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[StrappingTape]

I got on Telstra's site, did the check you can do to see what services are available from them in your area.
Not even ADSL is available from Telstra in my area apparently, although that might be more to do with my existing ADSL and/or port availability at the exchange.
But I'm more then happy to be wrong and Bigpond Cable to be available.

I can't remember what the thing is called, might not hurt to go on the online chat and ask them about your area?

 

[Quadzilla]

I pay $30 on the tbox for basic package, sports and footy channel.

yep I went from 'foxtel' this year to the above on t-box (once Telstra got ADSL hooked up-see below)!

... when first had FOXTEL with all discounts etc it was cheap ... but once they came off - it was ridiculous $ ( we had mystar hd, basic, sports, kids [for grandkids] and drama/crime ) ... it went from $20 on intro for 6 months to $100+ and half the channels we never watched!

I miss 'Hillbilly hand fishing' tho ...

 

[Quadzilla]

Locked in for the next 3 years. I would say that is pretty significant. Enough for me to get mine anyway, everyone else can get stuffed.

yer ... even Dubbo in planning and first works stage now for finish June 214, so hopefully we're safe!

 

[Quadzilla]

I got on Telstra's site, did the check you can do to see what services are available from them in your area.
Not even ADSL is available from Telstra in my area apparently, although that might be more to do with my existing ADSL and/or port availability at the exchange.
But I'm more then happy to be wrong and Bigpond Cable to be available.

I'm in Dubbo NSW - new housing area developed from former 'nsw housing ghetto' - wasn't pre-wired or planned thru council - mega issues and had promises of ADSL then not - in the end went to 'corporate complaints' they promised it but also 'no' ... usually reason is 'no ports at your exchange' and with NBN coming I'm told 'T' aren't upgrading anything now!

I got 4g wi-fi broadband - with no start up $ ... was fast but at $40/per mth for only 7GB - BS. Next door neighbour had same issues and got ADSL connected thru OPTUS ... wtf?

Gave 'T' one last chance and a 'corp complaints' guy in Adelaide checked my file and saw that no-one had ever done an ADSL order to check 'actual' availability - so even if Telstra site says 'not available' it might be.

So the order came back 'yes' and got it connected in a few weeks. With all BS it took 6 months of faking about so I got freebies of free landline connx, discounts on everything, no start up costs on anything

If I was you FPPF I would call 132200 again and ask them to put an actual order in to get it (that way its checked thorOughly) - if they WONT do that or it comes out negative don't argue with them just ring 132200 and say 'complaints' - just tell them 'I'm being faaked around with ADSL by 132200 and I'm going higher' and let the experts deal with it.

132200 staff just use systems to look up stuff and if you get a lazy faaaker then they might just not check properly and say 'no' for the heck of it. The 'complaints' guys know who to talk to 'to get things done'. I know as I worked for 'T' for 25 years and did that complaints job at a state level for business customers for 12 months.

 

[FPPF]

You know, I think I might just do that.
My old street a few blocks away has the telstra/foxtel cable running on the stobie poles, as does my new street. Well, I believe it's the actual cable, they both look the same.(And I know what the phone and power cables look like haha)
A check on the telstra website says my old street has cable, but my new street doesn't.
I tried that online/live chat thing suggested above, and spoke to some lady(I think it was a lady, could have been a bot?) called Mae. Told me it's not available. Probably just used the same check available to the public.

 

[BornPort]

The future is in wireless, it's rapidly advancing in speeds and coverage and even now consumers are moving away from wired connections and the desktop computing setup of the past. It's better to spend a bit and give people the option if they want to have FTTH then they can pay the $5k for the wiring but otherwise NBN Co I think is going to end up a massive white elephant.

Fiber optics will always be way ahead of wireless. Wireless is unreliable and has only just reached 50Mbps yet the NBN will be moving towards Gigabit by the end of this year.

No idea where were your getting these prices and figures from. My guess would be the LNP website or news.com.au.​

I believe you can get 30mbit cable from Telstra in all metro homes.

Cable is only available for about 30% of homes.

 

[FPPF]

Just spent five minutes arguing with some lady, whose telling me cable isn't available, they are setting up a cable service apparently. I'm telling her the cable has been hanging on the stobie poles in my street and has been there for years.

