Thread: Bloody Telstra

Originally Posted by goingbush

I can absolutely guarantee you 100% that your service will fall over again, faulty cables are not replaced, they are temporarily patched, or another customer switched onto your faulty pair ... unless there is an MP using the same cable they dont spend any money. .

I can relate to that. When we moved here there was a "conduit" through a Garden & a Paddock containing, I think it was 5 pairs. Anyway, as each one failed they would swap us on to another pair & say they would put a report in. Of course, bugger all would happen.. Telstra Countrywide was introduced about then & the Engineer, (not tech 'cos this bloke had a collar & tie ) guaranteed us the service would be replaced. Of course bugger all happened again although I don't doubt they all meant well but it was "those up there" that put the mockers on that plan.


NBN came along eventually, so in for a penny in for a pound & down the track, they installed Wireless BB & ISP/VoiP phone. We were confused as one party would say, "Go Satt" & another party would say don't touch it as latency was bloody awful & will get worse. We are now hanging off a tower over the hills somewhere at Lenswood probably 8km LoS away which can still be a bit dodgy with other hills & usually wet vegetation in the path, but generally is ok & the Work Notices we get from time to time from NBN, I suspect they are improving the service, & about time. VOiP costs 1 phone call per month to keep it current. Well it doesn't really COST at all in the scheme of things you just need to remember to make that one call p/m.

As it turned out our Moby Calls Plans (calls & SMS . No Data) with Do-Do commenced & we can get fair to good but mainly Excellent coverage here ( & like all things Mobilese it depends where you're sat,) & Australia wide for $5 per month. I understand it is a Sing-Tel operation. Cheaper than Line Rental (which we had & if really really necessary could get it back again) & TELSTRA's"Super Duper" Mobile Plan cost us a Motza. Specially selected for our situation my arse, but no thanks Telstra, shove it where the sun doesn't shine.
The back roof looks like an Earth Station with different Antennas although while we ditched Foxtel, their dish is still here with the obligation being on us to get shot of it even if we have to have a Specialist remove it & pay for that. How does that work ffs?

For mine, it can stay & sod 'em. One day in the future when we are long gone some other sucker might wish to sign up with FOXTEL as all the cables are still in place.

Went to town today, and talked to a niece of mine whose property adjoins the exchange. It seems that a neighbour was a bit careless with a backhoe on Tuesday afternoon, and dug up multiple cables not far from the exchange, disconnecting everyone on the exchange including the mobile tower. Not sure whether he got the backhaul fibre or not. Everyone else got reconnected by Thursday night, but when reconnecting my cable which, only serves here (when the phone was installed in 1993 they had to put in a new cable all the way to the exchange (9km) since there were no spare pairs. I am certain there is nobody else on the cable since, so it has multiple unused pairs, and it seems likely they connected the wrong pair for my phone - this would have been when it started giving a faint hum rather than dead silence on Thursday.

Hi,
Had an NBN chap wandering up and down the street today. Looking for the pit, he told me.
He was 50m out, so I showed him where it was.
No GPS coordinates?, I asked.
He laughed at the question, scoffing the suggestion that it would be appropriate data to record for such maintenance.
Way too modern for this lot, he reckoned.
Cheers

Originally Posted by austastar

Hi,
Had an NBN chap wandering up and down the street today. Looking for the pit, he told me.
He was 50m out, so I showed him where it was.
No GPS coordinates?, I asked.
He laughed at the question, scoffing the suggestion that it would be appropriate data to record for such maintenance.
Way too modern for this lot, he reckoned.
Cheers

Here is a novel idea. If they only had a a Data Base to put it on it could be handy. (Thought bubble POP!). They could put all sorts of other data on there, Names Addresses etc, even Inspection Pit locations? Hows that for a thought AS? That'd be helpful for a start & think of the time they'd save, at worst they might be able to locate at least 4 pits per day possibly more. But can you imagine all these bods wandering around losing expensive GPS Receivers in coffee shops & Pubs & Mistresses premises ?

Before letting them loose they'd need to do a 3 weeks course & then they'd up & leave.

Several years ago I was rebuilding a fence. I knew the phone line intersected the fence and then ran alongside it, but I did not know which side, and seeing I really did not want to put a post through the phone line, I contacted "dial before you dig". Eventually I got a map showing where the phone line went. According to the map, the phone ;line was about half a kilometre from where the junction post and monument said it was - not to mention that it terminated in the middle of next door's back paddock. Eventually they sent someone out to trace it, and fortunately, after crossing the fence and road, it follows the side of the road away from the fence.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Several years ago I was rebuilding a fence. I knew the phone line intersected the fence and then ran alongside it, but I did not know which side, and seeing I really did not want to put a post through the phone line, I contacted "dial before you dig". Eventually I got a map showing where the phone line went. According to the map, the phone ;line was about half a kilometre from where the junction post and monument said it was - not to mention that it terminated in the middle of next door's back paddock. Eventually they sent someone out to trace it, and fortunately, after crossing the fence and road, it follows the side of the road away from the fence.

When I got out of Telstra I started my own pipe & cable locating business which went well for a few years, your right , the plans are mostly incorrect. ... all good and well until NBN started laying optic fibre, for whatever reason in Australia they do not lay a trace wire with it, like they do in every other country, so it makes it impossible to locate , if you want to locate it you have to hire a hydro excavator / aka sucker truck. Almost costs as much to locate it as it does to repair out if you do accidentally cut it. I was told they don't lay a tracer with it as it makes it vulnerable to lightning, which is BS as Natural gas lines have tracer wires, so are easy to locate with traditional equipment.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Several years ago I was rebuilding a fence. I knew the phone line intersected the fence and then ran alongside it, but I did not know which side, and seeing I really did not want to put a post through the phone line, I contacted "dial before you dig". Eventually I got a map showing where the phone line went. According to the map, the phone ;line was about half a kilometre from where the junction post and monument said it was - not to mention that it terminated in the middle of next door's back paddock. Eventually they sent someone out to trace it, and fortunately, after crossing the fence and road, it follows the side of the road away from the fence.

Many years ago a family member was fencing and augering a post hole away from where thought the phone cable was. Woops, up came 20m of cable wrapped around the auger. Went back to the house and rang the neighbours and the phone line still worked. So just chucked the cable back down the hole and buried it. To this day we've still no idea why the cable was there....

When we were getting work in our front yard I contacted Diel Before You Dig to find out were the services were , all three ( electricity, water & phone ) sent me drawings showing were they were. While digging the driveway we struck the concrete covering the electrical cable & almost cut the phone line which was just laying in the ground not in conduit. None of the services were anywhere near were they said they where. I suspected the drawings were wrong as the electrical box on foot path was on the left of the property not the right as per drawing & the meter box is on the left of the house , they showed the phone coming in from the pit on the R/H corner but it came in just to the left of centre & the water showed coming from the left corner but actually comes straight from the pit to the house.