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Month: February 2018

NBN update 2018

NBN update 2018.

The best news is the early arrival of FTTC that will allow vastly increased speeds both up and download without a price hike.

Introduced to a trial 200,000 customers throughout NSW and Victoria FTTC showed that speed deterioration is a thing of the past.

In Fact, speeds off up to a gigabyte will be available on the technology.

What does it all mean

What is the difference between the current FTTN service?

Fibre to the node service uses fibre to the node but then copper wire to your premises. This copper connection dramatically slows the speed at a distance over 400 meters which is experienced by many of us now.

The new system still uses the node network but adds a fibre link to the front of your driveway. The only copper is from there to your computer. This means no slow down of the service and the 100Mbps maximum speed available to any connection.

Evidently, new cost parameters have made a jump in technology more available to the consumers. This is really exciting stuff as it moves our connection technology into a new era.

The growth of the network

Furthermore, the growth of connections continues to increase with 95% of households and businesses in design, construction or ready for connection said NBN CEO bill Morrow in a recent statement.

NBN grew their revenue from $403 million in the year ending December 2017 to $ 891 million for 2018 a handy figure indeed.

There are reportedly 6.1 million premises ready to connect and in December 2017 around 3.4 million paying customers.

Downsides include the HFC network plans still in technology trials as they try to work a fix. This will affect many subscribers who used the old Optus or Foxtel network as they are unable to connect until the problems are resolved.
FTTC is being considered as an option to replace the ageing HFC
Infrastructure

In Conclusion, I believe that NBN is happy with the performance to date. They are also confident that they can achieve that 2020 destination target.

Finally, we will keep you posted if they will go back to the FTTN customers and start an upgrade path to have us all on FTTC.

Peter Hanley

Home

February 28, 2018
NBN Benefits 4

NBN Benefits 4

We are up to NBN benefits 4 Looking at why the NBN is good for every Australian.

As Internet users, we needed a national system available to all users that would eventually pay for itself.

Over the past Decade, we have had a host of broadband companies putting Fibre into the ground to operate fast internet.

Capital cities had it all

Nearly all of this went into the capital cities and was not available for the average punter.In fact, in many cities, multiple companies had fibre to compete for the big end of town.
Didn’t do us any good as we were out of the city by a couple of Kms.
Telstra, who owned and operated the ADSL service worked on a profitable basis and had no need or desire to cover the hard areas where it was expensive to service a community. These communities included a lot of very well known areas where speeds were below 2 Mbps and there was nothing you could do about it.

Now, I am the first to admit that the NBN system being installed is not world leading but it is designed to deliver High-speed Internet to the masses.

What do the masses want?

The masses only want 25Mbps if the take up in Australia is any indication. Over 80% of applicants have opted for this speed.
Home and small business are by a long way the mass market and they have spoken.

The NBN is capable of delivering this speed in almost all cases except satellite areas so where are the problems?

As well, NBN will up this with pricing incentives to increase the uptake to 50Mbps as the new average.
Why would they do that?
The simple answer is they want to look good in the standards achieved across developed nations. It really is just makeup.
No doubt 25Mbps is more than adequate for home and small business if you take out the high rollers that are gaming or gambling. It will cover voice and data at a good speed.

The only change you will see is a better service at a better overall price delivering mostly world standard service.

Most complaints come from those without NBN.

Regards Peter Hanley

What’s good on the NBN 3

February 27, 2018
What’s good on the NBN4

What’s good on the NBN4 carries on our discussion on the benefits of the Broadband network.

Are there still more good things?

Are there still more NBN good things to go. Well, hell yea and one of the best.

Speed my friend, good old Download speed and upload if that is important.

Client tales.

Spoke to a country client today who is hesitant to go to NBN because of all the scary stories.

So, I guess you are happy where you are at I said. Let’s do a speed test whilst we are online
I said, try the Telstra one it is easy and quick.

When he said his download was good for the day I thought he was pretty lucky.

