news The nation’s largest telco Telstra has declined a challenge to provide photos highlighting good examples of the best-maintained infrastructure in its national copper telecommunications network, following the publication several weeks ago of a “worst of the worst” gallery of photos of the network.
In early May, Delimiter published a photo gallery of so-called “worst of the worst” photos of Telstra’s ageing copper telecommunications network, which provides telephony and broadband services to the majority of Australia. The publication of this photo gallery was aimed at providing a realistic view into what the infrastructure which the nation relies on day in day out really looks like in some places, in the context of the current debate about upgrading it.
Following the publication, however, a number of readers and external parties expressed strong criticism of the photo gallery, stating that it didn’t fairly represent Telstra’s network, which does usually function well for the majority of those users using it. Because this, Delimiter subsequently issued a challenge to Telstra to submit a gallery of good photos of well-maintained areas of its copper network, writing at the time:
“We want to see pristine, well-maintained, properly functioning areas of its copper network. Clean exchanges, well-maintained ducts, new network equipment with fancy blinking lights and so on. We’ll commit to publishing the same number of photos we published yesterday, giving the story the same degree of prominence, if Telstra will come to the party. This shouldn’t be too hard a task for Telstra, given that it has publicly talked about how it regularly cleans its telephone exchanges.”
Unfortunately, Telstra has declined the opportunity. A Telstra spokesperson said in response: “Telstra operates a telephone network over a geographical area probably larger than any other single network provider in the world. Telstra is responsible for around 9 million telephone lines, and millions of cable joints, manhole covers, and pit lids. Nationally there are hundreds of thousands of kilometres of copper in Telstra’s network. In 2010/11, Telstra operated and maintained more than 11,000 telephone exchanges.”
opinion/analysis
Some who read this article will immediately jump to the conclusion that Telstra isn’t meeting Delimiter’s challenge to provide “best of the best” photos of its copper network infrastructure because there aren’t any such good examples of well-maintained cables. However, I don’t think this is the case — of course there are many well-maintained areas of Telstra’s network. I anticipate that Telstra has declined the opportunity to participate in this challenge because it doesn’t want the dialogue about the quality of its copper network to continue — it doesn’t want to fuel the fire. And, with the abysmal photos of the copper which were submitted for our last photo gallery … who can blame it?
Having said that, I am disappointed that Telstra hasn’t taken up our challenge. The publication of actual photos of the degrading copper network several weeks ago drove a huge amount of community interest, and I think it’s important that we continue to try and put a face on this kind of infrastructure, if we’re going to talk about upgrading it.
Image credit: Telstra
They are too busy collecting plastic bags for their repairs than to take photo’s.
Noting that a lot of areas within Telstra will be off-limits for photography.
And once you’ve seen the insides of a few pits, you really don’t feel the need to sojourn through a cornucopia of plastic wrapped (with real shopping-bag plastic) copper cable looking for the diamond in the rough.
:)
I know for a fact that demiliter users submitted photos of some well-maintained examples of the copper network.
Why hasn’t Delimiter published these?
Huh? I don’t recall that. Happy for you to resend them though. Email renai@delimiter.com.au.
Photos of a decent copper exchange have been sent through to the above email.
I think it’s dishonest for Delimiter to published user submitted photos of bad infrastructure while refusing to publish photos of good copper infrastructure.
It gives a misleading view on the current state of the network, and is poor journalism. If you don’t publish user submitted photos of well-maintained copper infrastructure, then it is clear that Delimiter is seeking to select the worst examples of the current network and has no regard for the actual state of the infrastructure.
Tom: Renai just suggested you to resend them. I take it you’re not interested in doing that?
Twice this week I’ve been told by Telstra linesmen that there’s just no good pairs aailable and tey’ve moved a customer on the “best” pair they can find and hopefully things will be better for them.
In the odd case a CNI is raised, but that can take weeks to get resolved.
Admittedly, for such a large network Telstra does a pretty good job, but realistictly it’s costing hundreds of millions of $$ a year, maybe getting into the billion mark to just try and keep the 19th century copper network running.
