To who this my concern
I wish to draw you attend to a major issue that is effecting some new estates within Melton that if left unaddressed will cause a massive infrastructural, educational and business problem that will affect the growth of the Melton community for years to come. This issue which is currently leaving over 80% or 4 out of five homes without variable ADSL broadband access within these areas.
The issue.
At the present time due to non-future proof infrastructure been laid out by Telstra in a number of New estates within Melton have limited or no access to ADSL Broadband or even cable (My estate is an example of this). By limited I meant that with the use of Telstra’s cheaper pair gain system any CMUX/RIM*^ cabinet or sub exchange serving an area can only proved 20% of the telephone lines entering the system with ADSL. There are 480 POTS (Telephone line) connections in a CMUX/RIM cabinet and of which there max is 94 ADSL ports. Which in effect means OVER 80% of customer on each CMUX/RIM will currently NEVER be able to get ADSL unless something is done.
Compounded onto this is the fact that if a ADSL user connected to the CMUX/RIM decides to disconnect his/her ADSL service Telstra can and will withhold the ADSL port for 180 to 182 days (6 months). This withholding comes with a catch that allows anyone within the premises of the disconnected service to exclusively reconnect the ADSL service at request during the 180-182 days period –this does not have to be the original occupants! What effectively does is discriminate from other waiting ADSL applicants from obtain ADSL sooner.
Also there are no waiting lists for ADSL ports on CMUX/RIMs it’s a case of having to reapply each time your receive a rejection until a port comes available to you – chances of that are pretty slim – In my own case I have been applying for 6 months (that’s 28-29 applications) but I’m sure there are people who have been trying longer than I have out there in the Melton community. With no waiting lists a person can apply tomorrow and take a port over someone who has been applying for months.
As mentioned above there is no cable available in some estates to offer an alternative connection. This is true of the estate I am in. The cable goes passed along
Dial-up speeds are capped at 31.2K due to pair gain. So all the people currently within estates with the no ports and have pair gain issues using dial-up via a 56K modem are having their connects choked by at least 24K. Try buying a citylink pass at these throttled speed–from experience after 5 minutes waiting for the page to actually load up I ended up giving up!
There are no other viable broadband alternatives ie wireless. Telstra have until recently suggest that their NextG network is a viable solution which not true. Why? Because it’s over expensive, no shaping of plans (plans without excess fees) and outrageously low quotas (the highest been 3 gig) for example: 200mb (this is both uploads and downloads together) at $54.95 a month of Nextg plan with excess fees of 0.30 per MB usage after the 200mb on a 12 month contract. The highest 3 gig (upload and downloading is added together) plan is $149.95 before the same excess fees. This information is from http://my.bigpond.com/internetplans/broadband/wireless/plansandoffers/default.jsp
How big is the Problem?
The maintainer of the website http://adsl2exchanges.com.au/ recently imported the publicly available ADSL capacity excel spreadsheet that shows the number of ports available on CMUX/RIMs into a map format that shows the locations of CMUX/RIMS (some parts of Melton (more older area) are services by copper and are not affected) and there port availability. The Map for Melton is at http://adsl2exchanges.com.au/viewsuburb.ports.php?Abbrev=MLTN%20W . This page is still to be setup to a standard that can be read by a lay person. What you need to note is that red and purple dots appearing on the map (streets) means no ports available. Yes, that’s right ALL of Micasa Rise (my estate) is affected by the issue!!!
Even scarier is this issue is not just occurring in Melton but across
The Fix
Telstra can add more ports to CMUX/RIMS or install another housing close by for more ports but they are refusing to fix the issue stating demand as their key reason for not doing anything. On several occasions I have asked about demand trigger targets that they require before they will take action and have obtained various numbers of people that need to register their demand. These numbers change depending on who you talk to. I’ve had numbers given to me of 20, 50, 60, 40 people from Telstra and Telstra Wholesales. Mind you, when you question them more you find that even if you get the target demand levels registered it’s only for a consideration of further upgrades to the local network meaning they can end up doing nothing at all to fix the problem!
As of last week Telstra still had no plans to upgrade my local network to add more ports.
Why is important to act?
If the current infrastructure not reviewed and fixed sooner rather than later there is going to be a real risk of damage to the Melton Community. In these new estates until there is more ports made available families with children at local schools are going to be disadvantaged in their studies due to the lack of access to information and knowledge via the world wide web –cost of access been a major concern too. It will have an effect on local business with no ADSL or viable broadband access people working from home trying to start up a business are going to find not having fast reliable broadband is not going to help in the growth of their business. This impact could see people spreading the word to steer clear of certain areas of Melton or completely away from the area and thus taking their business and business investments with them.
My personal fight for ADSL access
As an IT Desktop Support officer having access to viable and secure broadband is a must have so just before I moved to my new house here in Melton I went about relocating my ADSL connection to my new address (this was the 29th of May, 2007) little did I know this would turn into a fight to get it connected!. I have submitted 28-29 applications with ISPs (including Big Pond, Internode, Westnet; etc) which have all been rejected to no ports on CMUX/RIM. It now has been 6 months from the day I started trying to obtain ADSL.
I have found through some research that the CMUX/RIM that services my area (DA147) was created in October 2004 and was ADSL-enabled when installed. In a Telstra Wholesales report dated the 17/06/05 it states there were 5 ports available at the time!!! Nothing seems to have been done to add more since then!
There are ADSL users within the first couple of stages of the estate but later stages, including the 6th stage which I reside, cannot obtain access. Effectively meaning if you had your house built early in the estates development you had a better chance of getting it!
Telstra blame the developers and the developers blame Telstra. No one is omitting fault to the issue.
I have emailed state and Federal members of parliament, Telstra, the TIO and even the real estate that sold me the land all have failed in getting something done to fix the issues.
I started a thread on the whirlpool.net.au website in June that is still active and has been read by more than 8297 users and spans over 35 pages http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=769620&p=1
I’ve even post to the Telstra Now We Are Talking and Tell the Truth Telstra websites: http://www.nowwearetalking.com.au/ and http://www.tellthetruthtelstra.com.au/
My reasons for needing ADSL are so:
- I can keep my computer systems up-to-date. They have not been updated for 6 months due to poor speeds and dropouts while using dial-up.
- I can provide remote support activities off site from home for users. 31.2K is not fast enough to do any support related work.
- I can keep abreast of current news and technology and to be able to do testing in a closed environment.
All the above I cannot do without a viable broadband connection.
In Conclusion
In ending this letter I’d like to point out to you that at this stage I cannot get even an ETA out of Telstra of when they plan to address this problem. The only hint I have gotten is that they have a 5 year technology cycle which would mean this issue may not be fixed for at least 5 years. I believe that 5 years is going to be too late. We need action sooner rather than later. Melton is one of the fastest growing communities outside
Regards
The Whirlpool.net.au thread has entered it's second part and Telstra has tried again to up sell NextG onto me which would cost $2000 a month!
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