Hi all,
Just wanting to share/vent what my experience is switching over to the NBN from ADSL and probably give others an idea of what to expect when switching over to NBN(FTTN).
It first started when I got a flyer in my mailbox saying that NBN is available in my area 3 months ago. I hesitated for a while because I get reasonably good sync speeds on my ADSL connection, about 17mbps download and 1mbps upload. However, ever since NBN became available in my area, I get frequent dropouts during the day, not a big deal, but it gets annoying after a while to have your connection dropped for about a minute or so every few hours. After a 2 months of that, I decided to sign up for NBN, thinking that since I am getting good speeds on ADSL, I am likely to get good speeds on NBN as well, maybe. 25mbps or 50mbps would be nice and the main thing for me would be the higher upload speed since in my household, whenever someone is uploading photos or doing video chat, it basically kills my connection because the 1mbps upload becomes saturated.
I am signed up with Belong, but I would imagine other ISPs would be similar. I logged in to my account console and picked a date for the NBN installation. For those who are IT savvy, I think this page is under Belong's account section, but is an iframed NBN booking page. There was a vacancy the Monday following week, so I picked that. The page says I should get a sms confirmation. I didn't get one. So on Monday, I logged in to see what is going on, there was a message that says my appointment has been cancelled. WTH? I picked another date, this time, in 2 weeks' time. Getting booked a few days in advance is apparently wishful thinking! 2 days later, I got an sms saying my booking has been confirmed. This was 2 weeks ago, late last week, I logged into my account console again to check and confirm. There was a message saying my appointment has been cancelled AGAIN. Double WTH? In frustration, I picked another date early next month.
Fast forward to yesterday, which was the date of the 2nd appointment, my internet went down in the morning, so I rang Belong to see what is going on. The lady on the phone told me that NBN is being setup on my connection, and I would be without internet for 24 to 48 hours. Great(that was a sarcastic great), no Game of Thrones for me till the internet comes back up.
I logged into my router later in that evening to check if I would really be without internet for 24 to 48 hours(cue sad music). The router said I was connected at 22mbps, and 6.4mbps upload, lights were green and I have an external IP address. I suddenly could see light at the end of the tunnel. Despite all that however, I still couldn't browse the internet. I thought I would give Belong a call to see if maybe they just need to flick a switch at their end or something. But alas, the man on the phone said, computer says no. Apparently, there is still software side of things that need to be done before I can get actual internet. I would be notified via sms when that happens. Expected timeframe is 3 to 5 working business days. Triple WTH? No internet for a few days. Oh! Pain and agony, not to mention the wailing screams coming from the rest of the household.
This is where I am at the moment. Sigh…
TL:DR Man's experience connecting to NBN, frustrations abound. First world problem. If you are thinking of jumping on the NBN bandwagon before you have to, don't do it.
Update 17/8: Your nbn order continues to be affected by an unexpected technical issue. Belong IT teams are working through remediation as priority. We will provide a further update in 7 business days if not rectified sooner.
Thanks for sharing. I will be in the same scenario in a few weeks when NBN (FTTN) will become RFS in my area.
I'm thinking of holding off because I, like you, get around 17Mbps with my ADSL. The only saving I get is cost-wise. OTOH, my parents a few blocks away get around 3-4Mbps, so I figure I would up(?)grade them when the time comes.