The Great Big NBN Sticky Thread

to get full 100Mbps downstream you are a lot closer than 1km.

and proximity to a node has little to nothing to do with a FTTP upgrade quote.

 

Thanks for that, I'll see if they had a thread on it!

I have plenty of other options (telstra 5g, starlink, etc.) was just curious I rely on 5g for work as it is now, unfortunately, with a slow FTTN as backup. Perils of wanting a place in a pretty location, comms aren't always there!

It does note it's Enterprise Ethernet eligible (Zone 1), so presumably it's in theory possible, just eye wateringly expensive

 

Fair enough, the cabinet is probably less than 500 metres away (but not outside the house or on my street).

Interested on why proximity to the node doesn't impact a FTTP upgrade. In certain situations, does the cabinet also require a full upgrade, which the 1st customer will need to pay for?

At a consistent 100/40, anything more is a want, rather than a need.

 

In a over-simplified way, FTTP does not make use of any of the FTTN infrastructure. They have to run fibre, for you personally, from the POI, not from the road side cabinet (which is the node in FTTN).

 

^^ this. the fibres that feed the node cabinet do not carry the required signal for FTTP, so regardless of where the node is, you're paying for a fibre path back to the nearest location that can offer that service. think similar to asking your local power company for a three-phase power service to your house in suburbia.

 

Thanks, that makes sense.

 

15 days since tech visit, no change in situation, no measurable progress.
After more non-intelligible emails from SLC today they won't say anything other than to call them. Seems their workflow is ??->Call->Raise NBN incident.
I was able to clarify that each time they have said 'NBN have resolved the issue' they were referring to the definite NBN issue that was, indeed, resolved by NBN... 15 days ago.

SLC rep I just spoke to for about 30mins said it appears 'the guy' at SLC has looked at it, and SLC agree all their ducks are in order. Similarly NBN guys all looked at it and agree she's good to go. Therefore the customer is the problem. One whiff of oPnSeNsE rOuTeR and yeah the customer is the problem for sure, despite doing 'isolation tests' (i.e. no router) with two different laptops with a 'normal' Windows set up, with two different ethernet cables to show the router isn't the problem.

I believe them that all the tests say it is working and that the customer device is connected. Physically I can see all the status LED's on the HFC NTD do the right thing including the UNI-D port going to the green LED. I can see the DHCP packets being sent from opnSense using packet capture, and get nothing back. They just aren't getting into the coax cable seemingly, or SLC are idiots and not configured their end properly. My email suggesting they set me to static IP was simply ignored, thought maybe it'd at least prompt something.

Yesterday I told them if not resolved by COB tomorrow I'd be contacting ACMA+TIO but the advice SLC are giving now is to raise a complaint with NBN but my understanding is that NBN don't deal with anything layer 3, but in saying that I am not confident enough with it all to make those claims myself.

I remain confident the NTD must be buggered, so although all symptoms are layer 3/SLC NBN should replace the NTD.

Just right now I discovered SLC HQ is a 5 minute walk away, maybe a knock on the door will make someone give a fuck.

 

don't bother contacting ACMA. they are there to regulate the industry, not resolve individual consumer issues with their retail provider. similarly there is no point contacting NBN, they are a wholesaler are don't manage end users directly.

escalating to the TIO to complain that that your ISP is not managing your issue to a resolution is the correct path. even if the NBN network (which includes the NTD) is at fault, it is their responsibility to manage that on your behalf.

your other option is just churn to an ISP that cares, and if it was me in the same position I'd be looking seriously at that path - why would you want to reward them with your ongoing business?

 

NBN related.

Gigabit NBN to 90% of Australians under Albanese Labor Government
https://techau.com.au/gigabit-nbn-to-90-of-australians-under-albanese-labor-government/

The NBN has once again emerged at another election. As part of the Australian Labor Party’s policy platform for the 2022 Federal Election, the NBN will form a key policy difference between them and the Liberal/National Coalition.
If Anthony Albanese and his team are elected to Government on Saturday, May 21st, they will work to upgrade the NBN to increase the internet speed of hundreds of thousands of Australians.

Labor has committed to expanding the full-fibre aka Fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) footprint to over 10 million premises. This means 90% of Australians in the fixed-line footprint would be upgraded.
Remember when the NBN was first conceived more than a decade ago, Labor had big plans for it and originally had the plan to cover 90% of Aussie homes and businesses with fiber optic connections, capable of carrying up to 1Gbps speeds.

