18 January 2008

Telstra's Broadband Disgrace

| knoobs
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In an era where fast broadband Internet is becoming widely accessible across not only OECD nations but also the developing world, the dismal state of Telstra’s ADSL broadband service right here in Canberra has become infuriatingly apparent through my experience with them in the past few weeks.

Having finished construction of our new home in the new suburb of Wells Station, Harrison, Telstra assured us that our Bigpond broadband connection would continue in our new home as the local, Crace exchange was ADSL enabled and connection ports were readily available. Telstra even delivered a package containing the necessary hardware. Yet only days later we received a text message rather severely stating that our application had been “rejected” – as though Telstra felt it needed to pass a judgement on my character. They didn’t bother to provide any further explanation.

The government, as well as Telstra, have touted the expansion of broadband countrywide yet when broadband isn’t even available in the developing suburbs of the nation’s capital, what hope is there for those in regional areas.

When we inquired further about our connection, Telstra customer service cheerily informed us that broadband was, in fact, available and that we would be connected shortly. Once again, days later, we were notified that this application was also “rejected”. Five times we have been subjected to this pretence. Talking to neighbours and others living in Gungahlin it became clear we were not the only victims of Telstra’s arrogant charades. We have tried several times to contact Telstra Countrywide (and Ian Peters, the Area General Manager) – the man whose image and number is plastered on every Telstra van roaming Canberra – and not a single call has yet been answered.

The worst part is that we have no choice – TransAct does not provide any services here and all other Internet providers have to go through Telstra’s exchange. Telstra’s monopoly of broadband is turning Australia into an Internet backwater, stifling innovation and trade. I sincerely believe it is the greatest obstacle facing Australia’s development in this modern, technology dependent era. Telstra, if you can’t even provide the most basic of services, get out of the way and let others do so.

Is anyone else having issues with getting broadband in Canberra and in the same situation? Is it an issue limited to us Neanderthals living on the north side?

Maybe if we can raise awareness of this issue, we can get Telstra to actually do something about this. I know, I know…but it’s worth a try.

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No no, its still not connected.
I wrote a letter to both Federal (McMullan) and Local (Some new kid) and I received confirmation responses and that is about it.
I was questioning why is Gungahlin unable to receive ADSL2, and who is responsible for establishing it.

Turns out as I dig this hole deeper, no one is.
Seriously, we are better off running fibre ourselves.

What a disgrace.
This service should be treated the same as Gas, Electricity, and Phones – Like most other developed western nations.
I would be furious if I payed this ridicules sum of money for a house in Gungahlin to find that this basic service can’t even be supplied, yet alone trying to establish a well structured IT business/company/government department.
“Nations Capital” – pfft, most country towns have better services.

I was interested to hear that now Labour is in, Telstra magically found the switch to allow 900 ADSL2+ networks across the country.

Funny, magic switches, and all that.

Actual working link:
The Hon Bruce Billson

“It’s McMullan, what do you expect?

……..Come on, someone voted for him, why?”

Because he looks like the little bald man off Benny Hill?

Encouraging the new Govt to act like a Govt rather than gloating triumphal victor, and the new Oppositions to stop acting like policy spokesmen would be nice, ans should be a national sport.

(Be sure to include any supporting documentation or responses from now-sitting government members, and highlight them or draw attention to them in writing, so your chosen recipient has to do as little prep as possible before playing Parliamentary Name and Shame 2008).

What response did you expect? “Bob has picked up the shovel and roll of fibre optic and will be around to your place directly” ??

B. Thompson, you have it wrong about the ADSL2+ situation. Previously, Telstra only chose to installed ADSL2+ DSLAMS in locations where a competitor also had such equipment, because they were worried that if they were the only ones at a site then they would be forced to allow competitors access to their DSLAMs. Telstra wanted their competitors to install their own DSLAMs rather than free-ride on Telstra’s risk. What has changed is that Telstra has been given an assurance that they can keep their DSLAMs to themselves, and competitors will need to install their own. Telstra already has to allow competitors to install equipment at their exchanges.

Unless you get a followup asking for clarification or further information (in which case someone is going likely to be asking Questions on your behalf), you’re being given the “Piss Off, I’m not being paid enough to deal with you” (or “I’m being am happy with my place in the party\paid enough\too much by Other Interested Groups specifically not to deal with questions like this”).