A 21st century fiber network will be far cheaper to maintain, so the building costs need to be judged against the escalating holding costs of the current network.
I have 20 pair running to my house (last on the street) with most free, however last time I had a fault on the line it took 2 Telstra guys 6 hours to find a clean pair.
The builder 3 doors up cut through the copper twice in three months. Even better the house 4 doors up is being knocked down and subdivided. I must remember to speak with the builder.
I’ve had a telstra tech say “I’ve moved you to the best pairs available, every pair in this street has been patched with a lot of them corroding, we need to do more maintenance here but don’t hold your breath”
I’m pretty sure it costs Telstra $1 Billion a year to maintain the copper network.
as mentioned here in an ABC article.
http://www.abc.net.au/technology/articles/2012/04/27/3490479.htm
There really was no upside to Telstra in responding to be honest – what would have been the response if they had? Comments like “gee, so why does the rest of it look so bad” and “how hard did you have to look to find that”?
I’m quite unsurprised they did not bother. I quite like reading Delimiter, but in this case I think there’s rather an inflated sense of self importance going on regarding entitlement to a response.
An inflated sense of self-importance is one of our specialities XD
Hey, if a decent tech site doesn’t have an inflated sense of self-importance…..wel, for a start it’s not a decent tech site :D
Secondly, it’s sites like Delimiter that challenge. You can’t tell me that the average reader of SMH, Telegraph, Brisbane Times, etc… would really bother challenging about whether Telstra infrastructure is up to the task do you??
This is the reason why I turn to Delimiter more and more. No one else has the time/patience/inclination to call bullshit.
I’m not surprised but if you think about it photos of “well-maintained, properly functioning areas” are pointless, that is not the problem, that can all be working fine but if one part is in a bad state that means performance is going to be compromised.
Two rejections in two days. That has to sting a little Renai ;)
*shrugs*
It just shows I was trying to push shit uphill ;)
Well Renai, at least you gave them a chance.
No surprise,I get drop outs at least 3-4 times a day and i only live 2km from the exchange I keep ringing telstra and all i get is lies and the run around because im with TPG for my internet but for my local call Im with Telstra and this is the thanx i get for paying LINE RENTAL, VOTE labour coz they al leaste agrre FIBRE TO THE HOME AND NOT NODE IS THE ONLY ANSREW i just wish they hurry up instead I gotta wait till bloody 2020 coz im next to a business suburb area where the owner would of voted for liberals coz the people know the Liberal party are greedy and stingy and accept political donations from everyone just coz its money,anyway COPPER HAS 2 GO!! F**K GREEDY LIBERAL SCUMBAGS and TELSTRA we are sick of ADSL DROP OUTS!!! DAM IT SPREAD THE WORD
Wow…..I understand the sentiment Anthony but….rant much? :D
Does Delimeter believe that Telstra would not be able find any decent equipment to take photo’s of?
If that’s not the case and Delimeter know that Telstra would have no trouble in finding at least a few examples of pristine equipment (even if they just faked them!) then what’s the point of the challenge?
Given the absurdity of anyone saying there is no good copper in all of Australia to take a photo of, perhaps Telstra believe that Delimeter is just trying to manufacture a confrontation to raise the website’s profile and as a result, haven’t taken the challenge seriously.
Read the article. He says exactly what he thinks down the bottom. That he thinks Telstra could provide some pristine picture but probably may not have sent any because it doesn’t want any stories about it’s copper network and it’s current state to continue.
Hi Renai, I know you banned me last time I made a comment not to your liking bit hope you will accept this constructive criticism with gentlemanly response.
I understand your desire to create interest by the inclusion of Telstra in your debate but really your search for interest creation must go down like a lead balloon. The old hate Telstra attitude of those who hope to advance their own interests by denigration of Telstra no longer flies. That said wish you and Delimiter every best wish.
Couldn’t be further from the truth, imo Sydneyla.
