1 June 2016

Supernode issue causing poor internet access

| vos
Join the conversation
18
Ask RiotACT

We have been long suffering and attempting to find a solution to our extremely poor internet access in inner Canberra.

We have been able to identify the root of our problem. A supernode on our street identified by the TransACT/iinet techo as being “stuffed” and needs a serious upgrade or (simple) replacement. The normal quick fix of switching us to a spare port to boost us up by over half of what we get now (a miserable 12 Mbps on a good day) is not available as all ports full. Basically we are stuck with getting extremely poor internet and can’t switch to any other internet product (NBN doesn’t exist so don’t bother talking about this pie-in-the-sky-BS-product; and ADSL is useless as we are so far away from the exchange I might as well attempt to get a connection via satellite from some bush town in Africa).

Currently our complaint about the matter resulted in a useless “sorry but we can’t do anything about it”. Compensation on the table from them was (a) no compensation and you still pay $70 p/m on VDSL2 1 plan and get less than a half of the quoted 30Mbps (b) a $10 discount off the VDSL2 2 plan quoted at $80p/m with 50 to 80 Mbps but you are still stuck with less than a quarter of the 50Mbps minimum quoted speed (c) find someone else to do business with cause we are not fixing the supernode unless we get inundated with complaints or forced to by external parties (ie someone like the telecommunications ombudsman).

Has anyone else had this issue, complained and had a successful resolution – that is, have you been successful in getting a new supernode? I’d like to know how you managed this so I can do the same!

Join the conversation

18
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

Charlotte Harper said :

See my earlier comment. I watch about 2 hours of TV/film a week. Very little of it is Hollywood, actually. This week’s quota went to Jack Irish (Australian) and Doc Martin (British).

Downloading movies was referred to in post #7. TV shows like Doc Martin and Jack Irish are something entirely different as is iview.

Dreadnaught19051:23 pm 29 Feb 16

dungfungus said :

Isn’t browsing and email what the internet was meant to be used for?
I think people who “download movies” should review their goals in life.
The cell phone was also a great invention but it has morphed into any else but a phone.
People should learn to be happy with what they have.

No. The internet was never specifically intended to be for ‘browsing and email’. It was developed purely as a way that packets of information could be switched across multiple networks.

The World Wide Web was developed more along the paradigm of what you suggest, but even then this “browsing” and “email” that you speak of bear very little resemblance to that which existed 25 years ago. I am quite sure that you are browsing video, audio and flash content in your browser; and that you are not hand encoding BinHex for your email attachments…

Holden Caulfield12:07 pm 29 Feb 16

dungfungus said :

Isn’t browsing and email what the internet was meant to be used for?
I think people who “download movies” should review their goals in life.
The cell phone was also a great invention but it has morphed into any else but a phone.
People should learn to be happy with what they have.

I agree!!!

Man should have stopped at the creation of the wheel.

Inventions that change the way we go about our daily business are THE WORST!

Charlotte Harper said :

Just heading off to review my goals in life

I mostly only watch TV shows so I guess I’m safe from having to review my goals in life 😛 I guess we should go back to watching scheduled tv full of ads to get our TV and movies needs met.

There’s also that little known site called youtube that I sometimes visit.

Charlotte Harper12:03 pm 29 Feb 16

I watch about two hours of TV/films a week on average, but 0% of them would be free to air (occasional major events like AFL Grand Final, ousting of a PM or Oscars aside). I watch a mix of iView, Netflix, Foxtel Play (we only subscribe for the three months when Game of Thrones is on) and occasionally an iTunes download because I can’t bear the ads on commercial catch up services, as with the last season of Homeland, for example. Scheduled TV doesn’t work with my real world commitments. I guess dungfungus envisages those who download movies as couch potatoes, but many of us are the opposite, downloading so we can watch snippets in rare gaps between work, family and sporting/community commitments.

Charlotte Harper said :

Just heading off to review my goals in life

You will discover there many more enriching things than watching Hollywood pap on your TV screen.

Charlotte Harper12:12 pm 29 Feb 16

See my earlier comment. I watch about 2 hours of TV/film a week. Very little of it is Hollywood, actually. This week’s quota went to Jack Irish (Australian) and Doc Martin (British).

niknak said :

dungfungus said :

Get one of those mobile wireless dongle thingys.

Yup. That’s what we’ve got. We live less than 3km from the Telstra exchange in Braddon, and the Transact/IINet building in Dickson, but the best thing we’ve ever bought is a mobile thingy from Vodafone. It’s reliable and consistent, even if it is the latest version of a dial-up connection. As in, if you want to download movies etc, this is not the option for you. For browsing etc it is great and also inexpensive.

Isn’t browsing and email what the internet was meant to be used for?
I think people who “download movies” should review their goals in life.
The cell phone was also a great invention but it has morphed into any else but a phone.
People should learn to be happy with what they have.