If you want to take it to the top:
Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
The Hon Bruce Billson MP, (Member for Dunkley) B.Billson.MP@aph.gov.au

Or try getting Senator Gazza on the case.

He is aware of the problems – recognises that these problems are way out of his league, so he has placed it in the ‘too hard basket’. Bob McMullan, you are a bloody joke.

Disgraceful response from McMullan. In other words, piss off.

Here is my response from Bob McMullan, who I also forwarded it to after I thought he might want to know.
—-
Dear Mr Thomson

Thank you for your email dated 22 January 2008 to Mr Bob McMullan MP, Member for Fraser.

Mr McMullan appreciates you taking the time to write to him. He is well aware of the broadband internet issues in Gungahlin and is working with his Parliamentary colleagues to have the problems resolved.

Regards.

XXX
Office of Bob McMullan MP
Federal Member for Fraser
—–
My question is – what exactly is he aware of? Is he aware that Telstra are locking third party companies out of their exchanges? Is he aware that there is a number range assignment in Gunghalin that is causing us to misreport as being in Crace? Or is he just aware that ‘there is something wrong with the net’ in Gunghalin.

My hopes are certainly dashed when I saw that Telstra was given the all clear to open up ADSL2 in a lot of exchanges the other day. It appears this government has no concern for the public and instead wants to cosy up to Telstra so they can award them the 8 billion grant to make a fibre network. As if it isn’t bad enough that they own all the copper I am now almost certain that the government is going to hand them the fibre contract as well.

My reasoning is simple – why have all the main media outlets managed to completely mistake the real events that have occured, getting it backwards no less.

Basically, Telstra has been pushing for years to open up ADSL2 in a heap of exchanges where competitors don’t currently have equipment. They were only allowed to offer ADSL2 if someone else did as well. We have all seen how that worked with Gungahlin – Telstra refused to let others in to the building, and also hid the fact that the building even existed.

Now the previous government quite rightly told Telstra they couldn’t open exchanges to ADSL2 without also allowing competitors wholesale access also.

Now this government has done an amazingly stupid thing and given Telstra a green light to not only open up these exchanges, but to legitimately refuse competitors access!!! This makes absolutely no sense at all.

What I find disturbing is that all the main news article have been praising Telstra for turning on the exchanges. Not only that they even go so far as to say things like “Telstra ‘loses game of chicken’ on ADSL2+ rollout” – implying that they have now been forced to open these exchanges. Or even better “Telstra opens floodgates on massive ADSL2+ upgrade”. “Telstra clears way for ADSL2 rollout” etc.

Why would everyone have the facts so very wrong? Why is it that only the 3rd party ISP’s have been crying out in terror. Then when they do, this is the kind of headline they get. “Telstra rival cries to ACCC over ADSL2+”.

Of course, News.com.au is no source for proper investigative reporting. But come on… where is the government going with this.

Luckily I’m not the only one who can see the writing on the wall – http://johnl.blogs.exetel.com.au/index.php?/archives/197-As-Predicted-Labor-Starts-To-Repay-Telstra-For-Election-Support.html

I was starting to feel a bit like Mel Gibson in conspiracy theory.

Hi
Im currently with optus and am looking around to see what is available in palmerston……i see most of you are internode users ….what about netspace??

el ......VNBerlinaV811:36 am 26 Jan 08

B. Thomson – please keep us posted if you get a response.

I’ve got the same situation in Perth. New house, new suburb – no infrastructure. I’m connected to a RIM which has no more ports available.

I work in a fairly large ISP and there is absolutely nothing that I can do with my “connections” to get Telstra to add more DSL ports to the RIM.

My theory is Telstra wants customers to sign up to their wireless product so they have slowed down the port upgrades. The mum and dads of Australia who try to connect to ADSL then get told, “Aww, sorry. No DSL for you. Here have wireless and give us lots more money.” These people, not being internet savvy hand over their moolah to Telstra who give Trullio another 14 mill payrise.

Their profit margins are much higher on wireless and they don’t get hassled by the gov. to decrease the cost of their wireless product.