Renai posted pics of the copper network and it’s shoddiness in areas, in response to MT’s continued calls for FTTN .
http://delimiter.com.au/2012/04/19/australias-copper-broadband-infrastructure-the-reality/
http://delimiter.com.au/2012/05/01/worst-of-the-worst-photos-of-australias-copper-network
http://delimiter.com.au/2012/05/02/copper-maintenance-cost-not-an-issue-says-turnbull/
Then a few took exception and said he was being biased, so Renai asked Telstra and these fans for their pics.
http://delimiter.com.au/2012/05/02/a-challenge-for-telstra-show-us-your-best/
A few fans sent pics and Telstra, as per this article, flatly refused… Which frankly, I find rather self-incriminating (yes we are all innocent until proven guilty, but one as a pre-requisite/minimum, at least has to defend one’s own innocence)!
So this all has nothing to do with your myopic views relating to Telstra.
And here – http://delimiter.com.au/2012/05/17/pristine-telstra-network-photos-we-sourced-our-own/
“He says exactly what he thinks down the bottom. That he thinks Telstra could provide some pristine picture”
So the challenge wasn’t whether Telstra could find equipment in good condition worthy of photo’s but whether they would engage with Delimeter?
Don’t get me wrong, the original photo’s almost certainly represent someone’s struggle to get their phone and internet connection fixed. Telstra should be willing to explain what the hell is going on there, but until you get to the opinion/analysis you quote from, its easy to think that Delimeter are saying the photos show the state of all of Telstra’s equipment.
I was wondering what was happening with it for the last few days, but at least Telstra sent a response. Not too surprised about the response.
I know for a fact that Hel$tra doesn’t keep the wiring “up-to-date”. In the building where I live there is a junction box (which is accessible to anyone that in the building just by opening up the metal box).
I have lived in the apartment block for well over 6 years, and I saw (which still to this day) defies belief, a sticker on the back panel which has PMG on it, and if anyone that remembers that far back, before Telstra there was Telecom and before that PMG (which stands for Post Master General) and the wiring I saw in there was abysmal to say the least.
(to see the history of PMG before and after go to this link: http://www.caslon.com.au/austelecomsprofile1.htm)
So it defies belief that Telstra is trying to fight tooth and nail to keep the copper wiring to households going (which I add emphasis on “going” with a MASSIVE ?) instead of moving into the present with NBN.
Do you know what I like to do? I would like to conduct a full electrical audit of Renai LeMay house. While I am at it, I would like to have a mate (who is a builder) conduct a full building inspection. And why not have a registered cabling technician do a full audit of the communications. While we were at it, we would take some lovely photos of the condition of assets under Renai’s possession. Then post these photos on the internet to prove … exactly what would this prove????
so….many….arguments….must….hold….them….in…..
Ok, just 1…
why…..is Renai’s house home to 23 Million people and provides basic telecommunications infrastructure to all of them, funded by those 23 Million people?……
Thought not….
*rolls eyes*
Then you guys just don’t get it. We are all “asset owners” to some degree. We all face budgetary restrictions one how we maintain our assets. It is interesting how we rant (or roll eyes) when it is someone else’s problem to fix. A bit like the pot calling the kettle black. I am sure Telstra would love to have 1000’s of dedicated crews driving around the country side just to polish the brass nuts on the side of every junction box in the land. But that would cost money, which would raise the price of the telephone bill, and would the Telstra haters – including delimiter – around here be the first to moan.
It you really want to count the cost of upgrading aged assets, just look at what is happening with the current massive upgrades to the electricity grids in NSW and QLD. Ditto, the massive capital spend on water infrastructure in around the capital cities over the last five years. We have shiny new assets. Yet, the price of water and electricity has risen markedly over the last few years and, according to the press, causing major pain in the community. Well, what will it be, shiny assets or low utility bills.
I strongly suspect that most of the NBN fanboys who comment on articles like this are not fully exposed to the full financial cost that the NBN will bring. Most are far better economic rent seekers than any public monopoly.
Err, the equipment belongs to Telstra and we pay our money to them (either directly or through a wholesaler who pays access fees) for Telstra’s equipment to function and function correctly – period. No one expects any special frills and understand that there will be occasional problems, but that’s the basics.
