. I need is to be able to plug my household phone system having multiple devices including phone, dialers, and a fax, into the VOIP port and have it work. Some RSPs will, and some such as Aussie will not.
I am finding some companies that continue to rely on fax are increasingly offering a secure upload, but even more continue to live in the dark ages of fax and post. And then there are alarms and similar special needs…
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Aussie was just an example. If you prefer, compare MyRepublic to one of the other higher-ranking providers. I find ProductReview reasonably reliable, provided there are more than a couple of dozen reviews. Individual reviews can be misleading, but the bar charts and aggregate star ratings at the top of the page generally give good indications.
https://www.productreview.com.au/c/internet-service-providers.html
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Curiouser and curiouser.
We just received a letter from iiNet telling me “your home’s estimated NBN connection is 22 Dec 2017”
Yet, as I posted earlier -
So I rechecked Check your address | nbn, and now it too is showing December 2017 for our install date. It would seem we will be getting a Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) connection.
This would indicate that the connection date has moved forward by up to 6 months, even though NBN Co announced a 6-9 month delay on HFC.
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So far we were getting FTTN, then HFC, then my house and a few others in my estate were in the too hard basket with blocked conduits and we still do not have the cable running to our homes, although they did fix the conduits (all our services are underground), Now their database backed off from November 2017 to show ‘still being deployed in my area’. It seems to be scheduled like a known broken airplane; the flight is usually on time until it is late when it is finally updated. Most of my neighbours have the cable connected to their house exteriors but it appears to be an all or none turn-on in my area.
I found the public database to sometimes be a generalisation across an area and not always updated properly. The RSPs run with what they are given. If you have your location code from one of your NBN letters give them a ring and ask about reality. They can also find it from your address. My experiences with the NBN call centre people have been very positive to date.
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Ah hah !
Our address (southern suburban Sydney) is also still showing the same date as yours - 22 December.
We received a letter from nbnco on Tuesday, advising that we will be connected to HFC between end of December and end of May. Hmmmm…
I’ll believe it when I see a worker in a EWP, and not before ! 
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If the order for the area was in before 9th Dec it will not be part of the HFC delay, anything after that date will be in hiatus until they resolve the issues. So I am guessing it was pushed onto the books before the cutoff.
Interestingly the HFC service was supposedly being curtailed and HTTC was going to replace it as the connection offer in the quarter starting Sept 2017. This has not materialised.
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NBN Should be called the network that DON"T WORK if you are on Fibre to the node.
Why can the people on FTTN go back to ADSL which was more reliable and faster on the average …did not drop out and you could use your phone anytime.
To think I looked forward to getting on NBN.
The worst of it is that we are NOT going to get it fixed anytime soon …we are actually stuck with it.
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Hi abby
Using the phone part is absolutely correct but any type of NBN connection has that risk, just Satellite and FTTP being more reliable in that sense as they can be battery backed up in the home to keep the connection as long as the backup power lasts. HFC, FTTN among others do not have this capability and NBN and RSPs recommend that a Mobile phone is kept for emergencies, they also recommend this for FTTP and Satellite.
So the issue isn’t just with FTTN, not a great answer but the best that can be had at the moment. Keeping the copper lines is not a magic bullet either, the copper is failing as it ages, weather has a great impact on the connection, power to run it was/is not guaranteed (though it was very reliable). In all of this, Australia got what it voted for, no less no more. If the majority of Australian voters hadn’t elected the LNP Federal Government we would have a very different and more resilient NBN for most Australians than we do now. I don’t know if we would have any better connection speed issues as even under the Labor plan the NBN had to be a commercial success which meant CVC pricing would still be the biggest impact. With a great deal of money spent and much of the work commenced or contracted it would be a huge cost to redo it in one hit.
The speed drops are not the NBN infrastructure so much as it is the failure of RSPs to buy sufficient CVC for the number of customers they have at the various speed tiers. With on average only around 1.08 Mbps per customer (as at Aug 2017) there are times of the day/week/month that the service may slow to a crawl (depends on who your RSP is as some actually do buy more CVC). The big 3 (Telstra, Optus, TPG) tend to have the lowest CVC per customer, but it definitely is not isolated to them.
CVC is the biggest monthly cost for a RSP and so to make their bottom lines better they tend to buy the least they can get away with. In June 2017 there was a price change to the CVC cost (lowered) the more CVC was purchased by an RSP, this change to the way CVC is priced has seen CVC purchases climb a bit but as more people take up access this increase has been diluted in it’s impact on the users.