His download speed was 1.8Mbps he boasted to me, up from last week.
When I picked myself off the floor and the belly laughing stopped, I explained that was an
awful result and one that I could not work with.

I also rang my Daughter the other day an Optus user who stated her speed was Ok. So,
I said what is it and the rely was 19, no, that’s the ping time I said the next one, yes 2.2 Mbps
Oh, glory be so fast, Not.

Went to a client recently who had phone problems, I needed to log inter her spare computer to set up
a dashboard for her. I threw my hands in the air and shouted, I can’t work at this speed to her shock
she thought that the 2Mbps was quite good.

There are still so many homes and businesses suffering from third world internet.

What was internet speed?

Previously I had reasonable ADSL2 at between 6-8 Mbps, mostly at the higher figure. So, not a lot of problems.
Now at nearly 25 Mbps, I am working OK for a home office.

I will agree the carriers do mess with the speed and play games with channel loading and peak time deterioration but generally, they are now OK. I am here typing at 4.45 in the afternoon, kids are home from School, gamers are out and I still managed a 9-second ping, and 23Mbps upload and 4.5 Mbps download.

I pay for 25 Mbps download so I sit comfortably with that. Now, where are you at? NBN speed tests.

What speed should you pay for and what can you use?

It is deemed that from 25 Mbps is considered a high-speed network and nearly 80% of connected Australians have chosen that speed. The push will be on to move users up the channel because the average speed affects our world ranking. The target is an average over 40Mbps so we need a lot of users above the line. It will get cheaper and I for one will move with the times.

The Internet use is currently increasing dramatically and we are just on the up curve of the scale.

The advent of items like Google home has added a single new dimension to so many households.
Do I have one? Yes, it was a present but just another device on my network.

Where are we heading with the NBN

It was not that long ago that the internet would drive just a single devise in a computer but add them up now. Our house alone has two computers, two laptops, an I-pad, Google chrome plus every Grandkid has the pass to log in when they are here. Our mobiles swap to a local network when we are home and now consider the following

TV’s, fridges, alarms, printers, CCTV’s the list goes on and all in one single house.
Oh, and the big one is all the home telephone voice traffic to add another user.
If you have a gamer in the house you really have a need.

They are all going to eat your bandwidth and we will move with the demand to need higher capacity
as the world changes to a cloud environment.

Is the NBN a lousy model?

It is argued by some that our NBN is a lousy model and that it will not deliver what we need.
Is it better than ADSL, yes, by a country mile, is it world standard, not yet but some of that is growing pains and the capacity will come as they expand the base? It is the best available at this time yes it is and it does deliver what most of us need.

Fear not the NBN because it will deliver what you want now and bring more to the table in the future.

Peter Hanley

NBN1

NBN2
NBN3

February 22, 2018
NBN speed test

NBN speed tests

Here we look at NBN speed test and what it means to the average punter.

I had a conversation today with a guy in Queensland, he stated no way he would go to the NBN because he had heard all bad reports and was really happy with ADSL 2.

We talked about speed and I asked him to do a speed test. The answer was 1.5Mbps download speed.

That, my friends, is precisely why the NBN is necessary.

NBN and what you pay for.

You are paying for a speed of 12Mbps with ADSL 2 and you only get a couple of megabytes why aren’t you unhappy and screaming from the roof? They are with NBN, they are suing Telstra and Optus for just that reason.

The majority that achieves a good service never complain the few that do get messed up are very vocal.

I will say again, most of the complaints come from those that don’t have the NBN just like my Qld friend.

Working at fewer than 2 Mbps is like driving a T Model Ford. It gets you where you want to go but would you want that every trip you went on? It is ridiculous that speeds like that have been pushed down our necks for years without an alternate option.

NBN Speed tests

Anyone can do a speed test, just type speed test into your computer and choose from a selection. The one I prefer and use mostly is Telstra You will get three indicators, Ping, the time to connect to a server, Download speed what you pay for and Upload speed that follows download.

