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Category: NBN Updates

Is the NBN growing

Is the NBN growing

I am often asked is the NBN growing and the answer is yes very quickly.

The target during the peak is a new connection every three seconds.

The NBN weekly progress report is available here. This report by the NBN is quite comprehensive if you search topics.

It was also reported during the week that in select areas they had begun turning off phone access to those that had not gone NBN.
I believe a bit of enthusiastic reporting but none the less.

You will be given ample warning, so heed the warning and act

This will eventually happen to every area as they allow an eighteen month period of transfer starting from the available date.

Connections are running at about 30,000 a week so they are moving on rapidly with the roll out.

One thing I consistently push is that doing this in a rush has consequences. I have told the story how I called Telstra and they asked me to call another provider because they were too busy.

Furthermore, not all providers are considered equal and like in real life cheap is not always good.
One critical component is customer service and you only need read a whirlpool forum to get yourself into a knot.

You have several critical decisions to make.
What speed and what volume.
How to connect your telephone access.
What telephone call package will you employ?
Is a hosted phone system for you?

As in any new decision seek the help of experts.

Peter Hanley 1800 116 116 home

May 20, 2017
Is the NBN cheaper?

Is the NBN cheaper?

Cheaper than what, you may well ask?

The first thing to clear up is that the NBN co is a wholesale carrier and only selected resellers buy from them. They market to the re-sellers on a volume-based transaction.

We the customer then buy from a re-seller or a re-seller of the re-seller for our supply.

The top three generally known re-sellers are Telstra, Optus and possibly Vocus group a third. There are many others that come in this area, some are common names, some not so.

The NBN is designed with a range of price points depending on download speed and the amount of data required so you get what you pay for, or should do.

Furthermore, the NBN must carry your Voice traffic into the future. No more old copper network where we paid about $35 a month for each line we used.

When looking at costs you should share like with like but if you are like most of us you have been hanging for extra speed and you will go up a level.

NBN is not the only broadband medium for carrying data, you have fibre, ethernet, wireless and variants of that but as most of us will go to the NBN I will concentrate there.

Your NBN channel can be data, voice or a combination of both depending on need. Importantly it must be remembered that Data effects voice so thereby hides a dilemma.

To make life easy a 25 mg NBN channel should carry 3 or so voice lines and leave ample for normal trading data. It will be faster than the old ISDN2+ ( like double) and no voice degradation.

So a majority of you can almost stop reading, but wait there is more.

We need to consider how to pay for the Voice traffic.
Around $16 should get you a couple of voice channels and then pay, say $0.10 a call for local and National calls and about $0.18 a minute for Calls to mobile.
If you compare say Telstra land line costs this is about half what was available. Pay a little more for your data (at twice the speed) but save a heap on call costs, you are in front.

Unlimited packages are also available. In fact, for $40.00 a month, you get all those calls plus the line plus a new handset if you have a look at the hosted packages.

Is the NBN cheaper? The answer is that It can be very much so and with a better service.

The trick is in getting good upfront advice. There are also many options away from the big spenders that will provide a better service and price.

When do you move to the NBN?

As soon as possible because it takes time and eventually you have no choice.

Don’t wait to the last minute it will complicate your change potentially damaging your business.

Peter Hanley

Fig-solutions.net

1800116116

Is the NBN cheaper?

May 18, 2017
Should I wait to move to the NBN
Should I wait to move to the NBN?

The answer to this question “Should I wait to move to the NBN’ is a pretty solid NO.

No, you say, you just want to get my business now!

Well, let me just explain a few things to you that might assist the process.
1. You have to move sometime, the copper network is going and not coming back.
2. The NBN model you have may not be the best model but it is all you have.
3. In early 2017 nearly half of all homes and businesses can access NBN
4. This is growing at about 30.000 a day new connects.
5. On my figures, all but the hard ones will be complete in12/18 months
6. You have only 18 months to move from the day of connection of the NBN to your location.
7. Moving is not overnight, it can take weeks.
8. Planning is even longer it can take months
9. If you don’t move you lose your telephone numbers
10. Moving under pressure is a scene to be avoided at all costs.
An example.

Example; NBN was delivered to my home address recently. I rang Telstra to inquire and was told they were fully booked, please seek another provider or come back in several months.

What to do now?

All providers will have their hands full in peak times and if you have a preferred provider

they may not be able to accommodate you, furthermore, this may happen several times as the ticking clock gets louder.