I can see over the next few years that Telstra will move further and further away from their copper based products (they don’t want to share) as they now have the wireless product with which they can charge whatever they like.

well, I had been a Transact customer but then I moved to an out of the way suburb called Narrabundah in an extremely isolated position at least four kilometres from Parliament House and Transact couldn’t provide cable broadband. So, being simple and gullible I enrolled with Next G wireless. Started to use it like I had used Transact cable and within four days I had messages tellin me that I was in danger of using up a month’s available traffic. Then
I took the Dell down the coast and couldn’t connect and was told it was a minor problem and all I had to do was to move to a place where the reception was better, like at the end of the boat ramp facing Chile and all would be well. Now in two weeks I had racked up bankrupting excess charges (why is it that Telstra can find more bytes in a week than Transact could find in two months) so I called it quits, negotiated the cancellation charges down by more than 50 percent and got out. So the market works you might say, but the Mexican bandittos have got the company that I used to own and now they’re screwing us true Texas style. Thank you little Johnnie for selling off my asset and paying off a low interest debt with the proceeds, and making sure that I never receive the benefit of the income that Testra used to provide and I never receive the benefit of the dubious service they used to provide. So instead of receiving 50% of fuck all I receive nil % of fuck all.
Don’t talk to me about next G.

Aetius

Here is a copy of a very long email I sent to Stephen Conroy regarding this exact issue. Hopefully it will all fit in this comment.

—–
I would like to draw your attention to a number of facts that seem to have escaped the previous minister’s notice regarding internet access in the suburbs of Gungahlin, Harrison and surrounds. There are a number of factors surrounding the issue, and reasons for why the vast majority of these new suburbs don’t have access to broadband. But first, some history so you can have the complete picture.

Firstly, I will reference this speech –
———-
Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 7 Hansard (25 June)
MR CORBELL: As members will be aware, residents of Gungahlin have endured significant problems with telecommunications access since the establishment of the new town. In particular, there have been repeated problems with black spots for mobile phone communication. These are not just little black spots, either; they are significant holes in the network. In addition, broadband access for internet activity is also severely constricted.

I was very pleased to announce today, along with my colleague the Chief Minister, that the government has agreed to the direct sale of a site in the Gungahlin Town Centre for Telstra to build a new multimillion dollar telephone exchange that will provide high-speed ADSL broadband internet access for all Gungahlin residents. This process has been expedited by the ACT government.

We have worked closely with Telstra over the past two to three months, and we are now delivering for Gungahlin residents the high-speed internet access they need and deserve. It is a big boost for the Gungahlin Town Centre because it means that for the first time businesses locating to the town centre and Gungahlin residents choosing to work from home will have the high-speed internet access they need to make that happen.
———-

This exchange that is referenced was completed in May 2004. According to the company that constructed it (Centre Constructions) it was Telstra’s highest priority at the time. You can view their summary of it’s importance here – http://centreconstructions.com/recent_projects.html#gung

So far so good. The government saw a need and responded to the community by creating a telephone exchange in the area. However, in typical government and Telstra fashion, once the project was finished, support for it was cut and it effectively ceased to exist.

I point you to this reference in 2005 from Kate Lundy’s website. http://www.katelundy.com.au/June2005.htm#20June05. Note that the company registering the complaint was Transact.

Basically, having completed the exchange (which was supposed to be a complete, top of the line, all bells and whistles multi-million dollar project), Telstra then effectively forbid anyone from providing broadband from it.

Surely you may ask yourself, the Telecommunications Act forbids Telstra from offering ADSL2 in an exchange where no other competitor has equipment? Normally this would be true, however thanks to Transact pushing for access, they had equipment installed. Transact as you well know, is a Canberra local service provider and was aware of the problem because of this.

So currently, both Transact and Telstra offer fast broadband in the Gungahlin region. These are the two single most expensive options available to the Australian public. Under normal circumstances, other competitors would see this imbalance and move in, offering faster and cheaper alternatives. This is the loophole that Telstra uses to ensure that they can continue to supply broadband services to the Gungahlin area where there is no other effective competitor.

