Telecom broadband problem (advice please)

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TP

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#74740 6-Jan-2011 11:50

Hi, I have a problem with my Telecom broadband service since mid-Dec (my birthday as it happened - thanks Telecom!).

I’m a rural customer, but had broadband installed 15 months ago with little trouble. Had 555kbps at the gate and file download speed of ~68kbps, which wasn't blistering but has been useable. Into gaming and music downloads, and have been on Telecom's 20Gb home plan.

Mid-Dec my speed dropped by 75%. Between Xmas and New Year I had file downloads between 9-16kbps, since New Year a mere 6kbps.

Speedtest.net last night informs me I am ~100mi from Auckland, ping is 108ms, download 0.06Mb/s and upload 0.33MB/s.

Pre New Year contacted Telecom who sent a Chorus tech out. He informed me:

1) I’m bang on 7km from the exchange so he’s not permitted to work on my problem!
2) it wouldn't do much good anyway since my problem is undoubtedly due to the recent 'upgrade' of the local exchange, the effect of which is to give better service to anyone within a few km and worse to anyone like me >5km out, and since I’m at 7km... !
3) he’s surprised I’m getting any broadband service here at all!
4) in my contract they don’t have to guarantee any service!
5) but don’t worry, in 2 years time they’ll replace the box at the bottom of the road and I’ll be sweet then!

According to my car odo btw, I am 5.3km from the exchange, not 7km. Quite a direct route too, so somewhere in there there must be 1.7km of doubled-back cable. Ours is not to reason why...

Aside from sitting around twiddling my thumbs a lot, three things really irritate me about this situation:
1) the total abscence of any notice from Telecom that they were about to stuff my connection.
2) this problem wasn't environmental or distance up a rural line in origin - I had perfect (albeit pokey) service for 15 months. Not one disconnect in that time. Telecom has done this to me themselves!
3) and then there's the obvious, I am forced to pay the same money for this service as persons who I read get >2mb/s, sigh.

Obviously I could find a new ISP, but that would be little more than a pyrrhic victory in that a new ISP would have to come through the same exchange and cabling. Wireless in this area is crap. 10-20Gb through satellite would financially ruin me!

So, I'm a rural Telecom customer, and therefore little more than a burden to them. Any advice on my rights w Telecom or other options would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

tonyhughes

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#424608 6-Jan-2011 12:04

Welcome to Geekzone!

Your 'rights' with Telecom?

Your problems seem to be down to technical limitations of technology in use, not Telecom arbitrarily destroying your connection to piss you off.

With such slow speeds to begin with, are you downloading very much? If not, why not look into 3G technology for your connection?

the total abscence of any notice from Telecom that they were about to stuff my connection.

I think this probably paranoia about what Telecom set out to do.

this problem wasn't environmental or distance up a rural line in origin - I had perfect (albeit pokey) service for 15 months. Not one disconnect in that time. Telecom has done this to me themselves!

Your service wasnt perfect. It was pokey. And likely provided to you on a best effort + no guarantee basis. I am sure you agreed to this at the time. Are you saying you now don't agree with this basis?

and then there's the obvious, I am forced to pay the same money for this service as persons who I read get >2mb/s, sigh.

I am sure if you quote the speeds given here, you will easily be released from your contract for reasons of disconnection.

BarTender

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#424632 6-Jan-2011 13:29

I know of a few rural folks that get DSL installed at their neighbours place who is closer to the exchange, then run two high gain WIFI Antennas (an example off trademe of what you may want to look for) and have a Dual radio Wifi router in your home that runs in bridging mode.

Otherwise see if Telecom will offer a discounted Mobile Data rate.

matisyahu

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#424673 6-Jan-2011 15:16

BarTender: I know of a few rural folks that get DSL installed at their neighbours place who is closer to the exchange, then run two high gain WIFI Antennas (an example off trademe of what you may want to look for) and have a Dual radio Wifi router in your home that runs in bridging mode.

Otherwise see if Telecom will offer a discounted Mobile Data rate.

Interesting, hypothetically would it be possible to run a long coax cable from the antenna connector on the router to the antenna connector on the computer (assuming it is one of those PCI based ones with the removable antenna) or router at the other end? so rather than the wireless signal going over the air it goes down a coax cable instead (the same sort of cable used when connecting an external arial to a router)?

If it is rural, how easy would it be to run a PVC pipe with the cable going through it?

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

BarTender

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#424689 6-Jan-2011 15:59

kawaii: Interesting, hypothetically would it be possible to run a long coax cable from the antenna connector on the router to the antenna connector on the computer (assuming it is one of those PCI based ones with the removable antenna) or router at the other end? so rather than the wireless signal going over the air it goes down a coax cable instead (the same sort of cable used when connecting an external arial to a router)?

If it is rural, how easy would it be to run a PVC pipe with the cable going through it?