As all phones must go to the NBN because the copper is going, you have no choice but to move.

NBN don’t move you, it is done by one of a hundred plus service providers that do the work.

In addition, some are a lot better than others so do not limit your choice.

Now your old phone system.

As a result of moving to the NBN, you now need to decide on what to do with your phone system.

Old phone systems, pre- digital systems probably should be thrown away. They can be connected but it is really clunky.

Can your digital system be upgraded with an interface card to use VOIP or SIP connections to the network?

What call plans can you have, pay per call or a package.? All packages are not created equal so chose carefully.

Is it better to go to a hosted system, little capital outlay and fully inclusive account?

In conclusion on should I wait to move to the NBN

In conclusion, you should be able to see the amount of planning that is required and the time it will take to achieve all this without Network delays.

Let me help you with this.

Peter Hanley

fig-solutions

1800 116 116

Should I wait to move to the NBN?
May 13, 2017
TIO complaints on NBN

TIO complaints on NBN are reportedly growing at a great rate so should you be scared to venture over to the Dark side?

TIO COMPLAINTS ON NBN

In a recent report, it was stated that;

“The TIO received almost 66,000 complaints from Australian consumers and businesses unable to resolve problems with service providers between July and December 2016, up from just 49,000 complaints during the same period in 2015.( link)

Now that’s a lot of complaints or issues that have not been resolved to the satisfaction of the customer.
It should be remembered that the growth of the NBN far outstripped the rate of increase of the complaints so the real figures are distorted. The headline should perhaps be “Complains Go down on NBN”

TIO complaints on the NBN down.

It matters not, 66.000 is still a lot of complaints but let’s look further.

Of all the complaints 86.7% were from residential customers and only 13% from business entities.

So mums and dads were kicking up a storm because their life had changed, holy moly we are in trouble.

Let’s look at the type of complaints and what took the top spot?

I am absolutely blown away with the top two results, although perhaps having had to deal in this area maybe I should have guessed the answer being so obvious and I am so annoyed that our industry can put up with this.

What did we complain about?

CUSTOMER SERVICE was the number one complaint, can you believe it, the easiest thing to get right and we blew it by a long way.

How much of this can be attributed to overseas call centres and difficulties on understanding problems?

Billing was the next issue, how hard can it be, yes you can make mistakes or errors but they are fixed well before you need to make a complaint to the TIO.
Next came Faults and complaint handling which should be fixed early. Yes, there will be faults, that is nothing new but how the industry handle them is another thing.

So Customer service and fault handling were a majority percentage of the problem, maybe we need some communications lessons to bring this down.

What did the authorities have to say?

NBN chief customer officer John Simon said: “the percentage of NBN customers complaining about services had dropped compared to the first half of last year, but there was still room to improve.”

Even the industry ombudsman said:

” Ms Jones said the number of households connected to the NBN had also doubled in that time and complaints were no longer growing at the same rate.”

“The complaints about (NBN) services are not keeping pace with the rate of connections, so that’s a good sign,” she said.

So that’s the good news, they are getting better and would need to be with over 30,000 new connections every week.

Of the 66,000 odd complaints, we need to back out 23,000 mobile complaints leaving about 32.000 between the internet and fixed lines. A figure still too high. ( 24,000 internet and 18,000 fixed lines)

What are the big issues?

One of the big issues with TIO complaints on NBN is speed and not getting what you pay for because of location or other factors.
We have lived with a speed issue for many years on the Internet so this is not new. The difference is you can now do something about it.
With ADSL 2 as an example what you received was the best effort and I for one could never achieve over about 8 MB download of a promised 12 MB. I had no options, now with the NBN, you can go up or down to suit your need or your price.

The headline I believe was sensational, designed to show or alarm the consumers about the new system, one that we have to live with.

I believe another contributing factor is that consumers are led to the TIO far too early in the conversation. If you have a problem you are urged to ring the ombudsman and let them sort it out when some meaningful dialogue with your carrier can fix the issue.

In conclusion, we must remember we are all going to the NBN so get over it. It may not be the best system, in fact, a watered-down version of the original plan at that but it is all we have got.

For those that are interested, I did provide an extensive report available at www.fig-solutions.net

Peter Hanley

Fig-solutions.net

1800 116 116 TIO complaints on NBN

all figures extracted from TIO here

May 12, 2017
Going to the NBN

Going to the NBN can be an experience but will it be good or bad?

