APC_Australia_Issue_442_June_2017

technotes
» EPINIONS
“The NBN as it’s being rolled
out is a cruel hoax and it
sickens me how Malcolm
Turnbull can keep saying
how great his destruction
of the original NBN is.”
THE CRUEL HOAX OF THE NBN
The NBN as it’s being rolled out is a
cruel hoax and it sickens me how
Malcolm Turnbull can keep saying how
great his destruction of the original
NBN is. I’ll start off by saying that I am
one of the lucky ones to have FTTP.
Unfortunately, I am in a minority with
the vast majority lumbered with a
half-baked MTM mess. Then to make
matters worse, NBN Co — at the behest
of the government — is furthering the
hoax by making promises and then
breaking them, all in the name of
puffing themselves and the
government up.
I have friends and family who are
waiting for their half-baked FTTN or
HFC service. I have been checking NBN
Co’s website for progress as that is what
the government keeps telling people to
do. I do the checking because they are
not able to access the site with any
reliability on ADSL and ADSL2+.One is
in Como (NSW) and is supposed to get
the NBN over HFC. Earlier this year,
the site said he should get it between
March and May 2017. This then shifted
to between April and June 2017, and
now it has been pushed to July to
September 2017. One is in Long Beach
(Batemans Bay, NSW). He is supposed to
get FTTN, only that has gone from May
2017, to now August 2017. One is in
Daylesford (VIC). He is supposed to get
FTTN, only that has gone from March
2017, to April 2017,
to May 2017, and now it is June 2017.
One is in Bendigo (VIC) and that has
gone from May 2017 to now July 2017.
All this would have labour
requirements and delivery dates.
How difficult can giving an accurate
completion be? I am a professional
engineer, and if I was to deliver a project
that had such a ‘flexible’ timeline,
I would never get another contract
in any field.
Ian A. White
NBN NOT WORTH HAVING
Our NBN-supplied internet is actually
slower — yes, slower — than what we
had before via ADSL. We were among
the first residents in Redhead, NSW, to
get the NBN connected last week, and
as very keen early adopters, we are
disgusted to report how little the
billions of NBN dollars are giving back.
Our ADSL speed was a consistent
24Mbps, but despite optimistically
signing up for the fastest 100Mbps NBN
service, we’re now getting speeds that
fluctuate wildly between only 15Mbps
and 21Mbps. And that’s before the rest
of our suburb starts connecting —
which we all know will dramatically
slow the speeds further.
Why so slow when the NBN service
runs right past our home on its way
down the hill?
The explanation is simple. We have
amazingly ended up with over 2km
of copper! Why so much copper?
Because the NBN Co Brains Trust
have installed the relevant NBN node
nowhere near the area it is servicing...
and then they have only used the one
pre-existing switch pillar which is
located right in the middle of the
serviced area.
So what now happens is that a huge
distance of copper runs from the
stupidly isolated node to the sole switch
pillar 1,040 metres away... then from
the pillar, more copper runs another
1,050 metres — mostly along the same
route back to our house!
We’re assuming this isn’t actually
incompetence, but is deliberate costcutting
taken to such a level that the
finished product is simply not worth
having.
Bring back our ADSL service, we say.
Or actually build something that truly
is ‘nation building’. How many billions
was it again? What a waste of money!
Paul McLean
APCMAG@FUTURENET.COM
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