Thread: NBN who's happy with theirs?

Originally Posted by donh54

Well, mine comes up as FTTC. Was sorta hoping for something like that, as the main Fibre trunk line is only 100m from us. Looks like they'll be running a line down the street, so I guess I should look into getting the in-house wiring updated. It's only been there for around 35 years, and has been joined in a few spots where various dogs have chewed on it over the years!

You're one of the lucky ones then. In house wiring condition is less critical for you as the distribution point servicing your home will be placed in the pit close to your home meaning copper length is less than 100 metres. So, try it first and then if there are issues, get the wiring sorted out - I'll bet it'll be fine. There are a number of good things about FTTC:

• Its installed at the users convenience by simply plugging in the reverse power unit
• Its installation can be reversed by unplugging the reverse power unit meaning that if there are issues with it initially, the user can go back to their old services until the issue is resolved(assuming they have not terminated them prematurely)
• Short external copper lengths mean reduced likelihood impacts from moisture/joints etc.
• it can be upgraded to Gbps speeds with the deployment of G.fast in the near future. FTTN can never be upgraded, it's at its max capability now.

Here's a bit more info on it:
Inside NBN’s fibre to the curb rollout - Computerworld

Originally Posted by DAMINK

Had we invested in this method rather than the outdated fibre we might have been in a good position. Thats what i thought when the whole NBN thing started. Thought well the rest of the world has been running fibre for years now, what can we do better, not just try play catchup rather try leapfrog.... However a few years later here we are. Trying to put a second rate fibre connection down for all to complain about.

It does not matter how much you invest or when you do it, there is only so much electromagnetic spectrum that can be used for any wireless method. Fibre has a far wider spectrum available, simply because light is far higher frequency than radio, and more importantly, each separate fibre can use the same spectrum as the one next to it, without any interference. This is not the case for any wireless system.

The complaints are not because of the use of fibre, but because the NBN (for political reasons) is trying to do it on the cheap. Or putting it another way, the whole project was impractically ambitious!

Originally Posted by DAMINK

Had we invested in this method rather than the outdated fibre we might have been in a good position. Thats what i thought when the whole NBN thing started. Thought well the rest of the world has been running fibre for years now, what can we do better, not just try play catchup rather try leapfrog.... However a few years later here we are. Trying to put a second rate fibre connection down for all to complain about.

There is nothing outdated about fibre, it is THE best method of transmitting data both from a speed and reliability perspective. Perhaps you were meaning to refer to the copper network which is indeed antiquated.

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

anyone have a node map?

Nope, and it sounds painful ...

Got the NBN today, with TPG as the internet provider as they were my old provider and it was just simpler to stay with them.

Went for the 50 plan where they claim typical peak evening speeds are 46Mbps but in the 10 hours I have had the service I have tested it regularly and it is only averaging about 38Mbps irrespective of the time of the day and whether peak or not. Worst has been 27Mbps and the best has been 42Mbps. If they claim 46 at peak times then it should be approaching 50 in non peak but no where near it.

While the service is about 6 times faster than my old ADSL it is not noticeable at the computer but then I dont play games or download HD movies.

I guess providers over estimating service delivery is standard these days.

Garry

Originally Posted by garrycol

but then I dont play games or download HD movies.



Garry

Which would be the only reason it would be better. However, perfectly serviceable copper pair tech has been legislated out of existence, for what reason other than pie in the sky? Don't get me wrong, I am not and never have been agains up-tech. I'm all for 5G, for example. Governments should let tech companies work the markets, and stay out of it. They have no idea. The NBN is now 10 years old. Who is going to sing 'happy birthday'?

The problem with the "perfectly serviceable copper pair tech" is that it was only that for part of the population. A substantial proportion of the existing copper pair network was never going to provide usable broadband due to technical constraints of exchange distance, condition, shortage of pairs etc.

The concept of the NBN was to provide uniform broadband access for all Australians, equal to or superior to what they already had. This could allow the government to move a large proportion of their services to on line and not worry about broadband not being available to everyone. As usual, implementation was botched.

Right from the start, the plan was not uniform, with rural residents being left with satellite or, if lucky, wireless, neither of which were able to integrate the phone service, so still requiring two separate services. Failure to get bipartisan support meant that the plan had to be (at least in theory) commercially viable rather than a national infrastructure project. And this is at least partly behind all the subsequent issues.

For a start, the project was vastly more complicated than the starry eyed proponents had envisioned, with all sorts of unforeseen complications, from problems with large numbers of asbestos-cement pits to non-cooperation of local authorities for plans to use aerial cables or locations for wireless towers. And a new organisation undertaking probably the largest project (certainly in logistics terms) ever undertaken in Australia, starting with no staff. Much of their work has involved multiple layers of contractors and subcontractors, some good, some pretty awful.

A change of government tried to save money on the project by changing technology and using existing copper to save money - surprise, surprise! - this just increased the complexity and introduced more issues.

But the source of most complaints ultimately comes back to the need for the NBN to operate commercially. This meant that the price for services tended to be at least as high or higher than the previous service for many, as a return on the very high initial capital was necessary. Further, because of the commercial need to rapidly get some income, NBN started by mostly doing the easy areas first, which, by and large, were also the areas that already had good services, and leave the hard bits to last.

And most of the "perfectly serviceable copper" isn't.
Its failing badly. At one point twenty years ago Telstra had patched us across to the last serviceable pair in a cable, half of it had failed.
If anyone else in the locality had an outage, tough, they had no phone service.
There were no plans to replace it.
This was only about 70km WSW of the Sydney GPO.