Smoke Signals V telstra

[gerry]

At present smoke signals are winning. I live on a bush block 23km from Australias busiest highway, halfway between Sydney and Melbourne. I have Parkinsons Disease so some form of communication would be nice. There is no Telstra landline connected to the house which is about 200 metres from the road.

I contacted Telstra and they did a search and cofirmed that there was no cable to the house and it would cost $299 to connect. FANTASTIC I THOUGHT. I then applied and the catch, I have to pay for trenching. They gave me a number to ring to organise a quote only to be told by that company that they dont do that. Ring Telstra again, get the same information again, when I told him they dont do it off he goes to his supervisor, back with fresh information, you have to ring dial before you dig 0011 (which should have been 1100). Ring them, no we dont have anything to do with that, maybe you could ring your council.

As mobiles dont work either its back to smoke signals. What happens on total fire ban days?????

[jaymes]

how are you accessing the internet? is your download speed up to using VOIP (voice over internet phone)?? bypass Telstra altogether 😉

[robatclare]

Telstra have to provide a landline (or equivalent) to residents in Australia, but the trenching required is a way of them getting out of it.

How far do you have to trench? I’m sure the council would have a list of contractors that you can get a quote from.

Mobile might be the way to go. If there is Vodafone coverage you can get a $0 per month plan through Exetel where you just pay for the calls you make.

VOIP is another option, but good quality is generally only via ADSL, which requires a phone line and therefore Telstra and trenching.

[Shangri La]

Agree with Jaymes, if you get internet now go wiith voip, otherwise a mobile on a plan that suits your needs. It may cost you a fortune to get trenches and then in a few years land lines might be like the dinosaura. Not to mention the fact that monthly line rental is a waste of money if you can get by on a mobile.

[bill]

I have disconnected my landline and use mobile plus skype. If I couldn’t get mobile I would sign up as a paying skype customer, get a phone number off them, and it would be just like phone. Telstra are to be avoided if possible is my experience.

[gerry]

Thanks for the comments. I have a mobile with an excellent pre-paid $50 per month and as long as I recharge before the due date I dont lose any credit I still have. The problem being unless you are standing on the right spot, facing the right direction and holding your mouth right you dont get reception. And that spot changes and is very rarely inside. So if its raining and cold you have to stand outside to get reception even then there are no guarantees. I have broadband internet connection via satalite using the Australian Government Broadband guarantee but it is very slow and the server dosent support voip. I thought I might be able to change companies to Activ8 who’s system supports voip but their equipment is not compatable and I would have to pay the full cost to change over.

Today I enquired with a hire company as to the cost of hiring a trench digger and found the cost very acceptable, so back to Telstra to see if I can do the job myself. The run a round of phone calls again and the result was, we will send you out a plan of where the trench must go.

Thats fine except its all done from an office somewhere without looking at the block , so im waiting to see what they come up with.

[swaggie]

Thanks for the info about activ8. The guy who owns the station I’m moving to has an Activ8 satellite connection, but in general chatting to people they’ve said it might not support voip. Interesting to know that Activ8 does though 🙂

Good luck with the trenching and your connection. Is it a Kanga or similar you’ve looked into hiring? I used to work for a company who had one. They are like a mini bob-cat, and very easy to drive.

One of KRudds election promises was to improve internet in a country that has the worst internet in a developed country. Still waiting for these upgrades to happen though…

[gemjill]

G’day

dont’ know if you watch “Hungry beast” on abc last night, but they did an experiment to get a film from one place to another (about 150k) one method via telstra broadband, one by car and one by carrier pigeon.

The pigeon got there one hour faster than the car and the broadband download never actually succeeded.

this experiment was first done in South Africa with exactly the same result

so there you go,

cheers

[Kazbah]

Heys Gerry 🙂

Before I go too much further I’ll let you know I work for Telstra, although this is my own opinion etc. Feel free to contact me via private message if anything I say sparks interest!

Telstra does have a product called “NGWL” or Next G Wireless Link. Pretty much, it’s using NextG as a home phone etc. So that may be an option if there is NextG near you. You say you live near a busy highway, which I’m guessing is the Hume. You would live in what’s called a “TCW” or Telstra Country Wide area, and there should be an office nearby, in Wagga I’m sure. Again, feel free to contact me offline and I can steer you in the right direction.

Good luck!

[robatclare]

Kazbah wrote:

Telstra does have a product called “NGWL” or Next G Wireless Link.

I thought that this was only available when Telstra offered it to you i.e. their choice?

It sounds like Telstra have said that there is copper available, so the chance of Telstra supplying $1000 worth of hardware for free and then using the mobile network at fixed line prices seems remote.

I have a neighbour with this and he was only offered it because there wasn’t any copper left along the road and it would cost Telstra too much to supply it. (They also provided and installed a Yagi NextG antenna for free.)

I agree with the TCW option though. This should be the first step, rather than going through the metro call centre.

[Rebecca80]

Not sure if this will be of benefit – we have trouble with getting landline and ended up with a wireless landline through optus. Plugs into a power point rather than the phone plug in the wall. This uses the mobile network so won’t work eveywhere but must have stronger reception or something because our phone works even though mum’s mobile doesn’t.

Might be worth looking at or not – sorry I’m a complete technophobe.

Rebecca

[Kazbah]

Hi Gerry,

Thanks for the phone call / email – I have sent it off and sent you a copy of what I sent, let me know what happens!

kaz

[trandto]

gerry wrote:

Thanks for the comments. I have a mobile with an excellent pre-paid $50 per month and as long as I recharge before the due date I dont lose any credit I still have. The problem being unless you are standing on the right spot, facing the right direction and holding your mouth right you dont get reception. And that spot changes and is very rarely inside.

Could you try a an external aerial (on the roof of the house) and a cable to your mobile phone if it supports it ? If not it might be something to consider, changing phones to one that supports an external aerial. You would have to disconnet the aerial to wander aroudn with the phone.

A mobile booster as a solution ? I am not even sure of their legality though

[gerry]

Thanks Trandto

Have tried that but it didnt make much difference.

[espinay2]

Rebecca how do you find the optus wireless phone? Is it reasonably economical when compared to just a mobile? We don’t have a landline here, but do have good mobile reception. I have optus wireless broadband and got an inzone modem so we could use several computers on it if we wanted. Noticed when I got it that you can also use it for wireless telephone!

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