6.2km line broadband possible?

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raytaylor

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#30249 2-Feb-2009 19:08

Silly telecom sold a broadband line to a new customer of mine - with a line length from the Taradale exchange of 6.2km

I went out to setup a rdp link back into the terminal server at the company she just purchased who we run the I.T. for and noticed a 3,000+ ms ping to google, and a 128k sync rate in the modem.

Rang telecom who told me the usual, reboot the modem, yes its on the correct speed profile, unplug the phones, please wait while I put you on hold a couple of times.
Now the modem wont connect for me.

He said someone would ring me back tomorrow so I asked what the line length was. He put me on hold again and came back and said 6,200m which would be beyond the limits from what I know. He was very surprised that my customer had a connection - and the customer thought it was fine for the last 6 months. She did say that the telecom guys had some trouble getting the broadband to go in the first place.

Anyhow, I dont think they will be able to fix this, unless they cabinetised the customer so I was wondering who knows of a good brand of dsl modem to buy that goes well at long distances? Currently she has a Dynalink wireless router.

Oh and for anyone interested, the Napier Central exchange is now ADSL2+ although by the sounds of it they have not changed the profiles over - I've been upgrading modem firmware to handle it most of the day. Telecom changed one over to the new profiles this morning for me and i got 1mb up, 18.5mb down so I am rather happy. Might be time to ditch the old USR I have at home.

Ray Taylor

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#193501 2-Feb-2009 19:37

Dynalinks are definitely one of the better modems for long line lengths. (In the lower price bracket, at least)

rm *

nzbnw

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#193520 2-Feb-2009 20:39

You are correct, normally Telecom will not provide service to customer 6.2k out from the exchange. If you don't mind me asking, how long has the customer had broadband and how (through which chanel, 123/6, Dealer etc) did they purchase it?

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eXDee

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#193539 2-Feb-2009 22:24

A dynalink wireless router (RTA1025w) trumped all other modems in line tests from i think it was APC mag. Its very good at holding a connection so i'd be suprised if anything was much better.

cyril7

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#193639 3-Feb-2009 10:23

Have you tried forcing the modem in to ADSL2-RE, I dont know if the ISAMs are configured to run in that mode, but it would be interesting, nzbnw do you know if they are configured to support Reach Extend, I know they can do it, but my be not configured by Telecom to allow it.
Cyril

nzbnw

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#193681 3-Feb-2009 13:09

cyril7: nzbnw do you know if they are configured to support Reach Extend, I know they can do it, but my be not configured by Telecom to allow it.
Cyril

Hi Cyril

No i don't know if Reach is enabled, but at 128k it seems rather slow for Telecom to allow any one to connect to it!

nzbnw

raytaylor

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#193831 3-Feb-2009 22:10

I have done a little more talking with the customer today.

It is indeed a dynalink wireless RTA1025w router and it has replaced a previous modem - I am guessing because of the distance. The telecom technician that called thisafternoon said he managed to get the sync speed up to 400kbit. I am assuming they change the settings at the dslam for this.

I have not been back out to visit the customer but I am assuming with the faster sync there is a lower ping time so all is well for now.

Ray Taylor

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cbrpilot

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#193981 4-Feb-2009 13:03

In answer to the question: "6.2km line broadband possible?": theoretically yes. If the copper is excellent quality all the way, then the resistance and attenuation may allow ADSL to work over this distance - but at pretty poor speeds.

Bad or inaccurate pre-qualification of a line may trick a CSR into trying to provision a service at this distance. At that distance (providing of course that the rep you spoke to got an accurate trace), Telecom should never have offered the DSL service because as you can see, it's just problems for everyone.

My views are my own, and may not necessarily represent those of my employer.

djrm

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#194059 4-Feb-2009 16:50

Hmmmmmm.....not heard this one before!!(Hint of sarcasm) This is one of the problems that the ISPs won't admit failure and will proceed with getting you to sign on the dotted line and then discover they can't offer what they said.
Generally anything over 4kms, unless on great copper will have too much line noise, over 60db and bb won't work. Trouble is that Telecom will refuse to do a line check unless you sign on the dotted line-so much for choice.

The solution should have been to not proceed with ADSL2 until they had upgraded all exchanges and started to cabinetise in areas with long distances from the exchange!!

Bothered

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#194103 4-Feb-2009 20:11

djrm: Trouble is that Telecom will refuse to do a line check unless you sign on the dotted line-so much for choice.