She then tells me to ring technical support on 133933.
I'm now on hold after arguing for ten minutes with some other lady about it.
She spent about four-five minutes doing her "check" with her "tool" on what services are available. She gave me a big list, including ISDN. A few minutes later she says only ADSL1 is available, not even ADSL2 in my area.

I tell her yes I know what your website is telling me too, but I want to know why cable isn't available if the cable has been installed on the stobie poles.

She proceeds to tell me that it's not available, only ADSL is.

I said to her, is there any other number I can ring to query why their checks keep coming back as it not being available despite the cable being up there.

She says are you sure its a telstra cable. I reply, who elses would it be?
She says can you see a telstra logo..to which I reply, you want me to get a ladder and climb up the pole to check now?

Shes getting flustered by this point, not knowing how to answer.
And just proceeds to repeat her self.

I tell her, look, I know what your website says. I also know there's a cable hanging in my street and has been there for years. The other lady was rude and passed me off to you because it was too hard for her. All I want to know is why your cable is hanging in my street but your service isn't available to me.

I'm now on hold, again with her, as she contacts someone from sales to see if they can rectify this. Even though I told her that I first rang sales and they passed me off to her on the 133933 number.

Barring a miracle, sales wont be able to help on the second attempt.
So I think I'll try complaints when she decides I'm served my time in on-hold purgatory for annoying her with the facts and making her life difficult.

 

[BornPort]

Just spent five minutes arguing with some lady, whose telling me cable isn't available, they are setting up a cable service apparently. I'm telling her the cable has been hanging on the stobie poles in my street and has been there for years.

She then tells me to ring technical support on 133933.
I'm now on hold after arguing for ten minutes with some other lady about it.
She spent about four-five minutes doing her "check" with her "tool" on what services are available. She gave me a big list, including ISDN. A few minutes later she says only ADSL1 is available, not even ADSL2 in my area.

I tell her yes I know what your website is telling me too, but I want to know why cable isn't available if the cable has been installed on the stobie poles.

She proceeds to tell me that it's not available, only ADSL is.

I said to her, is there any other number I can ring to query why their checks keep coming back as it not being available despite the cable being up there.

She says are you sure its a telstra cable. I reply, who elses would it be?
She says can you see a telstra logo..to which I reply, you want me to get a ladder and climb up the pole to check now?

Shes getting flustered by this point, not knowing how to answer.
And just proceeds to repeat her self.

I tell her, look, I know what your website says. I also know there's a cable hanging in my street and has been there for years. The other lady was rude and passed me off to you because it was too hard for her. All I want to know is why your cable is hanging in my street but your service isn't available to me.

I'm now on hold, again with her, as she contacts someone from sales to see if they can rectify this. Even though I told her that I first rang sales and they passed me off to her on the 133933 number.

Barring a miracle, sales wont be able to help on the second attempt.
So I think I'll try complaints when she decides I'm served my time in on-hold purgatory for annoying her with the facts and making her life difficult.

Could be an optus cable.

 

[FPPF]

Optus have cables of their own?
Don't I feel like a dick now haha

Actually, just checked the Optus coverage map for Adelaide, and apparently there is no Optus cable available in Adelaide.
https://www.optus.com.au/network/broadband/coverage

So that would leave Telstra/Foxtel.
The cable and boxes on it are the exact same as my old street, which according to the Telstra site has cable available.
Might just be easier to move back to the old place rather then keep talking to people at Telstra

 

[StrappingTape]

Fiber optics will always be way ahead of wireless. Wireless is unreliable and has only just reached 50Mbps yet the NBN will be moving towards Gigabit by the end of this year.

No idea where were your getting these prices and figures from. My guess would be the LNP website or news.com.au.


Cable is only available for about 30% of homes.

I think you need to check out how fast wireless is advancing and the use of technology. Yes it must be LNP propoganda or the evil Murdoch papers that tell me that 12mbps with less data per month will cost more than your current adsl. How about you just look at what you can get now and what is on offer with the NBN? Ie Adam internet 200gb month for $50, NBN at Adam $75 for 250gb a month on a SLOWER 12mbps connection.

 

[BornPort]

I think you need to check out how fast wireless is advancing and the use of technology. Yes it must be LNP propoganda or the evil Murdoch papers that tell me that 12mbps with less data per month will cost more than your current adsl. How about you just look at what you can get now and what is on offer with the NBN? Ie Adam internet 200gb month for $50, NBN at Adam $75 for 250gb a month on a SLOWER 12mbps connection.

