My NBN experience with Optus: Placing the Order, Connection Day and NBN Expectation

[Davelew]

Hi, I’m Dave and this is the second of my blogs discussing my experience in switching over to the NBN^TM. In the first blog I discussed my household requirements and researching for an NBN^TM plan which would meet my needs. In this blog, I will discuss connection day and whether the NBN^TM has met my expectations.

Choice of plan

The more I looked at the plans offered, Optus Ultra Entertainment was the plan that fitted all my needs. As an existing customer I already had a Fetch Mighty and discovered with information found on Yes Crowd that I could keep it rather than having to take the Mini. This is advised on the NBN plans page if you click on the drop down menu titled Important Info then refer to the Fetch section. 

Ordering the plan

I went to the Optus website for Broadband and NBN^TM plans and placed my order. Immediately I received a system generated email from Optus confirming my order request:

Prior to connection

I rang Optus and it was confirmed that my order had been accepted and I would be connected within 7 to 10 business days.

That evening I received an SMS from NBN^TM confirming the appointment of an NBN^TM technician to connect to the network in six days’ time and stating that I would need to be present at this time.

48 hours before the NBN^TM technician was due to arrive I hadn’t heard any news about the delivery of the modem, so I rang the Optus contact number. I couldn’t get the answer I was after, so I sent a PM to one of the Yes Crowd Moderators and with their assistance, the modem was delivered the day before the NBN^TM technician was due to arrive.

Connection day

The day has come, less than two weeks since I placed the order. The NBN^TM technician was booked to arrive between 1pm and 5pm. At 12.45pm he rang to inform me he will be at my house in about thirty minutes, and so he was.

Upon arriving he introduced himself and asked where I would like the cable point installed. After a little discussion of how he will get the cable to where I require it, we agreed on under the house and up through the floorboards, with the cable point affixed to the skirting behind my television.   This is where I had the phone point to connect my modem to ADSL. After a little over an hour the NBN^TM connection box was plugged into the cable point and the modem connected. I am connected to the internet. 

I was left to connect my home telephone to the modem. Within 15 minutes I receive an SMS from Optus to tell me my Optus Voice service is now ready. All working.

Next is the task I was the most anxious about because I use my own modem which I connect from the LAN1 port on the Optus modem to the WAN port on my modem. I do this because I use a Smart DNS service, so I need to amend the DNS addresses and I also need to add some static routes to force my Chromecast devices to use these amended addresses which cannot be changed on the Optus modem. No problems, working perfectly. Now all I needed to do was connect my Fetch Box by ethernet cable. As I am using the same modem as before, all my Wi-Fi devices connect automatically. A quick check of the devices around the house and all is good.

What was left to do? Feet up and a glass of wine.

Has the NBN^TM met my expectations?

The short answer is yes. 

I am pleasantly surprised by how quickly the migration took place and how easy it was to reconnect all my devices.

Internet speeds are in line with my Optus plan of 40mbps and I did not expect my upload speeds to increase so dramatically. As I store most of my documents and photos in the Microsoft One Drive cloud, transfers and emails with attachments happen so much quicker than before.

and two weeks later:

As to reliability of the connection, to date, no dropouts and no buffering when streaming videos.

Smiles and tears

• Quick and easy to place online order
• Just 13 days from the placing of my order to connection
• Prompt and efficient connection by the NBN^TM technician
• The biggest smile is because the internet is working without any problems
• Two weeks on without any internet dropouts and around 40mbps download
• Liverpool FC still playing well, and I am enjoying all the soccer coverage on Optus Sports with the subscription included in the plan.

 

• I had to chase up confirmation of the order from Optus
• Long wait times and transfers when calling Optus phone number
• Confusion over the delivery of my modem (fortunately, a Yes Crowd Moderator was able to intervene and resolve the issue for me).

Many thanks for those who have read my blogs and, please, I would love you to provide your comments below.

[petergdownload]

Welcome to the club Dave. (I'm still not in the club so I guess that means see you soon)

A great blog. It amazes me that companies don't provide a simple 'actual' run down of what to expect like this. Real information of the process and timelines etc. So much of the stress IMO is just not knowing what is hapening and what will be happening. 