However Telstra has another weapon up its sleeve that is even more insidious and deadly. I refer to the practice of assigning number ranges to exchanges that are subsets to existing exchanges. In this case, the Gungahlin exchange was assigned the same number range as the existing Crace exchange.

A thread on the popular site whirlpool goes into this in a small amount of detail here – http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/771788.html

This is the complicated and last step that has prevented a general take up of broadband services in the Gungahlin area. Purely because Telstra’s competitors don’t know that the Gungahlin exchange exists. Transact, being local knew about it, however no other companies can see it due to this number range issue.

For example, my home phone number is *removed for privacy*. I am connected directly to the Gungahlin exchange, which I have confirmed by correlating my distance from the address of the exchange with my line sync statistics. As a general rule of thumb I also get the full line sync speeds of ADSL1 (8000kbps), which would not be possible if I were not connected directly to the exchange.

However if you were to put this number into any popular ISP’s system, you would see that it instead states that I am connected to the Crace exchange. Try this page here for example – http://www.iinet.net.au/products/broadband/index.html?area=02&prefix=6255&number=6351#bbcheckeranchor

This is how Telstra is getting around allowing people in the Gungahlin area access to faster broadband. By simply pretending that their Gungahlin exchange does not exist.

Hence, every application made by people in Gungahlin/Harrison to Telstra’s competitors (sans Transact) will fail, even though the typical response is that it will be successful. All the ISP’s have rushed to install equipment in Crace, not realising that the majority of users are actually in another exchange entirely.

This problem is only due to get worse – once Forde, Bridgewater and the other suburbs start expanding in population and realise that they will be unable to get internet through anyone other than Telstra or Transact.

There are other issues also, such as the prevalence of RIM’s being used in the Harrison/Gungahlin area by developers who are skimping on supplying adequate connection to the infrastructure (see http://www.adsl2exchanges.com.au/viewsuburb.php?Abbrev=GNGLN – around 50% of Gungahlin and Harrison will never be able to get ADSL2). However this essay has gone on long enough without branching into the myriad issues that surround broadband in our country.

I will be happy if all I have achieved is drawing someone’s attention to the duplicity Telstra has used to ensure that the Crace exchange is the public front of the Northern suburbs, and relegated the Gungahlin exchange to the sidelines.

Even after this has happened and Telstra’s competitors decide to install equipment in Gungahlin, there will be a lead time of several months before this is completed. But we need to act now, or once the population continues to expand in this area it will be too late to meet the demand.

As final proof, here is an email I received from my ISP after I had explained this very issue to them and requested ADSL2 to be installed. I specifically made mention of the fact that the Gungahlin exchange was not a sub exchange, and that it would report as Crace even though this was an incorrect result.
—-
Hello Ben,

Thanks for your email,

I have checked your number but you won’t like the answer.

Crace is your main exchange which is set up for ADSL2+

In between your house & the Crace exchange is the Gungahlin sub exchange.
which is not set up for adsl2+.

Around the country only 20% of all exchanges have ADSL2+ at the moment. The main exchanges are the priority for setting up more adsl2+.

Sub exchanges only service a small number of locations on the outer edge of the coverage range. This is fine for regular adsl but because adsl2+ requires a better line quality many of these locations cannot get adsl2+ so there is no reason to install the equipment.

Once all the main exchanges are completed the techs may look again at sub exchanges but I don’t know if they will be able to install anything because of the distance issues.

Told you you wouldn’t like it. At this time all we can offer is regular adsl.

If you have any questions please email us or call on 1300 300 324

Have a good day,

Regards,
Comcen
Sales Team

el ......VNBerlinaV812:01 am 20 Jan 08

JC is correct. Good news relating to this is just in:

(Full article at http://whirlpool.net.au)
Phil Sweeney | Monday, 9:00 am
PIPE Networks is to go ahead with its $200M plan for a new international link between Australia and Guam.

Guam is an ideal destination as it already has significant connectivity to other countries such as Japan and the US.

iiNet has announced this morning that it has signed up to use the link for 15 years as a “foundation customer”. Other foundation customers include Internode and Primus. “This agreement will provide iiNet with long term supply certainty and significant cost savings”, said iiNet managing director Michael Malone.