When you say slower you do realize that ADSL2 speeds depend on how far you are away from the exchange and the norm is probably about 8-9Mbps? You can only usually get 20+ if the exchange is sitting next door to your house. Abbot's plan will have the same problem because it will still rely on the copper network. The ISPs I had a look at the cost was about the same, but that seems about right to me.

This guy does a much more detailed analysis.
http://www.whistleout.com.au/blog/nbn-pricing-analysis-vs-adsl-2

 

[MP_]

If there is an ISDN service on that line you'll need to get that removed before you can apply for ADSL.

 

[Doctor Feel]

Its alright guys, here come the unions!

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...-asbestos-safety/story-e6frgaif-1226657382430

 

[StrappingTape]

When you say slower you do realize that ADSL2 speeds depend on how far you are away from the exchange and the norm is probably about 8-9Mbps? You can only usually get 20+ if the exchange is sitting next door to your house. Abbot's plan will have the same problem because it will still rely on the copper network. The ISPs I had a look at the cost was about the same, but that seems about right to me.

This guy does a much more detailed analysis.
http://www.whistleout.com.au/blog/nbn-pricing-analysis-vs-adsl-2

That data is 2 years old and done around the time that heavy discounts were applied to NBN to try and get initial uptake. Also yes I am fully aware of how adsl works and the data loss over distance but 12mbps will be slower than a lot of people get currently on adsl. Abbotts plan at least spends less money before our future wireless overlords take over. Looking at the uptake of residential NBN service I think it just re-enforces that for most people the interest in the higher speeds are not there as most of them on the NBN just browing the web are probably not going to notice any speed difference at all.

 

[BornPort]

That data is 2 years old and done around the time that heavy discounts were applied to NBN to try and get initial uptake. Also yes I am fully aware of how adsl works and the data loss over distance but 12mbps will be slower than a lot of people get currently on adsl. Abbotts plan at least spends less money before our future wireless overlords take over. Looking at the uptake of residential NBN service I think it just re-enforces that for most people the interest in the higher speeds are not there as most of them on the NBN just browing the web are probably not going to notice any speed difference at all.

Yet he will still manage to spend 30billion and what future wireless technology are you talking about that will be better then fiber optics? No doubt you also assume that fiber speeds will not improve. What about reliability?

Also 8-9 is the average for ADSL2 so most will be lower.

 

[StrappingTape]

30 billion is much less than what is being spend now and will still give us the backbone for business. How much clearer can it be, consumer electronics is pushing away from a wired home connection, people take their devices away from the home now but use the same connection on it so in the future you can have as much speed as you want on your optical but who's going to be using it? Wireless is coming along very fast, Samsung just had a breakthrough with 5g where the data is going to be transmitted up to 5x the speed of the top level of the NBN and 2.5x the speed with no data loss.

 

[FPPF]

Well, after spending most of late morning and all of lunch on the phone, the final response from the complaints department is the following;

Nobody at Telstra knows if that cable belongs to them.
Telstra's "cable" cables apparently run underground only.
They do not know if they ran them in my street.
Foxtel also isn't available via cable. Only through satellite. So whose cable is it?
All they know is that cable isn't available in my area, they don't know why it isn't but that it just isn't.
It could be that there are no more ports left, or that there isn't a cable for cable.

There is a mystery cable running along the stobie poles down my street, which has no owner, and Telstra isn't sure why I can't get cable broadband.

I'm sure nobody at Telstra will mind if I go rip it down as it is a bit of an eyesore being as thick as it is and hanging lower then the power lines.

At least this time though I got a nice lady with a lovely Australian accent who actually tried to help and wasn't rude and simply repeating her self like a broken record.

 

[StrappingTape]

and NBN still has the problem that this is the cheapest it's ever going to be and it still costs more for most people per month than their current adsl and in a lot of cases those people will then discover they have a slower connection than they previously had. Under Abbott's plan, if you really want fibre to your home that bad you can pay for it, the options there for you still to have your high speed connection it's just we won't all be paying for it.

 

[BornPort]

30 billion is much less than what is being spend now and will still give us the backbone for business. How much clearer can it be, consumer electronics is pushing away from a wired home connection, people take their devices away from the home now but use the same connection on it so in the future you can have as much speed as you want on your optical but who's going to be using it? Wireless is coming along very fast, Samsung just had a breakthrough with 5g where the data is going to be transmitted up to 5x the speed of the top level of the NBN and 2.5x the speed with no data loss.