Interesting your upload speeds were so high initially. They seem to have settled down now.

Enjoy the red and the ball kicking.

Peter Gillespie 

[Davelew]

@petergdownload I don't really understand why the upload speed vary so much but I am still getting at least 10X the speed I was obtaining with ADSL.

[petergdownload]

@Davelew I was going to say your earlier speeds were much more in line with the ~18Mbps upload speeds you should be getting. However A quick check of the Optus website reveals that the Telco has removed all mention of upload speeds anywhere. Its not in the CIS or speeds page or in the main section.

So you're currently getting about a third of the NBN provided speed teir and from what I can see there's no option to complain against this as in theory you've never been promised any upload capacity. 

This doesn't seem to be isolated to Optus though. Seems a pretty broad based industry response to the ACCC and NBN rulings. Telstra are doing it and even Aussie Broadband. How typical that big business take away at being told they must live up to their NBN promises is to just stop talking about it.

Peter Gillespie

[Davelew]

@petergdownload

It's interesting Peter that the upload speed vary so much. On 2 tests just now 14mbps and 19mbps, but, for me no problem. It could be for people working at home with very big files so not sure.

[johnperth]

My transfer to NBN with Optus was stress free and no problems. My speed has gone from 3 MBPS to around 30 MBPS. Love it.. Loved my new deal as well where I got Fetch for nothing. Watch it a lot. Have been with OPTUS for many years and except for a exchange problem on my ADSL2 plan which was really out of their hands have had no further problems. I would not even consider moving to another ISP and happy with my plan.

[Davelew]

Thanks for your comments @johnperth

One of the reasons for my blog was I believed most customers have stress free migration to the NBN and are happy with their service from Optus. I wished by recording my experience I would, hopefully, show that in the vast majority of NBN installations it is stress free and a the speeds achieved are a great improvement.

That's not to say for the few where the installation and service does not go well it must be painful.

[petergdownload]

I agree @Davelew The crowd is generally a fishbowl for complaints so its easy to think the issues reported are much more the norm than they really are. I know a lot of people that are very trepadicious about moving to the NBN (and not just with Optus) and having a few good luck stories around definitely helps balance the concern.

FWIW I think the Optus product suite is a very good one. Decades ago, the comnpany set out to provide a serious No 2 telecommunications option in Australia but at a competetive price. IMO it had achieved this. When it gets down to actually using and paying for Optus products I would whole heartedly recommend them. In the main my concern with Optus has been its corporate culture that has seen it head the way of the banks in choosing short term profits at the expense of customer empowerment.

Peter Gillespie

[gerver]

This is what i currently (Mo 31/12 12:10am) get with optus cable  --  ping = 7ms  Download =  96.95 Mbps  Upload = 2.02 Mbps  - -download is usualy somwhere between 90 and 100 Mbps 

[petergdownload]

@gerver,

Yep, those lucky enough to already have access to Optus (or Telstra) cable have enjoyed an nbn capability for years now. The NBN is primarily about spreading the love. For existing cable users the main benefits are much much better upload speed and choice of ISP.

Fwiw Optus hasn't extended its cable network footprint for decades and it was reaching EOL without significant me cash injections (it will be completely dismantled in 2020)

Peter Gillespie

[Davelew]

Hi @petergdownload

I thought you might be interested in the uplaod speeds are I am now getting.

Splashed out and bought a new router to replace my old netgear which I think I have had for about 8 years.   So, with NBN now,  I thought it was time to upgrade and I wanted a router where I would get good wi-fi all through the house.   Over the New Year I found that Bing Lee were offer the Netgear Orbi RBK20 for $300 plus a limited offer of a 20% discount giving a final price of $240.   About $120 below the recommended price.

Delivered yesterday and easily connected to the Optus Sagecom using the Netgear Orbi app and then logging into the router from my browser able to amend the DNS addresses and add static routes.  With the Orbi satellite upsatirs great wifi all throught the house.

The difference in upload speeds from my previous router is surprising, I was getting between 6 and 10 mbps and with the Orbi around 20mbps.

Download speeds also seem to be a little higher with between 45 and 50 mbps compared to the average of around 40mbps.