The link will break an essential duopoly on international traffic by the Southern Cross Cable (SXC) and Australian Japan Cable (AJC), which are mostly owned by Optus and Telstra respectively.

Actually idea_authority you are not quite right. A normal telephone line only has 1 pair to start with. When Telstra use a splitter, which is actually called pair gain they are putting in a device that allows two phone circuits to share the one pair back to the exchange.

As for cutting corners, pre ADSL it was a perfectly valid solution to the problem that there isn’t enough pairs in the street back to the exchange. The reason why there isn’t enough pairs is because a lot of people now have more than one phone line.

As for the cost of ADSL sorry the cost comes from Telstra and the lack of real competition in Australia. As more ISP’s get away from the Telstra network the price should drop.

idea_authority11:36 pm 18 Jan 08

Mr Waffle,

You are so right. Telstra has cut corners all over Australia in years past and it’s coming back to bite them.
Has anyone ever heard of “cable splitting”
A telephone wire has 4 copper wires. In most ares of the South Coast (pre 1990 suburbs) and in some areas of Canberra, they used cable splitting. This entails using 2 wires per home instead of 4 which is cheaper but means those homes are limited to traditional telephony and dial-up and a “slight chance of ISDN”. Cheap SOBs. On the pus side, Telstra has provided excellent nextG coverage around Batemans Bay so you can pay a huge monthly sum for broadband that is wireless instead of a cheaper ADSL set up. Hens when I wanted my grandparents down at BB to have broadband so I could video-conference them on Skype, nextG was too expensive for them so I am now paying for it so they can have it.

The reason to go with anyone other than Telstra is simple – if/when Telstra rejects your broadband application incorrectly, the ISP can get pissed off on your behalf and is probably much better placed to get an explanation out of them than you are.

The prices in Aus are crap.
Hear, hear. And it’s all Telstra’s fault.

Hopefully things should get cheaper in the next couple of years though – they’re installing a new undersea fibre-optic link to Guam, which in turn has good fibre optic links to the US and Japan.

i signed up with Three for wireless 3G HSDPA (high speed downlink access packets) broadband last month – $34.50/month for 3gig downloads once you exceed that, your connection speed remains exactly the same, you just get charged an extra 10c/MB. for someone like me who doesn’t download much stuff more than a bit of music and some youtube vids, essentially just wants to surf the net, gorge myself on facebook and feed my ebay addiction – it is perfect! no complaints at all. and you avoid the landline connection/charge too!

Ok first you got to understand how ADSL in Aus works. There is the normal ADSL that is mostly over Telstra equipment. So even if you ISP is Joe Bloggs, they lease off Telstra. ISP’s can install their own equipment (nowdays it will be ADSL2) within the Telstra exchange building, thus bypassing the Telstra wholesale ADSL network. When using Telstra the ISP get charged Telstra’s wholsale rates (which are highway robbery) with their own equipment they pay a fee to put the euipment in the exchange not sure about a monthly fee to use the Telstra copper to the house.

So if you have a copper cable that is short enough going to your local exchange then you have choice, but in newer area’s Telstra have a habbit of installing something called a RIM and then connect back to the main exchange on fibre rather than running copper. The RIM is like a mini exchange in the street. RIM’s are not ADSL friendly. So even though the Crace exchange maybe be ADSL2 capable it doesn’t mean the RIM is. To provide ADSL to RIM users Telstra installs another cabinet call a DSLAM in the street next to the RIM, or in small locations within the same cabinet. That is fine for them so you can get ADSL, but imagine the equipment and cost if every ISP had to install their own DSLAM in the street near every RIM.

The other thing is Telstra as far as I know does not resell ADSL2.

The prices in Aus are crap. In the UK I pay 5 quid(about $12AUD) for 8mb/s with no download limits. In AUS its seems impossible for under $150p/m

Gerry-Built mirrors comment by “RandomGit” and adds:

we live out at Dunlop, and until last July, had 30kbps dialup – only! 🙁

TransACT (our pevious ISP) had kept promising (for many years) that we’d get broadband. We still have an unanswered complaint in with TransACT, and the TIO regarding their (lack of) service, having heard nothing since a phone call from Ivan Slavich in September (that reminds me to follow that up with TIO). So I feel your pain knoobs…

have had zero probs with TPG and connection seems to run acceptably fast (even this far from exchange @ Melba)… though ANYTHING would after 30kbps 😉

This won’t be helpful to the original poster, but I’ve been very happy with iiNet Naked so far. Downside = my interstate Mum saying I sound ‘further away’ and being without Internet and phone access while the line was switched over from Telstra. My phone/internet bill is now about one third what I used to pay to Telstra, with a much larger download limit, better reliability and service.

