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

[#1]

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.

[#2]

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 

[#3]

@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.

[#4]

@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

[#5]

@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.

[#6]

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.

[#7]

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.

[#8]

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

[#9]

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 

[#10]

@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

[#11]

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

[#12]

@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

[#13]

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