However, if Telstra fanboys/NBN haters will accept and actually claim that Telstra don’t need to funnel the “BILLIONS IN ANNUAL PROFIT (yes their budget CAN afford it)” to ensure they are able to provide us with the bare minimum they are “contracted to supply”, well that just demonstrates very odd bias.
Disclaimer: By and large I have few complaints personally with Telstra, as a Telstra customer. When I have had rare problems, although perhaps a little slow in repairing (a refund was paid for loss of services) they have been professional, courteous and genuinely wanted to help.
@why
Alex has already covered 2 of my points 1) WE the TAXPAYER supposedly own half of Telstra. Where’s our slice of the Muti-BILLION dollar profit? Oh, that’s right, the Government (Government of the time, not Labor) gets it. Which encourages Telstra to make more profit so the Government is happy to get more money- to do that, they skimp on maintenance. It’s that simple. I know plenty of companies that do it. Look at any airline.
2) We pay (85% of us anyway) Telstra line rental(or pay it to a company that pays Telstra). Should that not be to rent the line? Ie, if you pay to rent a house, should it not be in good condition, have all functions working and generally be in a good state of repair? Are there not laws that protect the tenant from a dodgy landlord? Should there not be laws that protect consumers from dodgy lines?….oh wait, there are….except it seems from alot of people I’ve spoken to and from most of my 15 years dealing with Telstra, they can happily fob off most of their responsibility. And they do.
But here’s my own point. why, where do you live? I live in the Southern Highlands of NSW. The power infrastructure where we live is NOT shiny and brand new. Powerlines go down all the time here, it’s one of the windiest places in NSW. Integral stand them up again and walk away. We’re due for a multi-million dollar replacement of most of our infrastructure down here…..but we have been for 20 years. It’s never happened. The power companies say “Oh, well, electricity prices have to go up for us to cover infrastructure costs”. That’d be fine, except they’re replacing ALL of the infrastructure at once because they haven’t done it over the past 25 years. If they had, we would have seen a steady, but manageable rise, probably of around 5-6% (maybe a little higher) in electricity prices every year. Instead, we get stuck with a 35-60% (depending who you’re with) price rise because of the need to replace all infrastructure NOW, otherwise it WILL fail over the next 10 years. And PLEASE, don’t bring the Carbon Tax into it. Don’t insult our intelligence.
This situation with power (and water mind you- Sydney Water runs our water down here and we’ve had 3 main high pressure pipes fail in the last 2 years) is no different than the NBN. Telstra have been lagging off doing any decent maintenance on the copper as a whole for nearly 20 years, since they were first separated. Now, we’re having to face multi-billion dollar bills and subsequent increases in phone costs to fix it all (Coalition plan) OR simply replace it, which costs more IN THE SHORT TERM but will end up costing the Government nothing (and in fact will make them a modest return) and the taxpayer nothing (either in the sense of increased taxes OR increase in phone spending- look the NBN plans up, they cost the same as what the ordinary plans are now).
Australia’s infrastructure NEVER gets upgraded piecemeal, it’s politically damaging to spend the money each year. Instead, we whinge and complain about it until FINALLY it gets to the point where it’s on the verge of collapse and the government finally bites the bullet and spends the money- with a subsequent HUGE price ramp of whatever the infrastructure provides (and if it’s roads, other than tolls, that usually means tax hikes). Look at Sydney’s train system, look at Sydney’s airport. These are state run, yes, but the point remains. Look at the Pacific Highway (which is FINALLY being done after 30 years). The New England Highway. The Hume Highway. The Princes Highway. Need I go on?
Australia’s fundamental politics and our fundamental geography are the reason it costs Australians so much money to live in the same style as similar countries. The NBN is just a much better answer to rebuilding failing infrastructure than most other situations.