Parts of the Gungahlin area Lyneham can’t get ADSL thanks to telstra cutting corners when installing the phone lines years ago. Thank crap I was able to score Virgin Wireless before the plan got halved (literally)… I waited for ages for Netspeed Longreach, but they’re a good year behind schedule on the rollout, still only covers the south I think… once that’s in place for the north, I’ll be jumping straight on it!

Internode is a good bet if available. And I can also agree that Ian Peters is useless to get hold of. I gave up after 6 attempts over several weeks.

I’m in the process of going wireless with Vodafone (waiting for the card to arrive in the post). 5GB download at somewhere between 1-3mb/s for $39.95. Will plug the datacard into the 3G WiFi basestation that I got today, and the VoIP box goes into that. Use GoTalk for VoIP calls at $14.95 a month for near unlimited land and mobile calls – porting my number from TransACT, and I should save a fortune.

jono1 – 25 gig is good fro that price… geez if i’m ever stuck in bed (touch wood) for a long time that’d be great : )
Part of the reason Virgin was good for me was the home phone and no line rental bit in addition to save moola.

And the screw you Telstra feeling!

Although I know someone in the same area who has Telstra ADSL2 with no hassles.

I know, What the?

idea_authority – I tried Westnet in Gungahlin area but the exchange wouldn’t let them connect me. Which was sad because they did look like the best provider for what I was after.

I remember Telstra did the door knock and signed me up to a 256mb + (extra per MB over etc) for $30ish? I let him sign me up because I was so baffled over someone telling me I could get broadband. An hour after they left, I looked at it, laughed, filled in the papers to get out of it and tried Westnet instead.

Then I gave up for a while.

It’s extremely pathetic. Telstra is extremely hopeless. Broadband? What Broadband???????

When ADSL2+ came live from the Melba Exchange, TPG offered to upgrade me for free. I agree, great value for money.

Jonathon Reynolds4:23 pm 18 Jan 08

@knoobs:

Call your Local ALP member and senator and ask them to provide you with a solution…

Instead of sniping from the opposition it is time for Senator Lundy to earn her keep. Labor are in Government now… they can fix the problems (if they want to)!

http://www.katelundy.com.au/itmedia.htm#Internetaccess

I researched about a year ago and TPG was the best value for money at the time. Dodo was the WORST! I have only ever heard bad things about them. They also charge rediculous fees for both uploads and downloads. They are only in the game to draw as many coins out of chumps pockets as possible.

idea_authority4:19 pm 18 Jan 08

I swapped to Westnet. The customer service is great, for once their ads are accurate. If they can’t answer your tech support call in 5 minutes, they take your number and call you back. No more waiting on hold for 40minutes like I did so many times with Bigpond. Speeds are great, above what my plan is meant to do and the transfer was completed quickly and without pain. The modem they sell is much better too, doesn’t burn your hand like the Bigpond Speedtouch models.

In the latest Choice survey, Westnet came first for satisfaction, Bigpond 2nd last and Dodo last. TPG was around the bottom too which surprised me.

$60 = 2 gig downloads, no over usage charges, just slowed down to something faster than dial up anyway (extra $10 for extra 2 gig)

Well I guess wireless works differently but still – with TPG ADSL we pay around $60 a month for 25GB downloads with shaping etc.

Telstra is shit, I can’t believe people still support them when they are holding Australia back AND they’re not even competitive in their offerings.

as someone mentioned before, http://www.whirlpool.net.au is the best for research

My dial up and phone bill was around that anyway so it made sense to get rid of Telstra and their ever increasing home phone plans….

Screw you telstra!!!!!!