The NBN CEO wants RSPs to increase the average CVC available from the current average 1 ish Mbps to around a 2 ish Mbps to improve the customer experience. To do this would obviously increase the costs to RSPs which they would then pass onto their customers by increasing plan costs (this could be a significant increase per user).
To read a news article on it see:
How to get it fixed? Well the CVC issue is being looked at by the ACCC so as a user I encourage you to contact the ACCC with your complaints, write a complaint to NBN Co, write a letter to your newspaper, continue raising the issue on sites like Choice and Whirlpool, start a petition, contact your Federal members and let them know about your disappointment/anger/frustration (leave them no doubt about how their next election result might ride on their efforts). Contact your RSP and let them know and if you suffer from the connection issues lodge a complaint with the TIO. Not all this will bear fruit nor will they probably do so quickly if they do (but you never can tell), but they will lead to improvements if enough people do take action.
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Optus confirmed to offer compensation to customers for slow NBN speeds:
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More trouble for Optus:
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Finally, we will start to see evidence based reporting:
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The latest telco to offer refunds due to NBN speeds:
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A ‘half empty’ comment following some ‘half full’ reports.
Refunds and compensation do not deliver a quality, well performing network. Therein lies the problem. It is apparent the government through their NBN cannot do it with their ‘on the cheap that is blowing out’ FTTN, HFC, [plug in your favourite alphabet connection except FTTP]. The changes to CVC pricing might relieve congestion (not your achievable performance), but it still depends on the RSPs taking risk, not the NBN delivering what this government oversold.
My analogy is going to a dealer and ordering an electric car on offer. You buy it but get a push bike delivered. Even with a full refund you don’t get the electric car and they admit they cannot deliver one to you. You complain so they begrudgingly only charge you for the push bike and return the difference.
It is better than nothing, but should anyone feel chuffed about getting a partial refund for faulty product when what was advertised and purchased was, is, and remains unavailable and it was promised to you, and you want it?
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Hello,
Just wanted to share my experience on a new NBN HFC connection and want to know if any others have faced similar issues.
The NBN Arris CM8200 (the NBN modem - “the connection box”) was installed in our home a month ago. The installer at that time told us that as all the four green LED lights were on ( the Power, Downstream, Upstream Online) and all was good and once the RSP modem was received all would be well and we will soon be using a high speed, high quality internet connection!
The RSP modem was received the next day and guess - no internet.
After excruciating support calls with the RSP support team ( over 4.5 hours of talk on the phone over two weeks !), the RSP finally agreed that it was an NBN issues and escalated to NBN.
The NBN technician visited and changed the NBN modem and other parts outside the house and including the cable in the pit in front of the house. The technician checked and there was no connection. We were advised that he would need to escalate to the NBN support team as the issue was beyond his level.
Current Status: No internet - Day 33, Expected resolution date: Unknown!
Just wanted to know:
(1) if anyone had similar experience and how it was resolved.
(2) Do RSPs have SLAs with NBN. If so what are fault resolution times?
(3) Are the SLAs between RSPs and NBN published?
I’ll be grateful for advice on what I should do next…
Thanks
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I can’t help, but your experience is scary for us, as they are just about to start the HCF install for our area.
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Thanks, Just to let you know that the NBN modem still shows all the four green led lights as lit even though there’s no internet available. Just a heads up to all homes who expect HFC - just don’t take the word of the NBN tech who installs - if possible, check if internet is available.
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HFC is suffering a number of issues, many people have complained and the NBN Co has put a freeze on any new connections for 6 to 9 months as they try to correct them. Your experience is not unique sorry to say.
They do have SLAs and most can be found by following the links on this page:
https://www.nbnco.com.au/sell-nbn-services/supply-agreements.html
My advice is escalate your complaint to firstly the TIO at https://www.tio.com.au/making-a-complaint, make a complaint to the ACCC at https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/complaints-problems/make-a-consumer-complaint, make a complaint to NBN Co on 1800 687626 and/or via their contact us web page at https://www1.nbnco.com.au/corporate-information/contact-us-form.html and finally lodge a comment with ACMA at the suitable link/s on this page https://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/About/Corporate/Structure-and-contacts/contact-the-acma-acma-1
The TIO will be primarily responsible for your complaint but the other complaints will help responsible organisations and departments to be aware of the issues around the NBN. Depending on who you used as your RSP you may be eligible for a Customer Service Guarantee payment and perhaps an alternative means of connecting while waiting for the service issue resolution. Most RSPs do not support the CSG with I think only Telstra still required to support it.
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