Fibre To The Node (FTTN) 6 Months Later – The Nathan Forest Experience

Nev Dowling is a resident of Nathan Forest Estate, Mt Nathan, Qld – a similar development to Gleneagles Estate in some ways.

Upon request, I asked him to provide some comments on how Fibre To The Node (FTTN) – as opposed to Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) – was servicing his community. His comments were as follows:

  • Couple of neighbors have been having daily dropouts, but it may be due to internal wiring, which is a big issue impacting significantly on performance, but very few are aware of it. You really need to disconnect all legacy phone cabling and have the VDSL modem as the only live socket;
  • loss of 000 during power outages. Many houses here have marginal mobile coverage. One retired neighbor taking precautions against possible health issues just invested in an UPS to keep the phone alive for 20 mins;
  • I know one lady has been off the air for 10 days;
  • Switch over connection times were variable as well, one Telstra connection took 10 weeks! My TPG switch took about a week, probably the best you can hope for;
  • Another issue is porting your local phone number (LNP) and at least one person lost their long held number after changing from Telstra ADSL to Optus VDSL.

I think this is a cautionary tale, and something to be aware of and prepared for with a FTTN service.

Ultimately, a FTTP through the NBN Technology Choice Program will provide the best possible service for the estate, and will provide you with better quality of service.

Steve Ulrich
Gleneagles Estate NBN Committee

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