Here is a brief description of my recent unpleasant experience with my NBN Fibre-To-The-Node connection.
I initially lost NBN service on Monday the 4 th of October 2021 and a NBN technician was booked for Wednesday the 20th of October 2021, but the connection came back online and the original booking was cancelled. By Tuesday the 5th of October 2021, I completely lost NBN internet services and has not returned since. After taking three-four days to convince the Telstra Experts on the MyTelstra app that the line was down and that no remote interaction would resolve the issue. The end result was that an on-site technician was needed but Telstra could not book an NBN technician no earlier than Wednesday the 27th of October, with an 8:00am-12:00pm appointment window. On Wednesday the 27th of October 2021, I had made prior arrangements with my employer to be present on premises for the arrival of the NBN technician. But the technician did not arrive nor contact me within the booking time-frame, of which at the end, I had to return back to work. The NBN Technician did eventually call me at 3:09pm, to advise me that they have been working off-premises, and that line was damaged. Given the damage to the line, they were unable to resolve the fault that day. The NBN technician advised me that the fault had been it had been escalated to the NBN remediation team, in order to attempt to organise a temporary fix. But the technician was sceptical that this was even possible given the damage the line had received, and that a total replacement would be required. During the call I was also advised that three others in the same street where also effected by the same fault, with even of one of them being in the same unit complex as myself.
On Thursday the 28th of October, I asked Telstra on the progress of the fault and was advised NBN remediation was in process of which could take anywhere between 24 to 48hrs. On Friday the 29th of October, I was advised by Telstra that an NBN technician has been booked for the 17th of November. This would result the fault going into the seventh week, and even then there is no guarantee of resolution of the fault, with possibly even more delays. I asked the Telstra Expert to try and re-book for an earlier appointment, but was advised there was a technical maintenance issue preventing it. When I press NBNco on answers on why there is such a delay, they categorically refused to take any responsibility of the network and any network fault, and stated that the retail provider is responsible organising all fault resolutions. This seems to include off-premises faults that the retail service providers cannot fix without on-site NBN technicians. Go figure...
On Friday the 29th of October, due to some miss-handling of the issue by Telstra and blatant disregard by NBNco to retail customers, I advised Telstra (though MyTelsta app) and NBNco (via Twitter direct message) that I have filed a complaint with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) in attempt to expedite resolution for myself and others who are impacted by the same fault. Though I am not confident that this will result in a satisfactory resolution the of issues at hand, as the problem seems to be is systemic within NBNco itself, and how it deals with faults reported by retail service providers. I have come to this opinion after multiple interactions with Telstra support staff and NBNco personnel.
I do find it insulting that NBNco has pulled all stops to rush out generators to keep the NBN network powered when Victoria was hit by severe storms on the 28/29 th of October 2021, touting the good it doing in the media and across various social-media platforms. Yet, on the other side of the country, NBNco is reluctant to put any of the required resources into fixing faults in their network, leaving retail service providers and their customers, hanging out to dry. Thus resulting in excessive and lengthy delays to resolutions of off-premises network faults that are effecting multiple customers.
The only way that faults like these will ever be resolved within reasonable time-frames, is to subject NBNco to the same Universal Service Guarantee that Telstra had to operate under when it still operated the copper phone network. This would have meant that NBNco would have to have the required resources available on-hand to resolve issues like mine within three days. Not the many weeks and possibly months of waiting that customers like myself in regional areas are currently experiencing.
In closing, I write to you in an effort to raise awareness of the dysfunction and inefficiency of the NBNco in regards to managing and maintaining Australia’s internet infrastructure. The information age is upon us and Australia is being held back by poorly managed and rather out-of-date infrastructure.