How many people use wireless as there main connection at home? How many only used fixed wireless connections because they are forced to due to lack of ADSL2? I haven't met many people who would prefer wireless at home instead of fixed. NBN will be offering Gigabit by the end of the year so that would be the same as Sumsungs experimental wireless and your wireless has only been lab tested as far as I can tell. There are physical limitations that prevent wireless from reaching the speeds of best possible speeds of fiber. Also if we are going to start comparing things tested in labs I think fiber will have you beat. The experimental maximum of wireless currently sits at 1Gbps while fiber sits at 69Gbps.

People and businesses will always use the best available to them and data consumption rates will always increase to use the maximum of what's available. Fixed line data usage is also growing much faster then Mobile usage 35% compared to 11%.With Fiber optics only the end points will need to be upgraded once the cables are in. For wireless to take over the role of the main connection for the home you would need to increase the number of mobile towers by 75000 and all those towers would need to be connected by fiber.

But we are never going to agree so what's the point?

 

[StrappingTape]

We aren't going to agree because you are completely missing the point. Your average joe is buying tablets these days, with a connection to the mobile network. That's the future. Hearing physical limitation on wireless makes me laugh, surely you don't think that is going to stop something being invented as a work around?

 

[BornPort]

We aren't going to agree because you are completely missing the point. Your average joe is buying tablets these days, with a connection to the mobile network. That's the future. Hearing physical limitation on wireless makes me laugh, surely you don't think that is going to stop something being invented as a work around?

Your point is just wrong and wireless will never be the main source of data. Do I think they will make a work around for physics? How far into the future are we talking?

 

[StrappingTape]

Your point is just wrong and wireless will never be the main source of data. Do I think they will make a work around for physics? How far into the future are we talking?

If general consumers are all using devices using wireless networks then yes it will make the NBN redundant. I'm saying don't put limitations on what's possible in the future because chances are there will be something that finds a way around it. I'm fully aware of the limitations of wireless but also quite aware that limitations in technology generally end up conquered somehow.

 

[Quadzilla]

Well, after spending most of late morning and all of lunch on the phone, the final response from the complaints department is the following;

Nobody at Telstra knows if that cable belongs to them.
Telstra's "cable" cables apparently run underground only.
They do not know if they ran them in my street.
Foxtel also isn't available via cable. Only through satellite. So whose cable is it?
All they know is that cable isn't available in my area, they don't know why it isn't but that it just isn't.
It could be that there are no more ports left, or that there isn't a cable for cable.

There is a mystery cable running along the stobie poles down my street, which has no owner, and Telstra isn't sure why I can't get cable broadband.

I'm sure nobody at Telstra will mind if I go rip it down as it is a bit of an eyesore being as thick as it is and hanging lower then the power lines.

At least this time though I got a nice lady with a lovely Australian accent who actually tried to help and wasn't rude and simply repeating her self like a broken record.

lol - they should send someone out - oh wait - that was when they had the 'somebodys' .. now all the cable shite is outsourced. Find out who the 'cable' contractor company is ... ours in NSW was Silcar ... Vic too ... anyway wouldnt hurt to call Silcar and ask - or ring Ombudsman ... I'm surprised 'T' didn't look further - you got the lazy faaaker in complaints!!!!!

To not know who the 'cable' belongs to - wtf? If you're in Adelaide Optus started running cables - its hanging everywhere - was near Alberton oval when I lived Queenstown (I'm talking late 1990s) - it was stopped due to some council dispute and I believe never got restarted.

Anyway go go pull it down and see which company comes to fix it?

I'm sure the Telecom Industry Ombudsman would be happy to here your story. Are you Adelaide - if so ring Leon Byner at 5AA - he will give you Sue Lamshed (SA corp office # ... she's good-if still works for 'T').

Good luck!

 

[FPPF]

I even asked is it possible to send someone out to have a look and what not..to which she kind of just talked gibberish.
I might ring complaints again tomorrow, see what response I get. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll send someone out.

 

[Del80659]

i enjoy watching footy online, it's easy, you don't need foxtel and it's hosted on ESPN USA so you get funny stupid american commercials in the breaks.