NBN - so what's the story? What's your experience been?

[sydr]

We're on cable.  We've been satisfied at our connection speeds.  Here's my latest test result (Ok, it is early in the morning and the kids are still asleep and not playing video games)

114.4

Mbps download

2.17

Mbps upload

Latency: 12 ms

Server: Sydney

Your Internet speed is very fast

Your Internet connection should be able to handle multiple devices streaming HD videos, video conferencing and gaming at the same time.

We've had very few outages and Telstra's smart modem switches us to the cellular network automatically should our area go down (rare).

 

Our area is being switched over to the NBN. I'll have to make the change.  What has your experience been with speeds, reliability and service provider?  Cost comparison?

[firstone]

I bought wifi nbn for my daughter. My lady decided on Vodafone, as one does. 

They set em up with free until they can get a tech out to set it up properly. 4.5 mnths of free so far. 😂

Good ol Vodafone, reliable as ever.

Haven't checked speeds but no complaints. 

[LeeM]

 Was with Adam Internet who got bought out by iiNet. Was fantastic on cable and never had a problem, yet being forced to go to NBN...No end of dropouts and many calls to the company to fix it, 3 modems and more technicians and calls for months. Seems steady at the moment, yet many customers have switched to other providers.

 In a nutshell, don't get iiNet

[TwoHeadsTas]

Been lucky, when we built our house 7 years ago the subdivision (small) had been setup for NBN fibre to the premises, and it was installed as such before the fibre to the node shenanigans.  Has been exceptionally reliable (think I've had to ring tech support perhaps 3 times during that period) though default speed is not necessarily that much faster than our previous ADSL, but I don't need the higher speed options.  Using standard Netgear Telstra modem, had problems recently with Wifi speed, so installed a commercial Ubiquiti Wifi access point which is MUUCH better.  Am with Bigpond, and have been for years

[TINGY]

  We are with Telstra and i can honestly say it has been a doddle so far, we had good adsl  but now seems to be very consistent with the NBN. We have only had one problem with some techs working on the lines somewhere and they loosened some wires, it was fixed quick smart after Telstra quickly daiagnosed the problem, i have been with Telstra for years and i can't complain. Pricing is reasonable i think for the service i am getting but may be a little more exy than other providers, i would rather pay a little more for consistent service. I have heard a lot of horror stories and no doubt we will hear some on this thread.

[3legs]

As with Lee I was with Adam now IINET and initially I had problems when they changed to NBN but so far all fixed as far as IINET is concerned however............................

speeds are no quicker (not slower either) and everytime it even thinks it's going to rain NBN drops out.

I've had NBN technicians come out to check the pit where all the connections are on several occasions and they said it was a bad earth but it keeps doing it.

I've had a gut full of NBN and in my instance it's been the worst thing ever.

I mean literally if it spits not rain it will cut out. It's almost like it knows there is moisture in the air and decides it's all too hard and spits the dummy.

A check of google shows it happens quite often in other areas as well.

Thankfully it doesn't rain that often here in Adelaide (although we do need it).

Also note that I have my old landline connected to NBN as well so when it drops out I can't make a call from my landline and no one can ring my landline. Not a major issue but my sister in laws are elderly and don't use mobiles so if one of them has an accident they can't ring me to assist.

Also we can't ring 1300 numbers. 1800 numbers are ok but not 1300.

One thing though it has been cheaper than before so that is a bonus.

 

[wilson59]

NBN is like having a perfectly good car and having replaced with something slower that breaks down a lot that is more expensive .

I hate the internet but love it at the some time ………...

[Uncle]

Not overly good.

I live in the middle of Newcastle. That, according to Telstra is a small sleepy rural hamlet north of Sydney with the population of a little over 1 million.

 

I had 2 year dispute with Telstra involving the all but useless TIO. Constant drop outs and by constant I’m talking it dropping out 50 times in 60 minutes. Constant mobile network switch over at 10^th of promised service speed (under 2Mbs). It was not out of the ordinary for it to be cutting over so many times that the router would “get stuck” between types of service and need to be reset.

