Connected to the NBN fibre to the home - finally!

[onetrack]

We got our NBN line (FTTC) installed down our street about 6 years ago. Our area was late in the NBN rollout, so we ended up with FTTC, instead of the earlier, less-satisfactory version, FTTN.

 

I find it amazing that the NBN and internet providers wanted a serious amount of money to connect fibre from the footpath to our home, at the time the NBN was installed in the street. Oh, yes, FTTH installation was a big-ticket item, back then.

So, I was quite intrigued to get an offer from Iinet just earlier this month, for them to connect FTTH for FREE! I wonder what has changed in the interim?

 

They've all made so much money from the NBN, it's embarrassing? - and they feel the need to hand some back?

 

Needless to say, I accepted their offer, and we had the fibre run into the house last week. I was expecting they would run the fibre in the conduit that held the copper line - but no, they couldn't pull the fibre cable through the conduit because the last installation clowns squashed the conduit somewhere along its length, making it impossible for the techies to pull the cable through. So they had to dig up all our paving and install a new conduit.

 

Then, they found the conduit along the footpath had been crushed too! What kind of incompetents are the NBN employing? I might add, ALL the work on any of the fibre has been carried out by people from the sub-continent!

Is there some kind of lesson in this? I'm reminded of Prince Phillips gaffe, when he sighted a crappy piece of switchboard work in a factory in Edinburgh, and let rip with, "It looks like it was put in by an Indian!"

 

Somehow, the latest bunch of fibre installers managed to find a way around the squashed conduit in the street problem, and all is well, and it was left in operational condition as they departed. I also got handed an NBN Connection Box user manual that was just slightly water-damaged, but at least it was readable! I did have a fair bit of trouble understanding Drhuv, the leading hand, simply because of his dreadful thick accent, and mangled English. But he did seem competent enough.

 

We had to have the NBN box installed on the front wall of the house - but our office is at the rear of the house - so we had to call in a sparky to get him to install a data cable to run the NBN signal to the router in the office.

Simon, our local sparky turned up today. and he roared into the data cable installation like a man possessed.

He and his offsider were finished inside an hour, and that involved pulling tiles off the roof, pulling the fibre the length of the house, and down inside a rear wall. He's an excellent sparky, and always does a good job - and does it fast.

 

We hooked the computers up to the fibre, and I must say I was quite surprised at the increase in internet speed. We're now running at 108.8 Mbps download speed, and 18.48 Mbps upload speed.

I have to admit, I thought the upload speed would be higher, but it is late afternoon, and possibly the upload speed is being affected by that timing.

[onetrack]

I also tried our Wi-Fi speed using my phone, and was quite surprised to find, there was only a very minor difference in internet speed to my phone, via Wi-Fi! 

 

I was fully expecting to have to buy a new router to match the FTTH connection, but the new router we installed when the FTTC connection was installed about 6 years ago, is doing the job just fine.

 

However, typical of the electronic waste caused by technology upgrades, we had to bin our NBN Connection device that was formerly installed by the router to handle the FTTC signal.

[facthunter]

A.Bot said is was Turnbull's Job the DESTROY the NBN. HOW many Billions and loss of efficiency/[productivity has THAT cost us? Nev