First of all, on Going to the NBN, it is a fixed entity that comes with certain characteristics and regimes and nothing can change them.

Where the problem comes in is the hundreds of resellers that are tasked to act as resellers to the service.
Furthermore, in some cases, you may go through several levels of resellers with the product offering.

Pricing will vary with product and marketing clout.
Those spending the most on marketing wanting to reclaim the expenditure.

Telstra, just like Optus and both the M2 and TPG group are demanding a share of the market with a long-term payback.

What appears to be the case is that they are not getting the returns they require and this will have an eventual impact of some kind.

We should separate the home and business market because they are quite different. Homeowners are quite willing to roll over to the marketing tactics and sign with one of the large players.

This is probably a result of marketing tactics when the letterbox is stuffed with offers and threats of losing your service if you don’t act now.

Business is different going to the NBN

Business is a bit different when going to the NBN, we have multiple users and many products often based on more than one carrier.
The original phone line contract that we have had from day dot plus a broadband network, emails and maybe even some backup.

Changing is a tad more complicated so we often just shelve it for later, but my friends later may just be now.

You must move your phone plan to an NBN plan within about 18 months of the network coming to you. NBN have started turning off copper networks so plan now on going to the NBN.

It is interesting, NBN came to my home address and I needed some details about the network.
I rang Telstra using my home number as that was the only way they would talk to me.
The nice lady answered my question and the said: ” Telstra are too busy at the moment I suggest you go to one of the other resellers”. I kid you not.

My point is that when everyone is in a panic it will be congested therefore act early.

You should use one NBN service for your voice traffic if you need more than a couple of calls at a time.
Your voice traffic is important and data takes precedence.
I have a great article with all the ideas at www.fig-solutions.net
that gives all the options on your phone system and things to look for. We will explain VOIP, SIP Digital connections a whole subject on its own.

And then comes Data.

Next is data, Here you have a few choices but probably the cheapest is NBN because you can pay for what you get.
Chose your speed and data quantity based on needs. There are many other choices Like Fibre, Terrestrial etc to suit a greater need.

If you have a data feed on your fixed telephone lines then you must change to another method. Telephone lines as we know them will disappear. Note, that is lines, not numbers. You will be able to move or port your numbers to the new network.

Your telephone lines as you know them will disappear. Note that is lines, not numbers. You will be able to move or port your numbers to the new network.

One last issue to be addressed by you is fax lines, These will not work on the Data lines so you will need to make alternate choices.

New fax services with Fax to Email and Email to fax now provide a cheaper and more efficient service to run your faxes.

Similarly, with Security systems, many of these won’t work on data lines so an alternative method must be found. Considerable effort has been made in this area so check with your security company first

And in conclusion, EFTPOS if on your telephone lines won’t work on Data. Most are now going wireless so think of upgrading.

There is a bundle of information around and I hope these few ideas can help in your planning.

Peter Hanley

www.fig-solutions.net

select@westnet.com.au

May 10, 2017
NBN phone systems

NBN phone systems.

What phone systems can you use with the NBN to get a maximum return for your business?

There are some things that you need to know in any conversation with your provider.

First of all;

SIP (Session initiation protocol) is simply a method to connect and run multimedia over your NBN data lines at the same time. Data, voice, video etc. A SIP device may be a modem or a card inside your digital system.
Sip connects, monitors and disconnects your Voice calls over the internet.

ATA (analogue telephone adaptor) This allows your old analogue lines to convert to SIP access.

VOIP ( Voice over internet protocol) Much the same as SIP really and was the original medium for Voice over the net.

Now let’s not get hung up on acronyms other than being able to nod your head with some degree of knowledge when they talk about them using NBN phone systems.

Voice calls over the internet.

This is part of the NBN plan, all voice calls will now go over the NBN and the copper wire network will disappear. When? Tops a couple of years.

Telephone systems

With the telephone system you have now, you most likely ordered so many handsets and some Techie guy came and installed them and when they went wrong you called the guy back.
He put a big box on the wall and told you not to touch it.
If you require a small change you ring him and he charges a bundle to alter or add a feature.
That my friend is one of the advantages that the NBN and hosting have introduced. Control.
Nothing has changed really, work out what you want and get someone to do it for you. If you have an old clunker telephone system it can connect using adaptors and Sip but really give consideration to entering the new age of communications it has a bundle of advantages.

What phone systems can you have?