NBN co are completely unaccountable to both Telstra and you.

NBN co are completely unaccountable to the TIO and you.

NBN co are completely unaccountable to both Telstra and you until you get your local M.P involved. Who also as luck would have it had communications in their portfolio. Then they are only almost completely unaccountable.  

 

We would be under constant pressure to “Close the complaint” from Telstra after 1 week of good service but I would hold firm saying nope because next week if will fail again. Sure enough it would. Eventually after 18months of this at my wits end I got my local MP involved. After I mentioned to the MP’s office I’d canvassed the residents in my street about their internet service and had found out that 11 of the 19 had poor internet after switching to NBN and of the 11 households 9 had an open complaint with the TIO involved.

I then spent 3 months with a running spreadsheet proving a correlation between a visit between an NBN tech and service drop outs. Put into simple terms I was able to prove that if I had good service one week one of the other houses in the street would have little to no service. They would get a NBN tech visit and then either I or another house in the street would not have service.

It was purely a case of Telstra and the NBN co doing the minimum to close the case not by fixing the problem but by literally doing the bad line switcharoo at the node. Waiting 7 days then contacting the customer and demanding the case was closed because they had provided service for 7 consecutive days that was within the contract requirement. The other people in my street had been going around and around by agreeing to close the complaint then being shafted again. I’m not that kind of person. I’m more than happy to argue a point and hold people accountable.

 

I’d like to say the story has a happy ending but it hasn’t. Whilst I have constant “within contract” service speeds and uninterrupted service I know others in my street are still stuck in the circle. I think I just made enough noise and had enough verifiable evidence (I made sure I was the single point of contact for all agencies and took detailed notes of every single contact. Telstra would try on tricks like calling my wife’s mobile at 7 p.m to try and close the complaint or would tell her they are closing the complaint have a nice day. She would just say 1 second then pass the phone to me lol) that a service tech glued my line into a good port and put a warning tag on it at the node.

Whilst I’ve stepped out of the game I’ve provided all of my evidence and spreadsheets to the other people in my street but its up to them to fight their own battles. I did however send it to 4 corners for a laugh as the whole thing is completely damning of the system. If you want a laugh at the tragedy that is the TIO go and look at their closed case statistics before the NBN and after the NBN.

[OZ930]

This is typical of the NBN and how nobody actually takes responsibility for it.

The other problems with NBN are:

You are now providing power for your service.  More cost to you, and

If there is a blackout you lose your landline and your internet.  Now lets say there is an emergency, lets say fire brigade, seems topical, you are on your own.

If you are a high dependant and require a more reliable service that is protected from blackouts, you can purchase a backup battery pack.  Remember both ends need to have a power source for the optical fibre to work, so if the other end is in blackout then it isn't going to work.  It's going back to a system that I was pulling out in my PMG/Telecom days, where there had to be batteries (2x 1.5 volt) in a box on the wall for the phone to work.  Remember the big wooden Ericsson phone on the wall?  Did you wonder why it was so big? Too young?

For a brief time we had a phone system that actually worked and was powered from the exchange but somebody complained that phone calls were cheaper O/S (and a lot of political BS) so it was privatised.  Now look what we have.  Ok, it wasn't immune from problems either. 

NBN is an optical fibre system that was forced upon Australia with the promise of myrical speeds, but was out of date and slower than services in other countries before it was installed.

BTW, how's your digital TV reception?  Another promise 😡

We have iiNet and Telstra optical fibres going passed our place, but we are not connected.  Still on copper.  Local exchange is optical fibre to Tamworth. I know because I installed it.

[Paulm]

fibre to the house faaaantastic was also free

[Coastr]

I forgot about the craziness that is a nationalised communication system, obsolete before it was finished.  Installed who knows how far above budget and behind schedule and will lose money forever.  Great job all. having to get a politician involved in your network connection issues, the sheer lunacy of that.

