[LINK] NBN customers complain of unreliable home phone service

David Boxall linkdb at boxall.name
Sat Feb 25 14:13:47 AEDT 2017


<http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/nbn/nbn-customers-complain-of-unreliable-home-phone-service/news-story/87abad815d09e06c37f26ff67569dc4e>
> MANY forget the NBN is not just a broadband internet service but will 
> also be the only way we can make home phone calls.
>
> Unfortunately some are already complaining that this “fancy modern 
> technology” doesn’t match up to what we had before.
>
> Western Australia resident Geoff Levings lives in the southern Perth 
> suburb of Waikiki and has been less than impressed with his home phone 
> service.
>
> His home is connected to the NBN via Fibre-To-The-Node technology that 
> uses copper wire and fibre optic cable to provide internet services. 
> Because he is located 1053 metres from his nearest node, the maximum 
> internet speed he will be able to achieve is 25 megabits per second.
>
> While he would prefer faster internet, it’s actually his home phone 
> service that’s giving him the biggest headache at the moment.
>
> Mr Levings said the internet phone service delivered by the NBN was 
> extremely unreliable.
>
> “The service will often drop out mid conversation,” he told news.com.au.
>
> “I talk to my wife three to four times a day and quite often the thing 
> just stops, you don’t get any warning.”
>
> Because the majority of the copper network is being ripped out to make 
> way for the NBN, households will be forced to use Voice over Internet 
> Protocol (VOIP) to make phone calls.
>
> This means if the internet drops out, so does the phone call, and this 
> happens with annoying frequency.
>
> Mr Levings said calls just stopped, quite often after the conversation 
> has been going for about 20 minutes.
>
> Callers trying to get through often get an engaged tone, so it’s not 
> clear the line isn’t working.
>
> “Residential VOIP services are at best unreliable, at worst almost 
> completely useless,” he said.
>
> At times calls drop out after the internet disconnects, which it does 
> once or twice a day.
>
> A couple of times, Mr Levings saw the internet was still working but 
> it was just the VOIP that stopped.
>
> People will have to start using internet phones once NBN is installed.
>
> People will have to start using internet phones once NBN is 
> installed.Source:News Limited
>
> Mr Levings’s problems are being investigated Barefoot Telecom, the 
> retailer that is delivering his NBN, but he is worried that it will 
> continue to be an issue.
>
> “People need to be aware that if they lose power, they have no 
> telephone unless they have battery backup,” Mr Levings said.
>
> “They have taken Australians and given them all this fancy modern 
> technology, the politicians are telling everyone how fantastic it is, 
> when in reality it’s far worse than what people have now where 
> telephones are concerned.”
>
> He was especially concerned because home phones were a lifeline for 
> people like his 86-year-old mum.
>
> “It’s going to leave people completely confused,” he said.
>
> “My mum doesn’t have a mobile phone and has got reliance on this 
> stuff. All of a sudden it won’t be there and I think people need to be 
> aware.”
>
> While the old phone system wasn’t perfect, Mr Levings said calls could 
> still be made if there was no power.
>
> “Now if there is a national disaster and the power goes out and mobile 
> is not working, we’re all going to be in la la land for however long.”
>
> NBN declined to comment.

<https://www.facebook.com/groups/BIRRR/permalink/636427493232608/?comment_id=636475276561163>
> The nbn network is an internet network.
>
> Internet is not an essential service.
>
> The key objectives of nbn are;
>
> + fastest possible roll-out of consumer grade internet
> + cheapest possible roll-out of consumer grade internet
> + deliver 25/5Mbps on a good day
> + no consumer Service level Agreements
>
> Contrast this to the 99.999% availability fixed line telephone network 
> (with very tight and specific SLAs) that has served us very well for 
> the last 50 years at least.
>
> Forcing fixed line telephone service onto nbn is akin to replacing 
> your telephone with tin cans and string. :(
>
> Whilst FTTP (ie all fibre connection to the home) might come close, it 
> remains a less reliable medium than the plain old telephone service 
> POTS, due to the complexity of VoIP services and the insecure 
> infrastructure that supports it..

-- 
David Boxall                    |  Drink no longer water,
                                 |  but use a little wine
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  for thy stomach's sake ...
                                 |            King James Bible
                                 |              1 Timothy 5:23



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