[LINK] Australian households, businesses on NBN slam ‘unreliable’ connection

[David Boxall]

This is News Corp, which seems to have ramped up their anti-NBN 
propaganda again. Then again, maybe I just haven't been paying attention. ;)

The more I see, the more I fear that nbn™ has made such a mess that 
we'll be rebuilding the NBN within 15 years. The better part of $50 
billion wasted! It takes talent to reduce potential century-plus service 
life to less than two decades.

<http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/technology/australian-households-businesses-on-nbn-slam-unreliable-connection/news-story/96755a883806958fe2233ff2bdbf4243>
> John Rolfe, Cost of Living Editor, News Corp Australia Network
> March 12, 2017 10:20am
>
> HOUSEHOLDS on the NBN say they are getting less than a hundredth of 
> the speed they were promised when they joined the $49 billion 
> broadband network.
>
> Meanwhile businesses are losing customers because of the NBN’s 
> unreliability.
>
> Formal complaints about NBN faults — including slow data speeds and 
> drop outs — soared by a staggering 148 per cent last financial year to 
> 7480, data from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) shows.
>
> While NBN customer numbers also rose sharply in that time, fault 
> complaints increased 17 per cent faster than customer numbers, News 
> Corp Australia analysis reveals.
>
> “The level of fault complaints are particularly high and concerning,” 
> said Australian Communications Consumer Action Network CEO Teresa Corbin.
>
> NBN Co, which is building and operating the network, did not provide 
> an official explanation.
>
> However, sources within NBN Co have told News Corp Australia that 
> racing to finish the network is affecting quality. The pace of the 
> rollout doubled in 2016, with an extra 90,000 premises now 
> “serviceable” each week.
>
> Gosford train driver Neil Dallimore pays $120 a month for the top NBN 
> package, which is meant to offer download speeds of up to 100 Megabits 
> per second. He tests the service every morning and evening. The other 
> day the download speed was 0.67Mbps.
>
> “I’m paying top-dollar for dial-up speed, basically,” Mr Dallimore said.
>
> It was rare to get better than 5Mbps in the late afternoon when his 
> three children want to use the internet to research homework 
> assignments. But at 4am the household gets 88Mbps.
>
> Mr Dallimore believes the price he pays should be reduced until higher 
> speeds are available in periods of peak demand. He has made a formal 
> TIO complaint against his retailer.
>
> Double Bay’s Greg Conomos is also on the top 100Mbps package but 
> usually gets only 1 to 3Mbps.
>
> Mr Conomos said “the NBN network isn’t capable of maintaining a 
> constant dial-up modem speed let alone being the latest and fastest 
> network in Australia”. He said he was effectively being forced to pay 
> an extra $40 per month” compared to the ADSL service he had before.
>
> Mr Conomos said a technician for his retailer told him 40Mbps was as 
> good as could be expected.
>
> Linda Brander of Avalon said she was paying for a 25Mbps service but 
> it often offered less than 0.5Mbps.
>
> “It has been an absolute disaster,” Ms Brander said. “My service is so 
> slow it is really not worth having.”
>
> Gosford’s Les Raics is on the same NBN “tier” and his speed recently 
> improved — to 2Mbps.
>
> “But they take our money every month without fail,” Mr Raics said.
>
> Lynette Mitchell said a computer expert tested her NBN service and 
> found it was only providing 0.6Mbps.
>
> Kellyville’s Craig Stewart said he was paying for download speeds of 
> up to 25Mbps but getting 2.35Mbps. He said his testing shows the 
> problem is congestion during busy periods.
>
> “Failure to provide sufficient capacity to deliver the product is a 
> failure of NBN Co to deliver the product they have advertised,” Mr 
> Stewart said.
>
> Trevor McIntyre was getting up to 35Mbps on cable before switching to 
> the NBN. He’s getting 23Mbps now. He bought a 100Mbps service.
>
> Pharmacy manager Linda Jukic said a decision to install eftpos at her 
> South Hurstville chemist had been delayed because the NBN service was 
> unreliable. The business was also missing calls and faxes from 
> hospitals, doctors and customers — their phone is connected via the NBN.
>
> The pharmacy’s owner Emil Sidhom said he can get his mother’s phone 
> fixed faster in Egypt than he can get his fixed here.
>
> “We are in Australia,” Mr Sidhom said, “This shouldn’t happen.”
>
> Ksana Natalenko said she had been without a landline or internet for 
> six weeks and had lodged a complaint against her NBN retailer with the 
> TIO.
>
> “They have caused me thousands of dollars in lost revenue, as I work 
> from my computer at home,” Ms Natalenko said.
>
> Another work-from-home business owner Karen Taylor said: “I am losing 
> money by the day because of my lack of access to the internet. I’ve 
> had to resort to my portable Wi-Fi which costs $50 per day.”
>
> Kathy-Maree Bartle, who does bookkeeping from her home on the Central 
> Coast, said she had endured 17 breakdowns in the year since connecting 
> to the NBN.
>
> “I am so hesitant in telling people to get NBN because it is not 
> reliable,” she said.
>
> All households and businesses are due to get access to the NBN by 
> 2020. Existing internet and phone connections will be shut off 18 
> months after NBN access is available.
>
> NBN Co declined to provide its targets or performance on congestion 
> reduction. It did argue that it wasn’t solely responsible.
>
> “The network experience in relation to any congestion is dependent on 
> which provider is delivering the service,” an NBN Co spokeswoman said. 
> NBN speed was determined by the “technology used to deliver the 
> network as well as some factors outside our control like equipment 
> quality, software, broadband plans, signal reception and how your 
> service provider designs their network”.
>
> Users such as Mr Dallimore shared the view that retailers were partly 
> to blame for not having bought enough bandwidth.
>
> News Corp Australia requested NBN Co data for faults and outages but 
> it was not provided.
>
> However, its spokeswoman said: “Our data shows that fault rates are 
> running in line with our internal targets and that we are fixing the 
> vast majority of faults.
>
> “We acknowledge that there are a relatively small number of total end 
> users on the NBN who have faced connection issues and take this very 
> seriously as we want to deliver the best service possible for all 
> consumers.
>
> “As with any project and technology change of this scale, it isn’t 
> always smooth sailing but we are doing everything we can to ensure 
> that we deliver fast and reliable broadband to all Australians,” the 
> spokeswoman said.
>
> ACCAN’s Ms Corbin said the “solution to the number of fault complaints 
> was a broadband performance monitoring and reporting program”.
>
> Last Sunday News Corp Australia revealed the Australian Competition 
> and Consumer Commission was preparing to call for 4000 volunteers to 
> be part of that program.
>
> One who wants to volunteer is Bill Yeomans of Young, who loves the NBN.
>
> “I have the opposite of a horror story,” said. Mr Yeomans said he 
> consistently gets download speeds of 95Mbps and that in his view, many 
> people’s complaints were due to things outside the control of NBN Co 
> or a retailer.
>
> “Others here in town are complaining about speed, but I’ve discovered 
> lots of complaints are caused by incorrect self-install of equipment 
> such as ADSL filters left in line and telephone equipment still 
> connected to other wall outlets,” Mr Yeomans said.
>
> NBN customer satisfaction increased to 7.2 out of 10 in 2015-16, up 
> from 6.6 in the prior financial year.

-- 
David Boxall                    |  My figures are just as good
                                 |  as any other figures.
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  I make them up myself, and they
                                 |  always give me innocent pleasure.
                                 |                     --HL Mencken