Thread: NBN Skymuster Satellite. Your views.

Originally Posted by 4bee

..... ,we get to keep the landline, now whether that actually leads to somewhere useful is another puzzle & if it can still be used will NBN still want a Line Rental? And wtf does it go to, a hole under a concrete pad in a street near you? Makes note to self to investigate VOiP for another day.
....

I missed that bit. If you are allocated to satellite, your existing provider is supposed to keep the fixed line operational (Telstra is paid to do this), but you will have to pay line rental and monthly charge - not all that much for telephone only.

We have been on Skymuster / Skymuster Plus since Feb 2018
Via Ant Communications

Besides the incredibly poor value for money compared to other NBN techs our experience is pretty different to above.

Although we have a landline. We were unable to get ADSL as the exchange was oversubscribed for our rural street. We have limited 3G/4G and via 10m mast and directional Powertec get better than marginal but flakey in and out Telstra Mobile.
As we both worth from home we needed connectivity and Skymuster was the only option.

Install was quick and painless less than 2 hours, install is on a high level (>10m but low pitch tin roof. Satellite cabling and in-room box were installed where I wanted them.

We get speeds of 20/8 ish consistently (until we run out of data!!!)
We use Netflix and AppleTV no problems at all
We both use iPhones and wifi calling for work constantly and FaceTime works with no issues

It’s not cheap $100 a month for 100G
Or $150 for 150G
Those are the new Plus plans which as mentioned has the benefit that when your data is used you can still access txt based data at normal speeds. Just no video or streaming.

If it’s your only choice
Other than being expensive and low data limits our experience has been okay.

Compared to 4G mobile data costs are probably similar?

Anyways happy to answer any other questions

Oh and FYI beginning of this month we had family visit and nail out the data in a few days. Download speeds are currently 0.3MBs
BUT Skymuster Plus means AULRO and general browsing works perfectly fine
Just can’t watch embedded videos

S

Update for those who may be interested & who may wish to bravely venture forth on this exercise.


Thank you for the above comments RR.

Spoke to our ISP this a.m. & it is bloody difficult to know who to believe IMHO.

If NBN have piggybacked their gear onto a Telstra Mobile Tower we might be in with a chance. As mentioned our closest one is line of sight & approx. 1 km away. Mobile reception is 5 bars.

Unknown to me but on a map the ISP have, half the road is already connected to Wireless BB but no-one I spoke to could tell me if the above was correct or not. If another dedicated NBN Tower is used then nobody knows of it. Weird.

However the good news (according to the ISP) is that the copper landline will be kept operational for a Maximum of 20 years. Both for BB & phone. Suits me, that means I'll be 40.

In the event of Telstra removing the BB equipment due to lack of subscribers at the Local Exchange for instance, the BB service will disappear but the phone service will still remain for the 20 years mentioned above.. Still copper though.

I will book a Connection & an NBN contractor will call approx a week to two weeks away.

He/she will do a cursory Spec Test & if it looks promising he/she will continue the installation with a final test of the signal spec & if ok, job done.

$49 per month. Not sure yet whether there will be an additional charge from NBN. A TG789 Modem is extra @ $60.

If not he/she will pack their bags & disappear. The is the time to ponder wtf to do next. We may have been allocated a Skymuster place recently but on the ground, we are in a shallow valley so that may have altered NBN's opinion. Depends on what they were looking at I suppose. Maybe they were unaware of the terrain & line of sight situation?


Satellite really should have been the way to go for us & in this day & age enough prior planning should have gone into this massive project so Skymuster could be used without any design & capacity problems. To me it stands to reason that if it's footprint is as large as NBN say E-W & N-S then it was obvious that it could be oversubscribed easily

We have had Skymuster for about 2.5 years at two different farm houses. It’s a case of better than nothing (but at our first place it was galling as we were in the lee of a hill and really should have been able to get the wireless NBN that was available a few hundred metres away) - but try arguing for an non standard instal with the NBN! They count on you just giving up.

In both instances we also installed yagi aerials and mobile boosters. We those we got much better mobile reception which we use to stream our weekend movies etc and Skymuster for general browsing.

Thanks EF for your experience. Similar circumstances here. This doesn't get easier yer know.

Well the ISP calls/wheels are in motion so I guess I'll have to wait & see for now. I won't hold my breath though.

I recall the days when you couldn't get even a normal phone installed from the PMG without a dozen Medical certificates, a letter from your local Federal MP, be employed in an Essential Service for A/H Call Outs, & a stack of Bibles to swear an oath on, then later when things improved, they just about broke your door down to have a phone connection. A bit like getting a Bank Loan then.
Seems we haven't advanced much since but in for a Penny in for a Pound now.

I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

UPDATED 11:20. Amazingly, I am one step closer to joy or ruination, for I have been given an appointment for an NBN Wireless installation for next Monday AM.

So quick, I wonder what the catch is??

Maybe I'm the only one wanting NBN here these days?

I hope they can magic up a good signal up for us without getting all stroppy. & cantankerous. It can happen with "No can do" Contractors as we found with the Digital Meter Installers for AGL & hopefully the great "Can Do" Telstra Tech the one with brains & the will to do the job that got us going previously, has transferred over to NBN.



PS. I now find that any standard phone with the small square plug, (whatever it is called) can be used for VOiP, another win, as the TG789 Gateway is now F.O.C & as it should be & NO extra charges from NBN. The day just keeps on getting better & I hope I don't Crash & Burn.

I suggest you insist they inspect your existing copper connections to make sure they are up to speed. Ours had to be replaced.

Thanks Mick but that doesn't matter now. Our initial concerns were to get shot of the landline @ $30 per month
& as we were going to eventually be forced into an NBN connection poss Satellite, we decided to bite the bullet & so we have made that decision. We have got 7 days for it to behave itself before the copper is yanked out.

Our service is underground in which we were down to the last cable pair, there being I think, 5 or 6 pairs in the box & over time (37 years) we had used up all those through deterioration. From what I can gather they would not use that conduit even though up the road it passed close to the Green Box as the run was too far. That would have been ideal in our case but noooooo.

Looking forward to Mon a.m. now. I believe we have made the right decision after looking at other's experiences on here which I thank all for.
Just hope they can locate a strong signal for us. As I have said on here ^^^; "What could possibly go wrong?"

My comment about retaining your landline if you have satellite also applies for wireless, but if you have reasonable mobile reception, that is probably not a concern.