Oh and by the way- I currently pay $69.95 for “ADSL 2+ speeds” on iinet. Plus $30 for line rental. Plus $15 a month for VOIP (it’s a HELL of a lot cheaper than ordinary calls). For that $115 a month, I get 200GB internet, at (if I’m lucky) 8Mbps. (usually 5 in the evening). If I had access to an NBN plan? 200GB, 50/20- $74.95. Plus $15 for VOIP (I’d get naked, I don’t WANT a home phone). So $90, for the same quota and a much higher speed……sorry, how am I not fully exposed to the financial cost of the NBN? If you mean economically I can see what you mean……oh no, wait, I can’t. It is NOT GOING TO COST US ANY MONEY!! I don’t know how else to say this. If you don’t understand it, and you’re not willing to accept it, well, there’s nothing I can really say can I?
seven tech really enjoyed your effort. Just one question. What did you mean by the “we the taxpayer own half of Telstra”?
Perhaps it was a typo and he meant Sydneyla owns half of Telstra… ;-)
Just kidding Sydney, we all know Telstra is now fully privatised. Ooh, apart from whatever may be left in the future fund (2.5% down from 17% iirc).
Sorry, that was indeed my hands running away from my thoughts. It was supposed to say we the taxpayer supposedly BUILT half of Telstra. I was thinking along the lines of ownership when Telstra, or Telecom Australia or PGM whatever you want to call it, built the copper lines. I think it makes up more than half their revenues, but I could be wrong. And we were the ones who funded that.
My bad. Cross train of thought.
Interesting post, but it just goes to provide some of the discussion points that I raised.
Seven_tech would hate to admit it, but the good residents of metro Sydney already subsidise power supply in the Southern Highlands region. Electricity supply cost is under recovered in rural areas. So, there is some form of rent extraction already taking place. Ditto water and telecommunications costs. You might think you are paying a fully cost reflective price, but you are clearly not.
Second, the post confuses expenditure on the network verses outage causes. According to the Integral Annual report, they had a reliability index on average of 74 minutes (will is excellent, almost best in class, from an Australian perspective),which stands in stark contrast to seven_tech’s assertions. Besides, one of the biggest battles utilities have in areas like the Southern Highlands is strenuous objections from the greenies to clearing trees away from overhead power and telephone lines to improve reliability. Anyway, we are getting off topic.
Third, Australia’s infrastructure is ALWAYS being upgraded piecemeal. Just look through the annual reports of telephone, water, electricity companies at the assets under management. One can see a growth (which has a high correlation with local economic growth) in kilometres of water mains, power lines, telephone lines under management. Therefore, the facts are in contrast with Seven_tech’s assertion here as well. The AER heavily regulates electricity utility’s network expenditure. However, the electricity price should reflect the cost to provide. The reason why electricity prices have risen over the last few years is the remarkable change in household peak energy usage (particularly with explosive growth in air conditions, plasma TV, and even computing needs), the replacement of assets that are getting near end of life, and economic growth. Anyway, this is also getting way off topic.
The point that I have been trying to make is that a highly selective sample of photos is NOT a true representation of the condition of the telecommunications infrastructure. (Anyone who has done probability maths at high school could point that out.) For example, in the photo collection is a picture of a broken pit cover. Why is it broken? Probably because some bozo has illegally driven a car over the footpath and broken the pit cover. Telstra (or water or electricity) is not omniscient. Ideally, someone, preferably the person who broke it, would have reported it to Telstra for repairs. Utilities are wide awake to their public liability exposure when something like this is reported. Normally, these issues are fixed quickly.
I can only go on my experiences. Every time I see something wrong with an asset in a public place, I ring the owner and report it. For example, a year or so back, I was crossing at a traffic lights and I notice some wires hanging out of the walk button. I wondered to a colleague (who walks the route daily) how long it had been like that and they said for months. I immediately rang the local council to report the problem; by the time we walked back, a crew had been on site and fixed it. Now, I could have taken an alternate action of photographing the wires and sending it to the local newspaper. I am sure the local newspaper would have had a field day sledging the local council over poor asset maintenance. However, the root cause was that no member of the public had bothered to call the problem in.
Getting back to the photos. Look at the junction pillar that had clearly been subjected to excessive force (by a car or vandals). When had that been reported to Telstra? If ever?