A traditional box on the wall type system that has a digital interface to the VOIP world. It uses all the features and benefits of the telephone system and when you are in trouble call the Techie guy. It might be a Panasonic, LG, NEC Cisco or other common brands that have been around for decades.

Live in the cloud world.

Someone somewhere has a great big industrial telephone system that has all the bells and whistles that you need.They then partition off a section just for you. You pick up your handset and over the internet it connects to your Private box and routes to the world.
If it breaks down you just yell at them to fix it, You will have a dashboard that allows you to make all the changes you can need so wave goodbye to the Techie guy.

You don’t have to pay out capital to use it as it is mostly for a monthly fee, a fee by the way that will probably include all your phone calls, so a nice fixed monthly cost.

The Cloud or hosted system is ideal for both the small user 1-15 handsets and the largest organisation.
You can link to your other offices or outlets anywhere looking like the one business.

The mid-size business may opt for a traditional system for several reasons, they already have one is the first up reason
and over 5 years it may be arguably cheaper in overall cost.

So what do you do?

First up I would ditch any old phone system over say 8 years old and consider my options. The reasons I say this are several. The boards in the old system will deteriorate overtime and cause intermittent problems. They will be out of production and hard to come by and probably expensive. Like wise handsets don’t last forever and are also hard to replace.
Remember the phone system is really a computer and things have changed dramatically over the past decade.

Your system was designed for either ISDN or PSTN networks that will not exist in a coming couple of years.

I resisted hosting in the early days based on the ability of the Internet to carry voice traffic and data in slow speed access.The NBN network can be as fast as you want it, at a cost of course.

Grab a couple of quotes from those companies that have influence in your area. Telstra is a good start and work down from there.
The critical ingredient is support. I have some horror stories at https://fig-solutions.net/nbn-horror-stories separate Blog.
Have a look at some chat about your chosen carrier and make your mind based on either data or even a recommendation.
I use and recommend The Summit group chosen because of the Australian support, The guys tend to know what they are doing and are most helpful.

Peter Hanley

Select consulting PtyLtd

April 6, 2017
NBN horror stories.

NBN horror stories

A general warning on NBN horror stories and some things to think about.

The NBN network is active across Australia in many areas and businesses.

A host of hundreds of providers have access to the network and retail their value proposition to you the customer.
Offers, Features and prices vary because of this competitive environment however so do services and support.

My roll as a consultant and advisor in messaging and telephone costs across a broad spectrum of businesses. I certainly have some terrible stories with NBN connectivity.

we have all heard many terrible stories with NBN connectivity.

Stories that have cost a lot of money in IT support to get up and going. Furthermore businesses being off the air for weeks at a time and to completely wrong information being provided.

You can Google countless stories of slow speeds well below that promised by the carriers and poor quality networks and support.

The Internet is still plagued by a couple of major disruptors.

To get the NBN rolling corners were cut and some of the old technology was retained to speed up the introduction of the new network.

The network is based around a Fibre Optic delivery going right to your home or business.

For expediency in some places they still use the copper network to the local Node or to your premises.

If you have copper in the link you may have problems.
In the bad old days, the distance from the exchange could affect your speed, well guess what? It still does.

Other areas may have either wireless or satellite connectivity.

How can we impact all this?

One of the great features of the NBN network is that it is designed as a high-speed network and it is just that.

It is also designed to carry both Voice and data traffic which becomes a juggling act to obtain the best service quality.
On the other hand, if you want speed you must pay for it.
It is really a user pays system, both speed and quantity come at a price. For a basic home service, a basic speed of about 12mbps (megabits per second) should run your emails and downloads plus a voice channel for phone calls.

You may get away with a nominal 50GB of data all at a nice low price.

I run a home office and come within these boundaries except when the Kids stay over and take the opportunity to download a bundle of whatever.

I had to upgrade to a 100 GB data to accommodate their input.

This is all complicated by the need to mix your Voice traffic with your data over the one channel so everyone competes for bandwidth.

In many businesses, it may be advisable to have one NBN channel just for your voice and another for data.

The compensating factor is that calls should be cheaper overall presenting a general saving.

Picking the right carrier.

Trusting the big guns to be the best may not be the premium pick.

Telstra has the name, Optus have a following and TPG have the price but search their support pages before leapfrogging into a mire.

Making a recommendation without knowing your business is fraught with danger and I certainly won’t stick my neck out.

You can, however, go to my cheat sheet to work up a profile of your business needs.

The author is Peter Hanley of Select consulting a pioneer in business communications 1800116116

April 1, 2017