FTTN NBN: 5 drop outs daily “acceptable”

Thanks to Kenneth Tsang, who has translated a leaked NBN document into english  – we have a number of points which directly relate to FTTN which does not fair well for expectations of improved quality, reliability and assurance of service under FTTN:

Connections experiencing up to 5 dropouts a day as being “risky” — yet “nbn regards risky [connections] as acceptable“.   The company suggests putting risky connections into a lower sync speed by assigning them to a “stability” profile in the hope of reduced drop-out rates.

(note: Stability profile is a profile placed on your copper line which greatly restricts your attainable speed in order to reduce drop-outs –  often used today in ADSL deployments)

Also

The NBN company is insisting that end users must use an approved modem, certified to be working by an NBN service provider, in order for a fault to be lodged.

And no surprises here:

Unlike on its fibre network, nbn will charge end users $50 for a “No Fault Found”call-out fee for the FTTN and FTTB network where the technician identifies no faults on the line or if the fault is within the end user’s house (for example, a bridge tap inside the home). This fee, similar to one currently charged by Telstra, is set to discourage end users from lodging faults and risk paying a $50 No Fault Found charge if a fault is not identified.

It appears that if our copper in the estate is struggling with ADSL1, it will struggle with the much greater demands of VDSL2 – unless they do significant work on our copper to bring it up to scratch.

Something to think about if you are considering the opportunity to move to fibre over simply accepting FTTN.

Steve

Gleneagles Estate NBN Committee