Waiting for ADSL, but Telstra is slow!

[rugger]

Damn Telstra,

They are really slow bastards. (Or I am really impatient)

Takes them a week or two to convert a line to ADSL. Probably because we don't use them as our ISP. (If we had Telstra for our ISP, I bet that we would be connected within 2-3 days)

So I am being unreasonable in being upset with Telstra for being so slow? And, out of interest how long did it take your incumbant telecommunications comapany to set up your broadband (xDSL, cable, ect) connection?

[Greebe]

Verizon took 5 weeks here to setup dsl for me

[rugger]

Sigh, I probably am being too impatient,

But waiting is hard, damned hard.

Background:

Perth, finally, has a half decent ADSL plan. It is a flat rate plan, but with some provisions:

1) Between 1am and 8am, downloads are completely unrestricted.
2) All other times, there is a monthly limit of 3gb. After this limit has been reached, software shaping is used to slow the connection down to 64kbps during these times (between 1am and 8am is still full speed though)

But the scary thing is, ADSL is becoming cheaper than using dialup for internet. While ADSL is about twice the price of dialup (66 vs 33 per month), we will actually break even moneywise because we will stop making so many local calls (about $25 worth per month) and we can stop using messagebank (an answering machine operated by telstra, can take calls while internet is going, which cost $6 per month)

[Dogbert]

2-3 days here

[LvR]

About an hour and a half starting with my existing analogue line.

Have to say that I am one of the lucky 1000 customers to have been allocated such a service , so that may have had something to do with it.

[Gurm]

Emm, the actual WORK involved takes about 20 minutes. They just need a "round tuit".

- Gurm

[Dogbert]

Here it usually takes 2-3 days cause the telephone company's tech needs to come and install the ADSL 'modem'.
If you're lucky, it can happen in less than 24 hours.

[Sasq]

Hmm rugger, I know those exchanges (ex-Telstra fiber tech). The problem is
1) The so called nominal time to do one work order
2) Many of the street cables are old(er) and some won't carry the adsl signal correctly, so the poor guy in the street (who is usually overworked and not given enough time) has to try to find a good pair. which can take time.

That said, takes 3 weeks here, but then again from dec we have 12Mbit service

[ZokesPro]

It took over a year for me!!

[Byock]

2 weeks. They "Lost" our order...

[ZokesPro]

To actually set it up it took a few days, but to get the lines set up it took over a year.

[Delany]

You think you dislike Telstra???

Rugger,

You think you have a beef with Telstra?
Hows this, the exchange that my house belongs to (and is more than close enough to) has been capable of providing ADSL services since ADSL was first mentioned in australia, the only problem is, Telstra in their infinite wisdom **cough cough** haven't actually enabled it yet and state that they are currently reviewing ADSL services in my area.

Guess what? I live in a country area therefore they don't really give a damn what service they provide.

I'm imagining that i will have died of old age before they actually get around to doing something (I live in the federal electorate belonging to John Anderson [the deputy prime minister for you non aussies] therefore its a safe seat so the government won't care either).

Oh well, i guess i'm stuck with dialup at least until after the next election...

[rugger]

Well,

Your right, your gripe is far more serious than mine.

But my main gripe with telstra is not only their slowness, but:

1) Their lack of garrenteed install times for anything that the governmant doesn't directly regulate. It is very unprofessional when the best you can give is a "slow" ballpark figure.
2) How they are singlehandedly making the internet expensive. (Maybe I am being rough here) The ISP I use has to use a bloody satilite link to do most of the communicating with the rest of the world due to how expenisve it is to send data over telstra's networks. This directly translates to how slowly ADSL has rollen out and the outragous situation broadband is in australia.
3) The daylight robbery of their ISDN customers. If you have ever looked at those prices, it would make you "ack"
4) The constant rise in basic service prices, which smacks clearly of monopoly abuse.

Anyway thanks for all the answers guys, it seems I am too impatient.

[Technoid]

Those guy's sound exactly like TELIA in sweden
Same type of bastards

[Novdid]

Indeed!!!