Speeds will vary with the time of day unless you take a premium package that ensures a constant speed.

If you are on NBN you should get a minimum of 12Mbps, that’s actually quite a handy speed but nearly 85% of those signing for NBN went for a 25Mbps package.

With ADSL-2 It could be anything, I was lucky and regularly managed about 8Mbps but many of my friends are in the very low numbers.

In conclusion, I have written a lot more on speed at Fig-solutions

Peter Hanley

February 22, 2018
NBN and faxing

NBN and faxing are somewhat of a misnomer because NBN does not do faxing nor intend to in the future. So what do you do when the NBN comes to town and you still need a fax service?

Who needs a fax

Who still needs a fax and it is worth the cost?

Unfortunately, a lot of work is still done on the humble fax machine in medical, building, government and of course marketing.

It is my belief that having a fax number also shows an element of caring for your customers by offering a choice of communications medium.

I am being specific to the Australian market because in the USA as in many other countries the fax is still a supreme and legal medium.

NBN does not provide a fax service nor will they in the future. It is interesting that a lot of carriers that are trading the NBN have also stayed away from a fax service.

What does this mean to you?

Well, first up you will lose the fax number you have had for years and is probably printed on every bit of literature you own.
They can’t do that you might say, well yes they can and yes they will.

All normal telephone services disappear about 18 months after NBN appears in your area. No telephone line, no fax number and no way to recover, all over red rover.

I have reviewed several business telephone bills recently that have moved to the NBN. They have all shown a PSTN fax line and number that is set to expire. Were they told? NO, they were not because the carrier did not have an option to supply to them.No NBN and faxing.

How does Fax to email work?

Somewhere in a back office ( ok the cloud) is a machine that captures your incoming fax and converts it to email and sends it to your email address with any attachments.
It is the same going the other way you address an email to fax number@abc cloud.com and it goes to the same machine that changes your email to a fax and sends it to the right number.

Like any service, there are good ones and not so good but the principle remains the same.

It will save you a bundle of money.

First up a fax service from a tier one grade supplier is cheaper than your fax line probably by at least $6 a month.

Next is the cost of the machine with, power, maintenance, drums and extras to keep it working.

We also must consider peripherals like paper, ink, toner etc that really add to the cost line.
Finally, and most importantly is labour. Standing around a machine fixing paper jams, waiting on an incoming fax, feeding countless pages into the beast, copying to electronic files cost you money.

With a fax to email, it is Save, forward or delete, pretty damn simple.

The email to fax advantage.

Every desk can be a fax service to send an email to fax and attach pages of details. You just register the user and agree to pay the outgoing fax rates and away you go.

A local or national fax with 8 pages of attachment will cost you from around $ 0.10 fax, probably a lot less than you are paying now. so more savings.

Good for the Environment

Because there is no need for chemicals or waste of any kind you are doing your small part to save the world.

One service I recommend is Vonex, tier 1 grade service that works at a very reasonable price. You can’t buy from Vonex because they are the wholesaler but you can get the service through me.

You can have a new fax number in your state range, a 1300 number or churn your number to them at a small fee.

Contact me link

Call me on 1800116116

Peter Hanley

February 17, 2018
What’s good on the NBN 3

What’s good on the NBN 3

First of all, we have discussed in the original post the benefit of number portability and in the next one, we looked at Faxing on the NBN and now with what’s good on the NBN3. Telephone call pricing.

Telephone call pricing

Gee, it was not that many years ago that a local telephone call was $0.20 and a National call about $0.15 minute. Then we had Mobile calls with a $0.50 flag fall and the same per minute. Very expensive. Oops, I forgot the line charge at $32.00 a month.

Now don’t get me wrong here what I want you to do is have a look at your phone bill and see how close you get to these amounts.
For every line probably an $80 to $100 line and call charges and more if you call international destinations.