FWIW I was using iinet through FTTN and it was pretty good.   Node was about 70m up the street from the house.  

[DJM]

Telstra NBN,  no issues after many years plugged in.  the kids are mid teenagers now so we often have TV plus 4 mobile devices cranking along, never an hourglass spinning around here.

Tick from me.

i guess what this thread shows is experience varies depending on where you are, FTN or FTP and who your provider is.  I’m building again soon and will back it in with Telstra again and hope the good run continues.

[JV911]

On 06/02/2020 at 08:31, TINGY996 said:

. We have only had one problem with some techs working on the lines somewhere and they loosened some wires, it was fixed quick smart after Telstra quickly daiagnosed the problem, i have been with Telstra for years and i can't complain. 

Our local "techs" knocked the whole street out for ~4 days. Same thing happened to a number of family & friends, but when I called telstra to report the problem they said they'd "never heard of that happening" and insisted in sending someone (at cost) to inspect my lines...muppets.

That aside, we now have a shiny new NBN cabinet, but as I understand it speeds will be limited by the circa ~1970 copper in the building. There seems to be no point moving from the perfectly adequate, not to mention much cheaper, ADSL. If I do, it will be to 5g. 

[sleazius]

I scrape into the Sydney metro area and don't have access to an NBN connection at home. Our ADSL has always been terrible due to distance from the exchange (5mbit on a good day).

Supposedly we're getting NBN fixed wireless, the install of which has been pushed back 2 years and counting. An NBN cable runs past my street but not down ours so even with me asking to install a node that we pay for its a 'nope'. They're only installing gear at the tower that has a 6km range and I'm approximately 6km away from the tower. Unrelated to this, roadworks are nearby on the Northern Road, and they pulled down the local Telstra tower about a year ago and haven't replaced it - meaning I have to bounce off a tower 6.6km away. I can only make calls on the north side of my house outside.

Yeah, living on Sydney's outskirts has its benefits, internet has never been one of them. I'm not overly hopeful with the fixed wireless. By most accounts given I'm at the extreme end of the range, there will be no improvement over my 5mbit that I have now. Awesome.

FWIW, one of my offices has been on FTTP NBN for a couple of years - it drops out at least once a month and needs to be reset on their end. When it is working the speed is good. We were on Optus Cable for 10 years prior to that, and it was far better in terms of stability and speed.

 

[johnno]

If you aren't wedded to Telstra consider a change to Aussie Broadband for NBN install. Change over from Telstra Cable is simple and needs an NBN technician to install - if there are any issues AussieBB support are so easy to deal with and there's no wait to talk to them or useless scripted support style. Price is less than Telstra and no contract, others are cheaper and you can swap around if you want provided you stay away from a contract.

We've currently got 50/20 for a house with no kids.

[Buchanan Automotive]

We have the NBN at work with iinet. Previously ADSL2+ with iinet. Speed is much faster at around 45mbps compared with 15mbps on previous setup. Our only issue is that every week we have a cut out of internet and more importantly for us phone line. it usually lasts anywhere from 1 hour to 5 hours and can happen 1-2 times per week (during work hours). shame we couldn't keep the old phone line.

[Tips]

14 hours ago, johnno said:

If you aren't wedded to Telstra consider a change to Aussie Broadband for NBN install. Change over from Telstra Cable is simple and needs an NBN technician to install - if there are any issues AussieBB support are so easy to deal with and there's no wait to talk to them or useless scripted support style. Price is less than Telstra and no contract, others are cheaper and you can swap around if you want provided you stay away from a contract.

We've currently got 50/20 for a house with no kids.

 Pains me to admit my Mrs is a GM at NBN, we don’t mention that at BBQ’s 🙄

we recently had to move to nbn from adsl, we know all the bad stories and we’re expecting the worst, as I can assure you the nbn management don’t have their heads in the sand. Even had a bet with the Mrs for an expensive meal that they wouldn’t get it done in one visit, she wouldn’t take it up...

