Broadband Wilderness in the Suburbs
Incase you’d missed it, I moved house over the Christmas/New Year period. That’s why I’ve been so
quiet.
As it turns out I’ve moved to an area where getting the level of internet access I require, the same
as I had previously – 40Gb/month for ~$80/month at ADSL2+ speed – is impossible. This besides my
calling my then ISP, Adam Internet, as well as the one I was looking at moving to, Internode, and
asking that I would be able to get a connection at my new house.
As it turns out I am on a Telstra RIM Exchange. Evidently this means I can oly get ADSL1 service.
This would be okay by me, however I can’t even get that due to there being NO PORTS AVAILABLE. Now,
no other ISP has equipment at my exchange, so that’s out, and anyone wanting to sell me an ADSL
connection has to use the Telstra infrastructure – that’s right, the one with NO PORTS AVAILABLE! I’ve tried. And all the ISP can do is submit a request for a connection, and be refused.
Turning to Twitter, I contacted @Bigpondteam who, while attentive, just confirmed there is actually NO PORTS AVAILABLE.
Before you ask, no I didn’t move to the country, I moved to a Northern Suburb of Adelaide.
So, I called the Telecommunications Ombudsman (TIO), who was sympathetic, took my details, and informed me that there’s nothing they could do. They have no power to control infrastructure, and there’s no priority list or semblence of order or system to getting onto any port if or when one becomes available. They did suggest I should talk to the Broadand Guarantee people at the Department for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA). DCITA were very helpful, but ineffective.
As it turns out anyone, regardless of location, is eligible for a Govt. grant to install a Satellite connection if they are unable to get what is termed a “metro-comparable broadband service”. Quoting from the letter received from DCITA:
“A metro-comparable broadband service is defined as any service that offers a minimum 512kbps download and 128kbps upload data speed, 3GB per month data usage at a total cost of $2,500 (GST inclusive) over three years (including installation and connection fees)”.
Well aside of entering into any argument about how ludicrous it is to call that “broadband” – I;’m still left seeking a viable, long term connection. I am able to use wireless from a myriad of providers, however none offer the data allowance I require at anything like the cost of a fixed line.
Telstra wireless offer me 10Gb for $130/mnth – 1/4 data of what I had at 1/3 speed for 150% more cost.
I can actually get the 40Gb/mnth I want from Broadband Anywhere – at 50% more cost and only 1024kps download speed; with a ~$800 setup cost if I don’t want a 3 year contract.
I did actually come up with a plan to circumvent all this. It involves installing a ADSL service at a friend’s place, 5km away, who’s on a different exchange, and erecting two 14m high towers with high gain directional antennas, one at my mate’s place, one at mine, and beam the service to me. I’d consider it a better use of ~$800 setup fee – but while others have had similar links do 10km range, there’s no telling it’d work for me. Meanwhile I’ve contacted the air-stream wireless network community to see if I can get any help with wireless from that direction, and am awaiting a reply.
So, here I am, stuck, not quite knowing to take the rock or the hard place, using a Vodafone wireless connection device borrowed from a workmate, costing $40 for my 5Gb / month….connecting and disconnecting….and counting every Byte.
Dave
Good on you for putting this into the public forum – Adelaide as the technology capital is crap as far as ensuring even basic broadband is available, it appears to not just be infrastructure but also politics. I offer the case of Mawson Lakes where the development plan and promotion was to be an ultra high speed connected clever community, well it worked it attracted business that made a significant early investment into the area only to find dial up was the best – most businesses were on a rim and suffered poor connection at that – no fibre – poor saltwater corroded copper (the pumps still run in some pits 24/7 to remove the saline water ingress). we had to battle for two years to get subsidised satelite equipment for two of the major employers ( still a below average as far as speed and latency performance) but better than the copper. the only reason the upgrades occured and the broadband equipment finally became available – it was political, the SA Government had a showcase promotion they wanted to present bang within what seemed like micromoments it was all available with even some spare expansion for other home users. Now its just accepted that you will get broadband in Mawson Lakes – but there was a long hard torturous road for the original leaders in business that took to the area – trying to support it. As for common man at home in areas with older or poorly planned infrastructure its get on the list and when there are enough on the list you may be granted an upgrade to the exchange infrastructure. My Advice is keep banging the drum loud and hard to anyone and everyone that will listen and hope more people register and it becomes a higher priority…..
I understand due to its political nature you may not want to publish this on the site – if so no worries, I would just like everyone who gets caught with this to stand up as there are another two major area developments that planning for broadband will not occur and even if it did the exchanges in case are unable to handle the expansion, and with the current “in house” spending on infrastructure ban” I am not confident it will happen soon. But its not a loss for the biggies as you point out they can sell you a fifth of the service on broadband wireless for anything up to 20 times the cost.
ADSL is now an essetial business tool and we have many clients that no longer operate in SA or will not open and operate in SA because of the poor infrastructure in some of the prime business developments – crazy – we need more business and more clever employment here, I totally agree with user pays but thats not even an option..
Good Luck on your quest – Hopefully someone listens and gets you one of the most basic business tools required for SA the clever state…
Cheers Robby
Comment by Robby — January 27, 2009 @ 7:35 pm
OMG! I thought we’d had hassles in the past. We encountered the RIM thing at Woodcroft (a fairly new suburb by infrastructure standards) and typically arrogant Telstra said they couldn’t help. Thankfully for us the TIO did step in and made Telstra come out and change some thingamebobs (I know you’re appreciating my techno speak at the moment!) on the exchange and we did get ADSL1 eventually.
It’s just so unbelievably paralyzing to have this kind of stuff going on – and have we moved to outer freakin’ Mongolia or something where we can’t have some kind of decent telecomm infrastructure?! It’s about time Telstra were removed as the supplier of all this hardware and some competition was brought in to restructure the whole thing. (but there I go again, dreaming of a Utopia…)
I’m thinking of you – and I also hope you’re managing to keep cool.
Jen
Comment by Jenni — January 27, 2009 @ 7:57 pm