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Thread ID: 106353 2010-01-05 12:11:00 Sudden 'over capacity' of broadband service? Arteis (15553) Press F1
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846070 2010-01-14 17:35:00 I'll call in the big guns.

In the mean time, what do you get when you throw in your address here:
telecomwholesale.co.nz 		Chilling_Silence (9)
846071 2010-01-15 00:37:00 Here is the written report from Paradise (TelstraClear):

From the look of your phone line you have excellent rates, and obtainable speeds down the line. However you are connected to a Conklin cabinet, which is older equipment and struggles to handle the speeds of today's connections.

This means that some customers at that exchange may be noticing data loss. If everyone is on a full speed plan then the equipment has to handle large volumes of requests for data, due to it being unable to keep up, data dropped or lost in transfer.

While your modem may be requesting data at 10 bits per second for example, the equipment at the exchange is only capable of delivering 5 bits per second of correct information, the other 5 bits coming as noise etc. The missing information would appear as a slow connection on your end.

With this case I noticed rates of less than 3-400kbps for quite a few customers on that exchange. Therefore as I discussed with you, we have moved you to a slower speed plan. (256kbps/128kbps) What this means is that the equipment at the exchange now has less work to perform and will generally allow it to function at a level where the data loss is much less.

From a 256kbps connection you should be more likely to receive speeds closer to these rates. As you mentioned your speed tests showed that the line was giving 221kbps downlaod, 97kbps upload. This is more accurate to your plan, and shows the data loss has reduced.

I have spoken to our wholesaler since, and they advised they have also had to make similar changes to a few other customers on this piece of equipment, which means while their connections may be slower, they should be more consistent and perform closer to their rate shapes.

The planned upgrade to ADSL2+ is scheduled by our wholesaler to take place around June 2011, as part of a nationwide upgrade, put in place by the NZ government. Until this time, the best Telstra Clear can offer you is the Launch plan you have been put on.

Again, the benefits of being on this slower broadband plan over say dial-up, is that you can use the internet while you use your phone, and that 256kbps is close to four and a half times the speed of dial-up.

*****

Note from me: Unfortunately, since the above letter was written, our newLaunch plan's speed has again dropped to ten minutes or more to open just the top bar of the Paradise page (ie many, many times slower than dial-up), so the above solution is already broken! 		Arteis (15553)
846072 2010-01-15 02:06:00 A nearby resident tells me that on the 23rd (the day my problem first appeared) he went past the box at the corner and saw a technician there, and from then onwards his service was non existent (like mine). He rang the Telecom help desk and had to undergo many major checking steps-- trying to do a speed test to prove the issue-- impossible really when he (like me) could not even access the site to perform the test.

After several days, it was finally decided that there was a fault with the equipment within the exchange box itself, so a technician was allocated, on the
29th Dec to fix. He swapped out parts but it did not resolve his issue-- the tech
went back to the exchange box and then contacted the Help desk to find out what
other recent work had been undertaken on the box. He was advised about the
technician being there on the 23rd and checked the work that he had performed.

He discovered that the technician on the 23rd had performed his tasks
incorrectly and had impacted on my friend's line arrangements, so was then able to
correct.

I have contacted Telstra with this new info, so they are FINALLY arranging for a technician to come out, and see if the faulty work on the 23rd was responsible for my problems too.
In the meantime, the Launch plan they put me on last week is just as ineffective as my original problem, with no abiltiy to use broadband at all.

Finally, Chilling Silence, I tried the Telecom Wholesale search on my my dial-up connection, but it wouldn't give an answer at all. Hey, thanks for your ongoing interest in this query, though ... I really appreciate it (and am intrigued by what you mean about 'the big guns'!!). 		Arteis (15553)
846073 2010-01-15 05:50:00 I've just returned to nzdsl.co.nz and now got results of 221 download and 97 upload.

I would hardly say that's fast .. 		paulw (1826)
846074 2010-01-15 08:13:00 Unfortunately, Paul, even that is much faster than I'm now getting!!! My internet is now so slow I can't even open the www.nzdsl.co.nz site to check the speed in the first place!!! Arteis (15553)
846075 2010-01-16 04:16:00 After my survey of street residents, we've decided to band together to demand better service in our street . It appears several others have had problems in the past . Basically, it appears that whenever a repair is made at the cabinet, someone else gets knocked out!

