[LINK] The farce that is Telstra

[Richard Chirgwin]

Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> I have just moved back to Canberra (again)
>
> I am renting a five year old house in Bruce, about 15 Km north of  
> parliament house.
>
> Yesterday I tried to get Telstra ADSL activated at the new address, 
> having previously checked that ADSL was available at the exchange and at 
> my number.
>
> I was gob smacked when Telstra informed me that they had no spare ADSL 
> ports at my local exchange and that this is unlikely to change in the 
> next six month.
>   
"Short of ports" is quite common. I don't know how many ports are in a 
single box (well, it depends on the DSLAM the carrier chooses), but I 
don't think carriers deploy new ports the instant a DSLAM fills up.
> The only Telstra option I now have is dialup. They did offer me a 
> wireless modem connection but that is not compatible with my home LAN.
>   
Stagger me, in what way is the 3G wireless modem incompatible? Out the 
back, surely it's either USB or Ethernet (actually, I was just at a 
friend's place in Windellama, they've just installed the wireless 
broadband talking to a mobile tower at Braidwood. Thrilled to bits, 
considering that their phone line was so long that even on dialup, the 
best they ever got was about 20 kbps...

RC
> I am now looking at alternatives and as soon as I get it sorted out I 
> will be canceling my Telstra landline, mobile phone, Foxtel and Bigpond 
> accounts and selling my few Telstra shares.
>
> If Australia thinks it has a first class telecommunications network when 
> its largest service provider cannot deliver at least ADSL in the middle 
> of its capital city, then I think it is fooling itself.
>
>