I signed up when it first came out I get 4 gig too I think for $70? Looks like it’s changed a bit since with the optional 2 gig for $10 which is good but not for me as all I know is 4 gig is really hard to use up… : P

heh should have signed up for Virgin last year, we got 4gig downloads for the same price :p

@jono1 – did I mention I happen to have an unshaped, that is, an unlimited connection with dodo ?

No they don’t offer that package anymore, but for the purposes of finding out if they can provide adsl services to your house, they have an online facility.

I don’t guess for a minute that somebody enjoying life-without-broadband would snap up whatever package was offered, as long as they could deliver it to their house, regardless of how much of a skank they look in their adverts.

It’s a little about perspective.

By the way, the headline should say “Telstra’s Broadband DisCrace” – Thank you thank you, I’m here all night, try the pork!

Wireless Virgin – available anywhere in Gungahlin

$60 =

2 gig downloads, no over usage charges, just slowed down to something faster than dial up anyway (extra $10 for extra 2 gig)

No line rental at all & no telstra

Unlimited free Phone calls to all local and interstate numbers

Free phone calls to virgin mobiles (charged to other mobiles though)

No set up cost

And I don’t work for them.
Slows down a bit when it’s windy but at least it’s available…. Other disadvantage is it’s a two year contract.

I have the exact same problem mate. I live in Ngunnawal and I am on the Crace exchange. I have lodged several ADSL connections and all have been rejected. Apparently signal strength is too low. What is Telstra’s solution? They try to sell you that 3G mobile broadband crap that is expensive as all shit. F*ck that. Their mobile reception at my place is bad enough without me forking out more useless dollars their way. I am in a rental so satellite is out of the question. I am forced to use Dial-up.

I find it quite ironic that I used have ADSL in a 100+ year old house in the country town of Orange, yet I can’t get broadband in a 15 year old suburb in the capital of Australia. Pathetic.

@Holden: Yeah they do use her from time to time, but they also substitute her with other blond haired Aussie moles when she’s off at other high-profile engagaments like the Darwin Hookers Ball.

Dodo don’t have an Aussie slag, she’s a merkin.

Holden Caulfield3:04 pm 18 Jan 08

@ Mr Evil: Don’t Dodo use Tara Reid? Strewth, she’s no ‘strayun mate, she’s a septic.

Gungahlin Al3:02 pm 18 Jan 08

iiNet have the DSLAM showing as “under construction” in the Crace exchange jono – have had for months.
Telstra tendered out a job for Crace back in November but we still haven’t seen any outcome from it.

This is one of those situations where changing ISP ain’t going to help. Telstra clearly have crap planning in that they have not catered for the urban expansion in Harrison and Franklin. I was one of the first into Wells Station so fortunately have ADSL1 and was angry at the time that it took them 3-4 weeks to get it sorted.

But that was nothing to now. The guy over the road has been waiting for 4 months. He’s now given up and gone with the Transact microwave link service, which is a passable solution over dial-up, but like all things Transact bloody expensive.

So why didn’t the ACT’s LDA contract with Transact to install cable through all of Harrison and Franklin, as they did with Forde???

The joke is that at the entrance to Wells Station, the LDA has a great big sign claiming “Latest Technology”… bloody joke.

All of that said, there are older parts of Gungahlin where it’s dial-up or nothing. Kate Lundy has bee campaigning well in this area, so it will be good to see what progress she can chase up now she’s in government.

I’ve never heard much good about Dodo from a few Dodo customers.

And lets face it, any company that uses cheap bleached-blonde Aussie slags in their advertising can’t be legit anyway. 😉

try typing in your number here: http://www.dodo.com.au/broadband_overview.asp
Dodo? You must be kidding. They may look cheap, but then you discover their really cheap deals only don’t even give you enough included downloads to actually *use* your connection for anything more than basic email. And if you go over your download limit they will charge you an arm and a leg. I call it a scam.

Theoretically iiNet has ADSL2+ in Gungahlin – they use their own DSLAM equipment (instead of going through Telstra’s) at the Crace exchange. I say theoretically because apparently not all the “sub-exchanges” have the necessary equipment, so not all areas can get the service. They have a phone number checker on their website but it only goes to the Crace level – it doesn’t tell you if your sub-exchange supports it. You have to actually apply for the service to find that out I think.