If anyone asks she recommends Aussie Broadband from a speed and plan cost and we had great service due to having A couple of issues that we managed in an AU based call centre😁. We had the NBN tech out twice as he stuffed it the first time, even with the mrs guiding him through it and double checking his work. Unfortunately it’s all done by 3rd party contractors and price based so they are poorly trained and told to get jobs done in x minutes. So they rush the install and then it’s a ping pong between nbn and ISP on who needs to rectify what. I don’t know how many times the mrs has helped friends with escalation and who to push being ISP or Nbn to get stuff sorted.

i would always suggest with any install you get the nbn tech to test and u also test before they leave the premises if u can

[Chris-p]

We were on Optus Fibre cable with constant speed of 25Mbps but were forced onto NBN when they shutdown the cable system. it was hopeless for the first 6 months with constant drop outs but after lots of complaining became more consistent. However we were only getting a max download speed of 12Mbps with the average between 4 and 9. A few weeks ago we decided enough and have now changed to Optus 4G wireless the router can handle up to 64 devices at once. It took me less than 5 minutes to do the install and we are getting speeds around 75Mbps and we will automatically be switched to 5G when it becomes available in our area. This sadly makes the NBN pretty much redundant.... 

[sleazius]

Unless you’re in a rural area (or the outskirts of Sydney as it turns out), or have FTTP, NBN was always going to be redundant at some point in the not too distant future.

Politics and tech almost always ends in a fail. Should have just built the NBN to service rural areas as a loss making entity, and left the cities to their own devices. 

[GC9911]

I live in Berry NSW, rural but not exactly the back blocks, we are 2ks from town on a sealed rd. NBN is in town by fibre. I’ve been told twice by Telstra that NBN is available at my place, booked a connection twice only to have the techs turn up & tell me “you can’t get NBN out here mate unless you go satellite “. I’ve asked how many people are in our situation & they always respond “heaps like you, never going to get it”. Long live ADSL 4.5mbps.

[JV911]

12 hours ago, sleazius said:

NBN was always going to be redundant at some point in the not too distant future.

$50 billion well spent!

[Tips]

On 12/02/2020 at 16:30, Chris-p said:

switched to 5G when it becomes available in our area. This sadly makes the NBN pretty much redundant.... 

Yep 5g also allows the telcos to price up and make more money On plans. I’ve read so much over the past few years where Telstra etc have had profit downgraded due to govt intervention on pricing and guaranteed speeds for nbn. 

[firstone]

True or not I can't tell anymore. I guess the truth is what ever another human led me to believe. 

 

A guy I knew in high school, ex telstra tech running an nbn lay out team locally told me nbn was about sharing data stream. His take was that it'd never be finished roll out but it was only ever another tool in the box along with copper, wifi and satellite. 

He added, choose where you live or do business in a zone that services your needs. Harsh but hey, it is what it is.

You wanna get wifi or phone service near a music festival. 😂 

 

[ArthurK]

On 12/02/2020 at 16:30, Chris-p said:

We were on Optus Fibre cable with constant speed of 25Mbps but were forced onto NBN when they shutdown the cable system. it was hopeless for the first 6 months with constant drop outs but after lots of complaining became more consistent. However we were only getting a max download speed of 12Mbps with the average between 4 and 9. A few weeks ago we decided enough and have now changed to Optus 4G wireless the router can handle up to 64 devices at once. It took me less than 5 minutes to do the install and we are getting speeds around 75Mbps and we will automatically be switched to 5G when it becomes available in our area. This sadly makes the NBN pretty much redundant.... 

I tell everyone who doesnt need a phone line at home to go with a 4G wireless modem setup. I did it ages ago and have had flawless internet. NBN became a political football that got trashed once the libs pulled the pin on the FTTH rollout. Unfortunately for those of us that are in HFC areas we will suffer the most. Once our area goes 5G then it will make the NBN a third rate solution.