Dave

[petergdownload]

@Davelew, I'm coming to agree a good router ($200+ or so) does do a much better job at syncing and speeds. I is really nice walking through the house and getting full wifi coverage isn't it? I'm using Google Wifi Myself.

Still a bit early to call the upload improvement as definite but sounds very encouraging. You'll need to start streaming shows from a home NAS server next while out and about.

Peter Gillespie

[Amynbn]

Going for my third connection order.

Very over it. Two weeks with no connection after coming from telstra and now have modems I don't need with another one on the way probably.

Service has been very hard to connect to and disjointed  

[BigVic]

What modem do you have? 

I have around 50mpbs download since I switched over to NBN but unfortunately I'm suffering from problems while recording Optus Sport using Fetch TV 

[Davelew]

Hi Bigvic

My modem is the Sagemcom Fast3864v34c but I do have an Orbi mesh wifi connected to the Sagecom.

I have connected the fetch box to the Sagecom and had no problems with Optus Sports recording on the fetch box. Can you watch Optus Sports Live?

Dave

[Blueshoes53]

I recently migrated from another provider to Optus and was already on NBN.  I too had to chase my deliver but it was rather smooth which was surprising.  Optus did forget to order my mini fetch as I had ordered the mighty with an extra mini but it is being fixed.  One sad experience is I wanted 100Mb speed with NBN but they tell me that as I am connected over 1km from the node, I cannot get this speed.  I have a node outside my house but NBN said I cannot be connected to this one.  No explanation.  I had asked 12 months ago to be connected to this as it had just been installed but NBN said no.  My speeds are good on 50Mb but would have liked more:)

[petergdownload]

@Blueshoes53 ,

Thanks for your experience. Switching NBN providers should generally be very smooth (its getting on the network initially that can cause problems). 

On your 100Mbps I take it you only did 50Mbps with your previous provider too? I would still request Optus set you to 100Mbps for a month. There's a fair chance you'll still get 60, 70 or 80+ Mbps. Whatever it is you can decide if its worth paying the extra for or to step back down to 50Mbps (which is still pretty good for now). Unfortunately you lost the NBN 'lottery' with FTTN. A technology pretty much unable to provide even current national bandwidth requirements. 

[emmsco]

Hi

Great to hear your experience with your nbn went well,

As not many can say they have had the same and im sure there are many horror stories too.

Some techs are really good and come from satellite telecommunications background so they are knowledgeable , others unfortunately are not and not experienced and ive seen techs not even bother knocking on customers doors, they drive down the road and take a look at the house and if it looks difficult to do they will keep driving,

They dont get paid per hour they are paid per job so if a job takes longer then he will lose money by doing it.

I was an ex nbn tech and coming from my point of view i have had really good customers to really bad,

A lot i have had to go and fix other techs complete mess.

And also a myriad of customers being misinformed by their providers,so i would like to clear a few things up in the hopes that anyone in the future knows what to expect .

First i would like to point out, the nbn tech works for nbn not the provider, his vehicle does not have the providers logos on it and he does not  wear the isp's branding and his network boundary is the nbn box,not the customer modem or your customer equipment. 

Not your after market modem, not you tv box.

So if he connects it for you and helps you with connecting it he can be blamed for any issues you have with your equipment even tho he has tried to help you out,also a tech gets paid to do specific tasks throughout the install and connecting your equipment he doesn't get paid for .

So he is going above and beyond to help you, if he does then please give him the courtesy of calling your isp or emailing them and giving him an excellent wrap about his service.

Next point is the install, techs cannot install an nbn box in a bedroom, nbn rule.

And the rules changed since the old two pair phone line was installed and the tech has to install as per the rules 

So even if its a bedroon setup to be an office or a study he could still get in trouble for doing so,same as installing the nbn box in a kitchen near water supply or sink, sorry cant be done .

Techs are not magicians they cannot run cables if they cannot access that space so dont get annoyed if he cant put it exactly where you want it.

Latency is everything so if you have a high number come back on your ping when you do a speed test then doesn't matter how high your download / upload speeds are you are going to have issues.

The next is noise on the network,there will be noise and lots of it, doesn't help at all.

I have put in services where the customer is on a 50 mbps d/l and they are getting 47 to 48 mbps , thats pretty much spot on.