And I do understand your frustrations. A couple years ago when our family was getting ADSL in Gungahlin for the first time, we needed to get Telstra to convert our phone line from fibre optic to copper so it could support the speeds. When we enquired as to why it was taking so long, they told us something to the effect of “if you were using Telstra as your ISP we could do it faster”.

paddytrick, I’m just trying to get ADSL1, ADSL2 hasn’t even entered my vocabulary out here! the local exchange (crace) is ADSL enabled yet we still can’t get broadband.

Looked into wireless but it required lengthy contracts, was expensive & slow. Thanks Holden & Mælinar, will try both Internode & Dodo but having tried (and failed) with several other out of town ISPs as they have to go through Telstra, I’m not too sure.

The Virgin wireless plan is wireless home phone too and you don’t need to go through Telstra at all.

You’re forgetting that in most cases the services offered by providers like internode or other small ISP’s are actually provided over telstra or optus fibre and copper. You are still at the whim of the major providers. Its only where you go to larger groups – like transact or hutchisson that your service will be provided end to end by the people that own the infrastructure.

If Gungahlin is the middle of no-where then anything further than 20 minutes from the city must be in sydney…

Maybe someone here can tell me why iinet naked DSL doesn’t seem to have a downside? What’s the catch? It can’t be that good, surely?

Give Internode a shot, I’m with them and can recommend them wholeheartedly. They’re also moving towards ‘Naked DSL’ where you don’t have to pay Tel$tra for the phone line anymore, and because there’s no analogue voice service on your phone line, there’s less crosstalk and line attenuation, and your ADSL connection is more likely to be accepted and installed.

…and this is why I moved 700m from the Civic Exchange. I like my 20mbps ‘net connection. =P

I set up a mates place with Internode in Harrison a few weeks back. No problems whatsoever.

So you moved to a brand new suburb in the middle of nowhere and wonder why you can’t get ADSL2? Hmmm…

Just as I was contemplating moving back north of Hadrian’s Wall, this is posted.

Thanks for reminding me why I moved out in the first place. 😉

Holden Caulfield1:34 pm 18 Jan 08

I tried have tried to organise ADSL for a client in Harrison for the last twelve months, and had around half a dozen rejected messages from Telstra. No other ISP can provide ADSL to this area.

Really?! That’s pretty crap.

I got Dodo broadband where Telstra couldn’t manage – there’s something about having to resort to an out of town service to obtain adsl that just irks.

As an added benefit, I’ve got all you can eat broadband – so it pays to think outside the conventional square.

p.s. this should also be filed under ‘nerderati’.

[ed. we’ve rolled nerderati up under the technology banner]

Growling Ferret1:25 pm 18 Jan 08

I tried have tried to organise ADSL for a client in Harrison for the last twelve months, and had around half a dozen rejected messages from Telstra. No other ISP can provide ADSL to this area. Telstra ARE pricks.

I think Ian Peters is probably very busy at the moment placating all the local ex-CDMA customers who now can’t get reception on their new NextG phones!

He’ll be free to deal with Broadband sometime in 2011! 🙂

Depends where in Gungahlin you live…
See the nice map of Crace exchange coverage:
http://www.adsl2exchanges.com.au/viewexchange.speed.php?Exchange=CRCF

Here’s the list of ACT providers and their coverage
http://www.adsl2exchanges.com.au/viewexchanges.php?Location=ACT

Get wireless broadband. I’m in Gungahlin and that’s how I got around it.

Optus is cheaper now than Tel$tra, I’ll be breaking my contract with them.

I’d recommend going with Internode.

Holden Caulfield12:52 pm 18 Jan 08

Oops, scrap that. Internode can offer ADSL via the Crace exchange, but ADSL2+ is not available as yet. Sorry for my previous dodgy advice.

Whirpool should have advice and solutions from people in a similar situation to you.

Holden Caulfield12:48 pm 18 Jan 08

The first thing you need to do is piss Telstra off your shopping list. Check out the whirlpool forums for more suggestions…
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/

I’m in the inner North and have been with Internode ADSL, now on ADSL2+, for 3 years or thereabouts. They are fantastic. After a quick check on their site the initial indication is that they can offer ADSL2+ via the Crace exchange.

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