When I started in this business a one minute call to the USA or UK would cost one dollar a minute and that was our offered super discount price. The same call today is around $0.02 a minute.
Now competition created this dramatic discount using a variety of world carriers but often with disastrous voice quality.

While we added services like Skype using VOIP networks and gradually the mobile carriers also came to the party reducing many prices.

The Telstra monopoly

At the same time, Telstra with a monopoly on telephone lines maintained line fees and local calls at a steady rate of INCREASE.

As a by the way but important to understand was in pre-NBN days your telephone line also carried data by splitting the line into two services both quite separate in that neither interfered with the other. The internet was slow but the voice traffic remained consistent.

Now. post-NBN the rules have changed. Your Internet service now carries your voice traffic and is the hero product at your location. That is that your voice quality will be compromised by congestion.

This may not be a problem with a reasonable NBN speed and low voice traffic. I mean here probably 2-3 simultaneous calls plus data. This is an essential element in your planning.

New call fees on NBN

Now connection to the NBN by SIP or internet providers for your telephone calls is priced to be competitive.
Local and National calls around $0.10 each and CTM at $0.18 minute. Extra lines at $11.00 a month

Furthermore, just like your mobile phone plans, the NBN carriers have capped monthly plans that include all calls. This can be as low as $34.95 a month for the two lines including all but International calls. Three lines and all calls for just over a hundred buck s a month has got to be a saving. BTW International call to the top 25 countries is at just cents per minute.

In conclusion and to cover the most important issues.

Voice is now shared with data so plan carefully to avoid problems.
Think bundled calls and save money.
Choose a reliable carrier
Seek reliable information and advise

Peter Hanley

February 10, 2018
Can you sue NBN for speed issues

Can you sue NBN for speed issues?

The simple answer here is no you cannot, the reason being you are not an NBN customer.

If you are not an NBN customer then what are you?

When the NBN was set up it was designed as a wholesale model to sell to selected tier 1 Service Providers that would on sell to the public.

These Providers included Telstra, Optus, TPG, M2, Vonex as well as many smaller players. List here

Now that is not a definitive list either because many of these have second level providers. An example is Belong NBN owned entirely by Telstra. It Is sometimes confusing when they market against themselves.

You deal with a Provider.

So, in a nutshell, you deal with the provider not with NBN so your problem exists with them.

When the NBN started a year or two ago the providers sold an internet speed based on a designated model allowing a choice of speed 12,25,50 or 100 MBPS.

It may be argued that the NBN model was changed from a full fibre supply to a Node-based business to speed the installation process

In fairness to the providers, this principal also had existed for many years with the ADSL model. You bought your ADSL service and received a speed somewhere between 1.5 Mbps right through to a top 12Mbps.

There were no other options but to accept it. Distance from the exchange was the principal excuse and unless you moved premises there was nothing you could do about it. No discount, no credits just a Bad Luck Buddy shout from the crowd.

So why should the NBN be different was, evidently, the adopted attitude.

What happened to change the NBN model

But this attitude did not “cut the mustard” when you had a choice
Many customers then went to task the providers into changing the status quo.

Most providers like Telstra and Optus bit the bullet and immediately started offering to refund payments made that were taken under unfair conditions.

It is a fact that under some of the New model NBN there are limiting factors and distance continues to be a dominant one.

Has the NBN changed

Now, after you have signed a contract NBN and your provider will do a speed test and adjust your plan based on the results.

This measuring procedure does fix that one problem of distance.
Anything over about 500 meters from a node suffers.

One other major issue is what I call channel stuffing. Your provider buys from NBN a channel that will carry a set number of subscribers at a guaranteed speed during peak times. Increase that number and speed will suffer sometimes drastically.

Some carriers offer a range of product based on channel loading. You pay a little more for guaranteed speed Example Vonex where you can see a variable of $20 a month over the plans.

In conclusion, we believe it is no good trying to sue the NBN but you have a good chance with your service provider.

Peter Hanley

February 10, 2018