Dumping Orcon... is Telstra Clear cable the best speed/value/low-maintenance alternative?

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Dumping Orcon... is Telstra Clear cable the best speed/value/low-maintenance alternative?

mattp52

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#47572 11-Nov-2009 22:54

No need to repeat what others have said. They were good at one point - seem to care more about punchy marketing campaigns now. Not interested in diddling around with firmware and doing a crash course in network engineering just to get decent You Tube performance so.... what provides good reliable speeds and just stays on... no modem burn-outs (on my third with Orcon now). Would happily kick ADSL to the curb if cable is the way to go. Only reservation is the absolutely s%$t customer service I encountered a couple of years ago from Telstra Clear when I looked into joining them - and I mean laughably, unresponsive, overly defensively bad.

Any refugees from the copper spaghetti who can vouch for cable? I'll forgive Telstra even if it takes 4 days to get them on the phone and another two weeks to reconnect to their service as long as when it's up and running it just works and I never have to talk to them again.

mattp52

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#272296 12-Nov-2009 09:50

To answer my own question - yes it is. Dumped Orcon. Turns out my line attenuation has gone from an already marginal 38dB or so to 68db. Orcon's theory was 'cabinitisation'. 'Cabinatisation' is a made-up verb that conveniently removes the subject (Telecom) and the object ( a switching cabinet) from view and suggests cabinets just materialise on their own, thus f%&king up previously working bought and paid for services of line subscribers in the process. How Orcon's marketing department could determine that my address was now ADSL2+ ready (when it wasn't) but not be able to warn me about this abomination is a mystery but in the final analysis it doesn't really matter - I don't need the hassle.

Before I go though, a tip of the hat to the frontline support staff - they've nearly always been knowledgeable, helpful, sympathetic and courteous and its not their fault the infrastructure has let them down. Seems like Orcon may have become victim to forces beyond their control but hey I'm a customer not a board member so I don't need to find excuses for them.

cyril7

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#272309 12-Nov-2009 10:07

Seems like Orcon may have become victim to forces beyond their control but hey I'm a customer not a board member so I don't need to find excuses for them.

Cabinetisation is the best thing that ever happened to copper based broadband in the country (and worldwide) for a long time, Orcon have been fully aware of the issues including midspan injection which appears to be your issue. There are clear guides to get around this issue I am not surprised you have not been offered moving back to a Orcon plan via Telecom wholesale (and hence via the cabinet) where you should experience excellent speeds.

Have you checked on the following link if infact you are now connected via through a cabinet, if so you would be wise to move to a wholesale plan. I think you will find Telecom/Xtra would still be one of the better ADSL providers.

I deal with customers on TCL HFC cable connections and ADSL connections on a daily basis, whilst the cable service has some advantages if you are connected to a cabinet on ADSL to a good ISP then I would say ADSL is currently better as typical speeds exceed 15Mb/s which TCL dont offer except at a very high price.

As you have found in the past TCLs CSRs are very hard to deal with if and when you can get hold of them compard to most other Telcos such as Orcon or Telecom.

www.telecomwholesale.co.nz/maps

cyril

Sounddude

I fix stuff!
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#272373 12-Nov-2009 12:47

Turns out my line attenuation has gone from an already marginal 38dB or so to 68db.

What account type are you on?

If you have been moved to a cabinet, and being fed from the exchange, then we can/will move you to the cabinet.

(However, if you are on a purple account getting naked broadband. We can't move you to the cabinet and keep you naked. You would need a phoneline too).

Throw your address into www.telecomwholesale.co.nz/maps and tell us what it says.

mattp52

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#272454 12-Nov-2009 17:03

I'm currently on an Orcon@Home Gold+ (so with the phone line). The Telecom site says my area is scheduled to be connected by a roadside cabinet by January 2010. Of the cabinets served by my closest exchange, one that was upgraded in Aug 09 serves an area very close to, but not within, my property. I don't know how accurate the drawn borders are but the upgrade date seems suspiciously close to suggest that either that upgrade affected my install or an upgrade currently in process is affecting it.

Thanks for the help but I'm going to give the cable a try and will maybe revisit ADSL again when the dust has settled and there are good reports of ADSL+ speeds in my burb.

cyril7

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#272461 12-Nov-2009 17:26

I would suggest that you are infact on a cabinet, I recommend you give Soundude your actual address as he most likely can identify more accurately.

Cyril