Some of the comments from residents include:

"There have been a few problems with one of the hubs in the box at end
of the road, before Xmas . We had 2 - 3 periods of no broadband, once for
3 days in Dec, and prior for couple days few weeks before that . There are 4
people in this area hung off the same hub, and although I don't know who
they are, they had no broadband at the same time . Telecom cannot seem to
co-ordinate their different contractors, as at one stage there were 2
different outfits doing things at the same time, probably getting in each
other way! If you have to go through the fault finding rigmarole with
Indonesia (or wherever the call centre is at the time), just sit and watch
TV, and pretend to do what they are asking, works for me . It is nearly
always the hub at fault . I was told they were going to upgrade, and at least
for our connection, I think they have . Once the equipment was replaced, the connection was fast, 200 - 300 MB/s for a time . "

***

"When ADSL was first installed through to our Cabinet and users took it up we
suffered from what Telecom call "Backhaul" . In other words more demand than
bandwidth and an infrastructure back to the exchange that means they
effectively have to ration what users get as too many users are on the link .
My understanding is this was resolved last year with new fibre to our
cabinet and given I am now seeing Max ADSL speeds on my Modem/Router, if
there is any bottleneck, it is now at the street cabinet and/or the old
DSLAMS that it connects to at the exchange . The tech I last spoke to said
that once the exchange and cabinet equipment are upgraded to the new ADSL2+
gear, the connection to me at least should be close to the maximum for
ADSL2+ as the copper and distance from the cabinet to my place are good .

"I still think your problem Roly is with the Card/Connections they have you
on at the cabinet at its no coincidence your troubles started the same date
as T's . As P said earlier, those of us who went onto ADSL Broadband
in our area as soon as we could lever Telecom into providing it, have all
experienced problems that happen when a Tech has done work in the cabinet,
usually connecting up someone else . In your case it seems you get a
connection of sorts but at very very slow rates . That's a fault the Techs
need to fix because if you have close neighbors on reasonable speed yours
should be similar as the equipment and distance the copper runs is the same .

"It not surprising some have had lengthy periods with acceptable speed and
not service disruption, but it is a lottery . I have had in excess of a year
going well then a string of problems which all related to the cabinet . My
closest neighbors have had similar experiences . "

****

"The last series of issues I experienced was around Nov/Dec 2009 and involved 3 separate tech visits to the cabinet to replace failing cards & loose wiring connections . All a result of poor tech staff work . So I cringe when ever I see a van at the cabinet . It is a Conklin Cabinet and therefore aging but there is no reason you can't get much better than 256k like most of us are . I suspect Paradise are relating to ADSL2+ speeds which from memory theoretically reach up to 24mbits vs ADSL (our version) at about 7 . 6mbits

"Regardless of whether you are on Slingshot, Telecom or Paradise the ADSL
service here is on Telecom Wholesale infrastructure (and I'm pretty sure
that includes the Paraparaumu exchange equipment) and we are all close
enough to the street cabinet to achieve reasonable ADSL speeds maxing at
around 7 . 6 mbits downstream and 640 kbits upstream . Even half that is way
better than the Paradise plan you've been switched onto .

"I believe from chatting with Chorus techs that the feed to our cabinet is
fibre and delivers good bandwith to the cabinet but as Paradise say the
cards in the cabinet are old and only ADSL 1 so heavy demand periods will
slow us all down but it should still be better than dial up . I also suspect
they replace failures etc with old cards from upgraded cabinets so it can be
a pig in a poke with some circuits bad on one card and good on the next .
Hence fixing someone can stuff me or someone else .

"In your shoes I'd be telling Paradise that unless they can confirm a tech has checked there are no issues with you connection running from the Street Cabinet you will be switching to another ISP . " 		Arteis (15553)
846076 2010-01-18 02:25:00 Hey there,

This certainly sounds a little unusual - can you confirm that it was previously on a non Conklin unit, and then was changed to the Conklin?

I have PMed you with some questions that will help me comment on what is actually happening.

Cheers,
ADSLgeek 		adslgeek (14687)
846077 2010-01-23 04:01:00 Telecom technicians finally came today.

They spent an hour or so at the cabinet. They told me that they found I was on a faulty port, which they have now replaced. And my internet seems to be working fine now ... fiongers crossed!

Now, if only they had come out a month ago when I first reported the problem!!!! 		Arteis (15553)
846078 2010-01-23 23:28:00 Had client with the same issue with Telstra. I was on site many times, changed modems, did ping and speed tests that were near impossible due to poor speed. I suggested to Telstra I had experienced this issue many times before and in those occasions the port was faulty. After 2 months and Telstra giving the same response as you had (over capacity) and refusing to send a technician client refused to pay $$ and moved to Scorch broadband. berryb (99)
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