Charlotte Harper11:19 am 29 Feb 16

Just heading off to review my goals in life

Basically, internet isn’t considered to be an essential service legally so Transact/iinet aren’t forced to fix this.

The best you can expect, even if you go to ombudsman, is: a credit or partial credit for times when the internet wasn’t working acceptably; and/or a release from your contract without penalty.

This is based on a recent dispute I had with Transact that went to the ombudsman. They are NOT obligated to fix the supernode. The ombudsman cannot force them to do that.

Obligations of a telco to fix only extend to a traditional landline service.

I get less than 3Mbps on ADSL2+ with no other reasonable options and there’s no discount for poor copper/distance so the cost is still in line with yours and that’s having previously had over 60Mbps on VDSL2 at another property . This is just the way things are with Canberra’s infrastructure at this point in time, I can’t help but feel your expectations about speed and compensation are unrealistic.

dungfungus said :

Get one of those mobile wireless dongle thingys.

Yup. That’s what we’ve got. We live less than 3km from the Telstra exchange in Braddon, and the Transact/IINet building in Dickson, but the best thing we’ve ever bought is a mobile thingy from Vodafone. It’s reliable and consistent, even if it is the latest version of a dial-up connection. As in, if you want to download movies etc, this is not the option for you. For browsing etc it is great and also inexpensive.

I had to get a second ADSL2 service so that we could game and youtube at the same time. Both are 6Mb/s. $150 per month. Thanks Telstra.

wildturkeycanoe6:29 am 24 Feb 16

So, you’re complaining about paying $70 per month for 12Mbps? We are paying $80 per month for 13Mbps, slowed down by congestion at peak periods to as little as 1.5Mbps and receiving a maximum 50GB per month, with Telstra on ADSL2+. This is the only service we can get because of the silly bare bones, shared copper lines in the street [Suburb built in 2009]. NBN was supposed to have come to us in 2014 but we missed out whilst houses only 400m away got connected, with lightning speeds. An inner city area that has Transact plus the other carriers available should be able to do better, whilst we have been monopolized to only one carrier as our only option. Wi-fi doesn’t get speeds any better than dial up either and mobile reception is terrible, sometimes no service at all in our living room. This is in Canberra btw.
My advice is Ombudsman. If you have a service fault with your line, it is the obligation of the carrier to fix it, regardless how much it is going to cost them. I’d keep hassling them, going up the food chain till you get to speak someone with a bit of authority such as a senior supervisor or manager. I guess that won’t make a difference because they are in India or the Philippines anyway and don’t give a hoot about one customer, as long as they can sign up a hundred more in other areas. Keep trying, don’t give up. They’ll probably charge you a disconnection fee too if you decide to merge with somebody else, plus you have the new connection fees and setup costs on top of all that as well. 12 Mbps isn’t exactly slow, you can easily watch movies, play games etc. Why is that slow? What on earth can require faster speeds?

Charlotte Harper6:43 am 24 Feb 16

We have Bigpond ADSL and never had an issue in previous house, which must’ve been close to the exchange. Since moving house, we’ve been paying the same but getting download speeds of 3.2-4.8Mbps. Fine for web browsing, atrocious for downloading films or TV episodes, and impossible if more than one person is watching iView of Netflix at once. Apparently we’re so far from the exchange we may need to be happy with 5Mbps-8Mbps if they fix it. The cracking noise was so bad on the landline we stopped using it and threw the phone system out. I spent one hour 35 minutes on the phone to them yesterday (via trusty Optus mobile) and was cut off three times before finally getting through to someone who knew what he was talking about and helped me. Thank you, Ray. They’re sending a new modem. Given the crackly sound on the line through the phone, I strongly suspect the new modem will make no difference and that I’ll be back on the phone to them to go through it all again next week.

Anyway, so yes, I agree with @wildturkeycanoe, I’d take 12Mbps for $70. We pay $100, though $20 is for something called a Telstra Platinum Service that seems to be a the rip off of the century if yesterday is anything to go by.

Oh, and I paid to have a silent phone number and they accidentally took it off the silent number list for a year and just noticed AND can’t promise that third parties won’t publish my address even though they’ve put it back on the silent list now. The advice is that I should periodically check third party sites and write and ask them to take my address/number down if I find they have published it.

Everyone is going to transact as everything else is terrible.
Transact run all connections off the supermodels. The nodes aren’t currently used.

In the future some notes will get gear in them to run VDSL2. Given ur situation you might be one of the first if your area is done first. Even if you aren’t on a node getting done it should free up the supermodel.

I don’t work for them. Check out whirlpool net.au

Get one of those mobile wireless dongle thingys.

Are you able to tell us which area of inner Canberra this is in? Trying to get my parents to switch to vdsl2 from adsl2 seeing as their connection has recently taken an overall speed hit and routinely drops to near unusable speeds and TPG/Telstra don’t appear to be able to do anything more.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.