 

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. Admittedly I didn't actually look into the distinction between the government bodies, was just dropping mean names.

Yes I was considering churning but at every turn the problem seems a day or two away from resolution it doesn't seem worthwhile. Or start again with a new RSP and that is just a hope that they are better. I've had shares in SLC for some time so I can possibly leverage the investor contact details legitimately. SLC have nice enough pricing and I had a good chat to a lady there that was actually helpful and knowledgeable when I initiated the change of address process. She clued me up on some things and so take that and add this new hardship I was going to have a serious discussion with their retention team so hopefully some financial motive to stay.

 

No surprise it's come up, that's why this whole FTTP roll out started so the current idiots would have something to show off. We've already wasted so much money on it either way. Still it's all talk from both sides until something concrete is put in place, can live in hope though.

 

I'm wondering what the real cost of converting FTTN and FTTC premises is? The prices quoted vary greatly, and I can imagine if you were doing a whole street at a time it would much more economical.

 

the prices vary because the costs do. there is an average but it means nothing to an individual, because it won't influence what their unique circumstances dictate.

yes, a whole street is cheaper because some of the common costs are shared. called an area switch. it was rarely used and not currently available.

 

Lordy Lordy...

I saw a random contractor working in our pit this Morning...

Came back from the school run and my previous 35Mbps down has been cut in half!

I've only had that speed for a few months since they "upgraded" me to thicker copper.

Why oh why is the NBN just so bad!

We don't tolerate this with any other utility!

A tradie doesn't just show up and fuck up your water, gas or power!

Why is this seemingly ok behaviour for essential networking!

You can't sensibly operate in society anymore without decent internet, but yet screwing it up is seemingly ok behaviour!

/rant over

On hold to ABB now...

 

Yeah, I just lodged my third issue with my ISP after repeated daily dropouts.

I'm only really using it in the later evenings, but experiencing a few complete losses of sync each night.

Third time I've now been forwarded to NBNCo for monitoring or whatever they do. It's just annoying that it can't just be a stable experience. I'm being told "up to four drop-outs a day is acceptable" which I'm sure is their threshold for doing something about it, but at our previous residence, FTTP, no dropouts. FTTN, very often.

Have had the outside junction cables all redone, the inside socket all redone, work in the pit/node to move us to a different card or peg, or something.. and then properly soldering a wire on a peg that the first contractor just wound around it, but still getting the drops. Can't complain about the speed, nearing 100/20 on FTTN is fantastic, but if it could be stable, I'd have no need to jump to FTTP if it ever became available in our area.

 

Yeah NBN Co are utterly useless for problems in the pits. We had to nag Internode pretty much constantly for a few weeks before they sent a tech to us who confirmed the issue wasn't our lines but something in the pit outside, NBN stuffed around for a while before sending a tech out to check, seems to be fixed but I dunno for how long .

NBN clearly half ass most of the work on the copper, hardly making it protected from the weather etc.

Edit, the best thing to do is get a tech out to your places to confirm it's NBN's problem and not the lines on your property, once that's logged keep hounding them until an NBN tech is sent out.

 

there's still a bad joint in your line. not only does that result in line attenuation changing rapidly which is bad, it also unbalances the transmission loop which produces longitudinal/common mode noise which DSL tolerates poorly.

 

Is that something you can see from anywhere on your end? The last guy came out and checked the line and was able to go and solder that peg that was just wire-wound (interestingly, he said something vaguely racist about the previous technician and how they were "afraid to use soldering irons" ???). Otherwise he re-checked and said it was all done.

I've got no problems if someone wants to come out and have another look at it.

Can high congestion put strain on anything and cause more dropouts at peak times versus during the mornings, for example?

 

can't see where remotely, the tech has to TDR the line to look for it. soldering a peg would refer to the jumper in the pillar (solder termination strips predating modern insulation-displacement "Krone" style blocks) but generally an unstable resistance joint would be outside that environment.

no, data usage doesn't have any effect on layer 1 stability. there is the possibility that a few Luddites only turn their modems on in the evenings and general additional crosstalk, but that's not what the analysis says is the issue - it's physical.

 

Excellent, thank you for the info. I'll wait for it to escalate from "montoring" to "tech visit" and go from there. Hopefully third time's a charm?