I have received many line check results including distance and noise results before signing on the 'dotted line'.

nzbnw

Wills1

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#194113 4-Feb-2009 21:12

Telecom are shocking at this.

In the last six months I have had at least 5 chorus contractors at my house. Including 2 broadband specialists.
Who said BB should never have been sold in our area.

Have been told tough luck really, and have to wait until april 2010 for a new cabinet.

cbrpilot

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#194220 5-Feb-2009 10:51

djrm: Trouble is that Telecom will refuse to do a line check unless you sign on the dotted line-so much for choice.

I'm not sure where you get your information, but that is so far from true that it is laughable.

djrm: The solution should have been to not proceed with ADSL2 until they had upgraded all exchanges and started to cabinetise in areas with long distances from the exchange!!

I'm sorry, but that makes no sense whatsoever. If you are putting in new equipment that can deliver better services, why would you wait 3-4 years to turn that (service/feature) on? That is not putting customers first.

My views are my own, and may not necessarily represent those of my employer.

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djrm

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#194261 5-Feb-2009 13:41

NZBNW/cbrpilot - sorry to disagree but I have had previous experience with asking for line checks and know of quite a few others in our community who have also been told the same things-sign up for broadband with Telecom and then we will see if feasible. I think you may have to check with your colleagues before denying this as this is what is said and I am the customer!

The network is laughable in some areas, 25kms out of Auckland and no wired bb. 4kms from the exchange and 256k max which slows back to dial up speeds.

Bothered

nzbnw

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#194270 5-Feb-2009 13:59

djrm: NZBNW/cbrpilot - sorry to disagree but I have had previous experience with asking for line checks and know of quite a few others in our community who have also been told the same things-sign up for broadband with Telecom and then we will see if feasible. I think you may have to check with your colleagues before denying this as this is what is said and I am the customer!

The network is laughable in some areas, 25kms out of Auckland and no wired bb. 4kms from the exchange and 256k max which slows back to dial up speeds.

Hi djrm

I'm not saying that you’re wrong, just that it can be done. Sometime you do need to signup, as you may be on the marginal side, but Telecom still can provide distance and db information.

If you want a line check, please feel to PM me, or call 123, they should be able to get the results for you, normally within 30 mins.

Hope this helps.

nzbnw

djrm

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#194273 5-Feb-2009 14:14

Thank you for the offer NZBNW. What I wanted is to feel free to have my lines checked and then pick the ISP with the best service. As it turns out my neighbour signed up to Vodafone Red who said that he could have bb only to find out a week later that it was indeed not possible.

My worry is now that we have a very good wireless network but one that may not be viable ffor long term due to cost. There was light at the end of the tunnel for funding from Broadband Funding Iniative but now the National Governemnt has just cancelled this.

I have been looking at National's promise of fibre optics which, according to the INZ stage 2 report, is going to concentrate on "big cities and towns, down to the size of Blenheim" - personally I think they are going to be working the wrong way round, and a government should be concentrating on the smaller, rural areas which have been neglected for so many years.

Thank you again NZBNW.

Bothered

cbrpilot

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#194391 5-Feb-2009 23:09

djrm: NZBNW/cbrpilot - sorry to disagree but I have had previous experience with asking for line checks and know of quite a few others in our community who have also been told the same things-sign up for broadband with Telecom and then we will see if feasible. I think you may have to check with your colleagues before denying this as this is what is said and I am the customer!

The network is laughable in some areas, 25kms out of Auckland and no wired bb. 4kms from the exchange and 256k max which slows back to dial up speeds.

djrm, please forgive me if I'm incorrect here, but I think you may be confusing terminology. A line check is a check that can be done to see if ADSL is currently available on your line. It measure things such as "is there a DSLAM in your exchange and/or cabinet?", "how far from the DSLAM are you?" and "what is the attenuation/resistance?" on a line. This is done (or should be done!) prior to every new connection.

You seem (and again forgive me if I'm wrong) to be confusing this with lodging an expression of interest in the service. This happens after a line check and is not the same as signing up - it's fill out a form and it will cost you nothing. This happens when DSL is not currently available at a location, and is used to gauge the likely uptake if and when service is provisioned there. This sounds like the "sign up and we'll see if it's feasible" thing you were talking about. Any service provider will need to make a return on investment, and if there is not enough demand in an area to justify the cost of providing a service, then that area will not get ADSL.

My views are my own, and may not necessarily represent those of my employer.

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