I doubt that will be a workable solution, normally Low-loss Coax will be way more expensive than two High DBI Directional Antennas. Plus it will be able to cover a larger distance. Plus what happens when the tractor plows through the coax :)

With this sort of solution you just need two dishes, and two Routers with RP-SMA connectors on them (which are pretty much the standard) and as long as you have a ok-enough router that has two radio's and supports turning off Antenna diversity and can run in bridging mode (which any router than can run OpenWRT can do) then you should be away.

rygrass

134 posts

Master Geek

#424734 6-Jan-2011 18:10

TP: Hi, I have a problem with my Telecom broadband service since mid-Dec (my birthday as it happened - thanks Telecom!).

I’m a rural customer, but had broadband installed 15 months ago with little trouble. Had 555kbps at the gate and file download speed of ~68kbps, which wasn't blistering but has been useable. Into gaming and music downloads, and have been on Telecom's 20Gb home plan.

Mid-Dec my speed dropped by 75%. Between Xmas and New Year I had file downloads between 9-16kbps, since New Year a mere 6kbps.

Speedtest.net last night informs me I am ~100mi from Auckland, ping is 108ms, download 0.06Mb/s and upload 0.33MB/s.

Pre New Year contacted Telecom who sent a Chorus tech out. He informed me:

1) I’m bang on 7km from the exchange so he’s not permitted to work on my problem!
2) it wouldn't do much good anyway since my problem is undoubtedly due to the recent 'upgrade' of the local exchange, the effect of which is to give better service to anyone within a few km and worse to anyone like me >5km out, and since I’m at 7km... !
3) he’s surprised I’m getting any broadband service here at all!
4) in my contract they don’t have to guarantee any service!
5) but don’t worry, in 2 years time they’ll replace the box at the bottom of the road and I’ll be sweet then!

According to my car odo btw, I am 5.3km from the exchange, not 7km. Quite a direct route too, so somewhere in there there must be 1.7km of doubled-back cable. Ours is not to reason why...

Aside from sitting around twiddling my thumbs a lot, three things really irritate me about this situation:
1) the total abscence of any notice from Telecom that they were about to stuff my connection.
2) this problem wasn't environmental or distance up a rural line in origin - I had perfect (albeit pokey) service for 15 months. Not one disconnect in that time. Telecom has done this to me themselves!
3) and then there's the obvious, I am forced to pay the same money for this service as persons who I read get >2mb/s, sigh.

Obviously I could find a new ISP, but that would be little more than a pyrrhic victory in that a new ISP would have to come through the same exchange and cabling. Wireless in this area is crap. 10-20Gb through satellite would financially ruin me!

So, I'm a rural Telecom customer, and therefore little more than a burden to them. Any advice on my rights w Telecom or other options would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Doesn't seem like a Telecom problem as this could happen with any isp in the area.

You wouldn't happen to live in Tokoroa would you ?

Seems like we have the same fault happeing right now in the area. Sound like the characteristics has changed somewhere between your house and exchange. Distance isn't always a factor as if you had 0.4 Cable in the ground then you could only get a total distance of 4.5 km for broadband off that. Only thing you can do is wait

matisyahu

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#424741 6-Jan-2011 18:33

I don't think changing ISP's would change anything - where abouts do you (TP) live? XT Network maybe your only option until ADSL is sorted out in your area.

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

TP

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#424802 6-Jan-2011 22:13

Ok, new to forums here, how do you get the quoted bits into the boxes?

To Rygrass:

"You wouldn't happen to live in Tokoroa would you ? Seems like we have the same fault happeing right now in the area. Sound like the characteristics has changed somewhere between your house and exchange."

I'm in Te Puke. The Chorus tech. definitely stated to me that this is a result of an upgrade to the exchange here, nothing to do with anything in between (other than distance). If you have the same symptoms then I would contact Telecom and see if your exchange has likewise recently been upgraded. Chrs.

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pjamieson

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Chorus

#426890 13-Jan-2011 16:52

Te Puke Exchange (TPV) was upgraded to ADSL2+ last month. With the higher speeds being achieved by those close to the exchange, it does degrade the speeds achieved by those further out (that's the technology). Although I hadn't heard of it having as much of an effect as you are saying. Although generally Telecom won't provision a line that is greater than 5km in length as that is the theoretical limit.

There are still things you can do to ensure that once the signal get's to your property it isn't being slowed further.

Go to http://www.telecomwholesale.co.nz/ click on Technologies > ADSL2+. Checkout the Service Availability tool to see the coverage and cabinet upgrades planned. Also go through "Getting the best out of ADSL2+" - which is a good basic troubleshooter.

Also contact the Broadband Helpdesk and ask for basic trouble shooting on speed issues to see if there is anything else you can do (is your Line Profile set to the best setting) etc.

Or as others say, ask about mobile coverage and a T-stick. Or wait for Telecom/Voda to win the Rural Broadband initiative and wait for your guaranteed 1 - 5+ Mbps connection. :)

rumpty

66 posts

Master Geek

#428357 18-Jan-2011 10:42

Just to make sure you are getting the absolute best result out of your present situation, disconnect all the phones and filters in the house, so the phone line is going to the ADSL modem/router only, and see if the d/l speed improves.

Don't forget to re-boot the modem two or three times.