Or what about the junction box that a bee colony had taken over? I bet within a few months, if not already, there will be a NBN junction box with a bee (or wasp) colony in it somewhere. If I posted a photo of such colony, does it prove the NBN is a poorly maintained asset?
I am sure delimiter has had their fun. But I doubt it was a rational or logical contribution to the public debate on the NBN.
(BTW, Bigpond Ultimate, 115MB/s down, 2MB/s up, 5ms ping)
“Seven_tech would hate to admit it, but the good residents of metro Sydney already subsidise power supply in the Southern Highlands region. Electricity supply cost is under recovered in rural areas”
I’m certain you are correct why, about rural electricity costs being under recovered. However-
1) We are not rural. We are in fact solidly regional.
2) Besides that point, if you mean we are being subsidised by the fact that we pay the same as the city for our “rural” power, then yes we are. Therefore so to are we for gas….and telecommunications. So, therefore, if we’re being subsidised in PRIVATE industry for utilities, why shouldn’t we be in PUBLIC utilities such as the NBN? In fact is NBN is public, then by definition it SHOULD subsidise “rural” areas.
“According to the Integral Annual report, they had a reliability index on average of 74 minutes (will is excellent, almost best in class, from an Australian perspective),which stands in stark contrast to seven_tech’s assertions”
why, all I can tell you that any time it is badly windy down here (alot of Winter and Spring), any time it snows (which it does about once every 2 years), every time there’s a thunderstorm, we have a powerout, minimum 3 hours. Integral do the best job they can down here, we have alot of trees and I’d never deny our council is woe to cutting down trees that NEED to be for reliable power. But numbers for a large company mean little for a smaller community that isn’t accurately reflected in the numbers of the large company. Numbers can be used to determine good quality anything in large enough quantities, its’ called statistics and probability, which leads me onto your next comment….
“The point that I have been trying to make is that a highly selective sample of photos is NOT a true representation of the condition of the telecommunications infrastructure. (Anyone who has done probability maths at high school could point that out.)”
why, THIS is exactly MY point. Telstra may (and many other companies for that matter (Integral, Origin, etc.), this is not a Telstra specific argument) show its’ reliability index as high and sustainable….but they cover vast areas and vast numbers of people. They cover over 3 MILLION people in Sydney over the similar sized area of the Highlands, with 100 000 people in it. This is Australia and a geographical challenge our companies SHOULD deal with if they want to do good business.
Statistics dictates that many problems in the small area, affecting maybe a few hundred people, will only make a small difference to an index of reliability compared to a single problem in the city which may effect thousands on its’ own. This is WHY the Government has its’ USO agreement, so that the hundreds of thousands of people OUTSIDE the cities aren’t shafted while the Millions in the cities are (and don’t tell me that’s simple numbers, tough cheddar. Australia would not be where it is without its’ rural and regional centres). I’ve said this in a number of posts, this is how Australian governance works. It is fantastic you have seen problems and got them fixed. We asked Telstra to come fix our line at the third house we lived in down here, because it was crackling and kept dropping out. We LEFT the house before we ever saw any improvement 3 years later, after a dozen phonecalls to them AND the Ombudsman. Why? We were on iinet, why should they? BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE USO AGREEMENT. But now they are privatised so profit is more important. THIS is why the NBN should continue and be built as government owned infrastructure, so USO agreements CAN’T be gotten around.
why, you live in a city, obviously, with Bigpond Ultimate. I have no problems with people in the city. I work in Sydney. I LIKE the city. But you CANNOT tell me people such as myself that choose to live away from city centres SHOULD NOT get services similar to those in cities. Do you WANT to end up like Asia? Millions of people crammed into cities like sardines, with the only other option of living in the countryside with little or no basic services? I love this country and its juxtaposition of population and geography. But it has unique challenges for services and service providers. Does that mean the services should be worse? NO! It means they should strive to be better as much as possible- how do you think Telstra created such a great mobile network? It wasn’t through competition- there WAS not other good network when they started the NextG network. Will it cost more? Yes. Do we pay more, as a whole, yes- Australia is an expensive country to pay for our vastly spread population. I am content to stay here and continue paying higher prices for better services. It’s STILL cheaper for me to live down here, not because I’m vastly subsidised for power, water and telecommunications, but because of RENT. The one thing that bears no subsidising whatsoever. What is wrong with that? Please tell me?
