Our NBN...when and if it works!

Recently I have been troubled by many technological gremlins, they seem to have ganged up on me of late, but the most concerning of these is our illustrious NBN Service. Service did I say, what service? I am usually fairly patient with intermittent faults but of late it seems we have little or no reliable service.

I am one of those with a wireless connection, you know that dish thingy fixed on the roof and pointing to some tower, the location of which is, I am told, somewhere in Kalimna. Connection to what you may ask, to a tower, and by all accounts a very under specified, over worked tower at that.

Previously I had issues with down and upload speed, I objected to paying for a 25mbps service when I was at best getting 9 or 10mbps download with a zero to 1mbps upload. After many weeks of testing and recording test figures the matter was accepted by NBN as a fault and eventually I had an improved service, I said 'Improved' I cannot, alas will not, say it was always up to speed of 25mbps, but certainly improved. I was told it was due to the low capacity of, yes you guessed it, the tower.  Ok I thought, I can live with this until the so called upgrade in December last.

Of late, and whilst sorting out a new computer which has since been returned to its maker as a dud, I have had an intermittent Internet connection, some days it would be off for a couple of hours, sometimes for most of the working day, but around the 27^th September my NBN service went, dead, de-funked, non-existent, pooped, stuffed, un-serviceable, kaput, and from all accounts many other local residents had a similar issue.

I had called my internet provider who promised to investigate and call me back. This they did, but as I was traveling along the Princes Highway and as obviously not in the 80% percent of Australia's population covered by a mobile phone tower, the called abrutly ceased and I had to call him back on a land line (sorry old technology for some, but it worked!)

 After a couple of days or should I say nights (the only time) where I could obtain a connection, of  intermittent service, it was cut for a period exceeding 56 continuous hours. Not Happy Jan, not happy at all. I was again advised this was due to maintenance of …yes, the Tower. Gee that tower gets a lot of maintenance. Finally, my service resumed late last Friday, it had to be Friday didn’t it…..you ripper thinks me I can catch up…stupidly thinking the connection would last.

Today, Thursday, I sit down again to catch up and find my service has once more, gone to land where NBN services go when scheduled maintenance of the tower is bring performed…what again!  Yes, I was advised by my provider that it was certainly an NBN issue and that they are…working on the tower!  Service has now resumed, just before 5pm, but for how long? Are we all expected to stay up all night to manage and catch up on line? I suppose that would overwork the poor tower once again and require scheduled maintenance?

Perhaps we need a new and higher capacity tower, perhaps another tower, then we could claim Twin Towers!, we just need a Tower that works reliably and without all the regular cuts to service.  I pity those in business and those in the medical professions who rely on a internet service. One day it will cost a life, due to a communication fault, then perhaps action might be taken. We should not have to wait for that to happen.

Finally, I agree I have been flippant in this blog, even a tad sarcastic, but seriously, we have what can only be described as a substandard, inefficient un-reliable and often very slow internet service for which we as subscribers all pay good money. Money for a service which at best is slow unreliable and intermittent. 

I will be sending this to our Federal member in the hope that he can act in his capacity and forward to the appropriate Minister for action. Perhaps he could raise the matter high enough in that big tower in Canberra to instigate some action on behalf of his constituents. But only if enough notify him of the issue. Time to speak up. Go for it, possibly the only way we will get a service commensurate with the fees we all pay.  Happy surfing!