Next is docsis 3.1 software which is still only being trialled in some areas on HFC and getting fantastic speeds.

Also higher frequencies have been added to the network get above the rf noise.higher frequency means no noise.

So it will improve be patient,

Its funny how people think to go the highest speeds because higher is better.

No its not because latency can be your friend as well as your enemy. 

I was on adsl still, 8 people living in house all streaming,youtube gaming and internet and never once did i have any issues and i was on a 12mbps plan.

This was from another provider which i won't name, i was called by them and told i had to upgrade to nbn,so i did as i had no choice ( so they tried to tell me ).

I knew when they where going to turn off the adsl anyway.

I had more drop outs and issues with my nbn in the first 2 months than i ever did the whole time i was on adsl.

And yes you will still get congestion on the network too so dont forget that,

You might want to know that some providers ( not all ) will try to throttle you back to ease congestion on the network, depending on the area and hope you wont notice.

Remember just like you have to buy your data from your provider,where do you think they get it from to sell to you , and think about how many providers are out there supplying it.

Some will sell more data than they can supply hence slowing you down and hoping you wont notice.

Just remember bigger isnt always better, start at a lower plan and work your way up to what you need, it will help with congestion and also ease the work the network has to do.

Switching from provider to another means a tech has to come and replace that nbn box for another because once that box is connected to your modem its locked to it, can only be wiped when sent back to the factory, a reset wont work, as it assigns itself .

I hope i have helped anyone, just trying to give you an insight from a techs point of view.

[petergdownload]

An interesting perspective, although the last paragraph does give me reason to question your credentials? The NTD box that NBNCo provides works with any modem and switching providers on the NBN is generally a simple phone call and a 30 minute wait. The NTD box is only replaced if faulty and no tech visit is required. I'm not sure an NBN tech couldn't know that?

Latency (and dropouts) are indeed issues for some on the NBN and its a pity RSPs are allowed to get away with only advertising download speeds. They don't even publish upload speeds a lot of the time. 

I had to smile at the thought of 8 people trying to use a 12Mbps connection at the same time. It is a pity that the NBN network we've spent $50 billion building still raises the suggestion that we all don't use it too much so that it can handle the demand - We've built something that in many households barely handles today's needs let alone 10 years down the track.

FWIW Congestion is/was largely a RSP issue. Telcos skimping on buying bandwidth from the NBNCo to save a few bucks. This has been largely address by the ACCC last year and whilst speeds still fluctuate NBN users can expect generally 80% of the speeds their plan promises. And yes some RSPs are still better than others in ensuring a steady service throughout the day.

[emmsco]

Yes you are 100 % correct an nbn box ( ntd ) does work with any modem however that is not what i said.

What i said was if you change providers they have to send a tech out to replace the nbn box.

As the ntd once activated on a specific isp, it locks to that isp, and when you change providers it does not allow an activation to the new isp .

I have had many service calls i was sent to where a customer has moved isp's and been sent a new modem by their new provider and it doesn't work and i have turned up and to resolve the issue replaced that ntd as per advice from nbn on the day.

The existing ntd's i  had to return to warehouse as they cannot be reused at another address or on or with any other modems once intially activated

remember you are dealing with overseas call centers who are very limited and have to follow a script and do not know the technical side, once again the isp is not nbn, they have no knowledge of how the nbn service or how the nbn system works.

Many times my phone calls took a lot longer to activate and discuss the issue than the install itself.

your isp's system and nbn system are two different things and because of privacy neither entity can have access to each other's system.

There is still a thing called privacy,

You can question my credentials if you like but i am not going to prove to you if i am a tech or not as i dont want to put myself in a position where im taken to court etc or say something i shouldn't .

[petergdownload]

Thanks for the info. No need provide any proof, everything on the internet should always be taken with a grain of salt. 

My understanding is that NTDs are designed to work with essentially any modern modem and any RSP. For the vast majority of households, changing providers is just a quick call and a brief wait. What you are describing seems to be when a fault develops. NBNCo presumably just replace the NTD as a cost effective way to see if that's where the fault lies.

The NTD is designed to be left in place when people move out. New occupants just plug their own modem in and organise their own service.