<http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/nbn/nbn-customers-complain-of-unreliable-home-phone-service/news-story/87abad815d09e06c37f26ff67569dc4e>
MANY forget the NBN is not just a broadband internet service but will
also be the only way we can make home phone calls.
Unfortunately some are already complaining that this “fancy modern
technology” doesn’t match up to what we had before.
Western Australia resident Geoff Levings lives in the southern Perth
suburb of Waikiki and has been less than impressed with his home phone
service.
His home is connected to the NBN via Fibre-To-The-Node technology that
uses copper wire and fibre optic cable to provide internet services.
Because he is located 1053 metres from his nearest node, the maximum
internet speed he will be able to achieve is 25 megabits per second.
While he would prefer faster internet, it’s actually his home phone
service that’s giving him the biggest headache at the moment.
Mr Levings said the internet phone service delivered by the NBN was
extremely unreliable.
“The service will often drop out mid conversation,” he told news.com.au.
“I talk to my wife three to four times a day and quite often the thing
just stops, you don’t get any warning.”
Because the majority of the copper network is being ripped out to make
way for the NBN, households will be forced to use Voice over Internet
Protocol (VOIP) to make phone calls.
This means if the internet drops out, so does the phone call, and this
happens with annoying frequency.
Mr Levings said calls just stopped, quite often after the conversation
has been going for about 20 minutes.
Callers trying to get through often get an engaged tone, so it’s not
clear the line isn’t working.
“Residential VOIP services are at best unreliable, at worst almost
completely useless,” he said.
At times calls drop out after the internet disconnects, which it does
once or twice a day.
A couple of times, Mr Levings saw the internet was still working but
it was just the VOIP that stopped.
People will have to start using internet phones once NBN is installed.
People will have to start using internet phones once NBN is
installed.Source:News Limited
Mr Levings’s problems are being investigated Barefoot Telecom, the
retailer that is delivering his NBN, but he is worried that it will
continue to be an issue.
“People need to be aware that if they lose power, they have no
telephone unless they have battery backup,” Mr Levings said.
“They have taken Australians and given them all this fancy modern
technology, the politicians are telling everyone how fantastic it is,
when in reality it’s far worse than what people have now where
telephones are concerned.”
He was especially concerned because home phones were a lifeline for
people like his 86-year-old mum.
“It’s going to leave people completely confused,” he said.
“My mum doesn’t have a mobile phone and has got reliance on this
stuff. All of a sudden it won’t be there and I think people need to be
aware.”
While the old phone system wasn’t perfect, Mr Levings said calls could
still be made if there was no power.
“Now if there is a national disaster and the power goes out and mobile
is not working, we’re all going to be in la la land for however long.”
NBN declined to comment.
<https://www.facebook.com/groups/BIRRR/permalink/636427493232608/?comment_id=636475276561163>
The nbn network is an internet network.
Internet is not an essential service.
The key objectives of nbn are;
+ fastest possible roll-out of consumer grade internet
+ cheapest possible roll-out of consumer grade internet
+ deliver 25/5Mbps on a good day
+ no consumer Service level Agreements
Contrast this to the 99.999% availability fixed line telephone network
(with very tight and specific SLAs) that has served us very well for
the last 50 years at least.
Forcing fixed line telephone service onto nbn is akin to replacing
your telephone with tin cans and string. :(
Whilst FTTP (ie all fibre connection to the home) might come close, it
remains a less reliable medium than the plain old telephone service
POTS, due to the complexity of VoIP services and the insecure
infrastructure that supports it..
--
David Boxall | Drink no longer water,
| but use a little wine
http://david.boxall.id.au | for thy stomach's sake ...
| King James Bible
| 1 Timothy 5:23
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