Why, your erection is excellent and does demonstrate the futility and disingenuous uselessness of the Telstra equipment complaint by Renai. It is without doubt that Renai uses his substantial business skills and acumen to present articles that will result in maximum interest and response. Naturally, any reference to Telstra will always cause serious and intense debate.
2nd line, should read *wholesale customer*!
I recently had a problem with my line, a Telstra Technician was onsite the next day, found something that resembled delimiters photos, he removed everything and started again – even replaced the pit, which had been damaged by a truck some 3 wet seasons prior.
It was well above standard when he finished, I just dread the day all Technicians are imported from India – as I dare say they will reflect Telstra’s current overseas call centre…….
We’ve had lots of fun with our Telstra line. It’s been ripped off the side of the house twice by trucks in the street. First time took over a week to repair (with Telstra Retail), second time fixed in 2 days (with a reseller that has KPIs with Telstra Wholesale).
We also get pulsing when a neighbour’s phone rings and sometimes here their conversations due to bad crosstalk. It’s really bad after heavy rain. The techs have come out and done what they can with bad joints, but the cable is stuffed. It is a 50y old direct buried cable and repairs will require the footpath to be dug up. Telstra simply don’t want to do it.
We get MUCH better quality calls using VoIP since ADSL handles the pops and clicks.
I can’t wait for a nice bit of fibre to come to the house.
BTW, this is all 6km from the CBD of Brisbane and 2km from the University of Queensland at St Lucia. Not exactly the back-blocks of nowhere.
Hell I have had my ADSL split over two pairs to patch the line up (guess how well that worked!). It took two more visits to find a tech that cared enough to find a spare pair to fix it properly. Telstra is a joke, the NBN can’t come fast enough for my liking.
Matt, considering the state of politics you must be a super optimist and your NBN hope, while understandable, is yet a dream. I do know that the Quigley Team is very knowledgeable, enthusiastic and ready to roll BUT with the almost certain change of Government in the near future all current plans will change and all will become new. It is about time all commentators recognise and admit the great changes that will occur for the NBN with a change of Government and start to use all powers of persuasion to bring about a result that will be to their liking. Oh! Matt Telstra might be a joke (in your estimation) but you better get used to them because Telstra will be around and in a condition of superior influence for a long time.
Better tell those people who are currently enjoying the NBN that it is just a dream, because I believe they actually think it’s real… No the NBN isn’t complete and with an ultra-conservative, visionless opposition leader, may never be, but it’s no dream, it exists now.
Also, Matt just gave you an actual account of what happened to him and instead of sympathy you preach at him.
Please, we all know exactly why Telstra will never do wrong in your eyes and why you will jump to their defence 24/7, even when they are indefensible. But not everyone has a personal reason to see Telstra through rose coloured glasses.
Sydneyla
I think it’s a little unfair to say the NBN is a dream. As Alex has stated, people already have it, relatively few, but growing everyday and by the next election it will be many, many more. It will then take AT LEAST a year for a Coalition government to halt said building, whether they change it completely or modify it. So by the time a Coalition government can do damage to the NBN plan, several million Australians will have the NBN. Regardless of how you look at that, it is not a dream.
I don’t disagree the commentators and people such as ourselves should be trying to change the Coalitions mind. I have myself sent Turnbull messages asking for him to listen to what the tech community is saying because they are the ones who understand this plan and are most likely to explain it to Australians who don’t and are, in general, in favour of it. Short of starting groups and petitions, there is not much more you can do with a party that has chosen to ignore the majority consensus of its’ constituency and the rest of Australia.
Oh and Telstra- It would be political suicide of the highest degree for the Coalition to not separate Telstra now. Which means, any way you look at it, their dominance of the Australian telecommunications regulations and market will be changing over the next few years.
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