Waiting for NBN? 'Be careful what you wish for'

"THE NBN service? Slow, unreliable, outdated and impossible to redress without hassling the provider every day."

Residents warns of her troubles with NBN broadband. Picture: BrianAJackson

DISAPPOINTED East Lismore residents should be careful what they wish for as they long for their NBN connection.

On February 25, I agreed to a new contract with Telstra/NBN for a basic internet and home phone service.

I stressed that I must not lose my home phone (copper wire landline supplying a phone in my house as well as my garden office).

"Rest assured Madam, you will not lose your landline," I was told.

On 28 February I connected to the service and have not had a reliable phone service since.

My office phone is connected to the NBN modem and works when it feels like it, but the house phone cannot be connected. NBN offers one connection only.

The internet service is also intermittent, with over 70 drop outs within the first week of the NBN 'service'.

When we changed our plan we had been NBN ready since 2017 and our deadline for signing on was approaching.

What I did not know was that I would lose one of my phones, the other would be consistently unreliable, and that in a blackout it would not work at all (pity resident volunteer Judi Lindsay waiting for her call to an emergency in a blackout; it will never come with NBN).

Being within sight of the tower makes no difference to the quality of the service, apparently.

With any luck, this week our home phone service will be restored to the Telstra copper wire and our two phones will work again after 10 weeks.

The NBN service? Slow, unreliable, outdated and impossible to redress without hassling the provider every day. Hopefully it will be different at East Lismore.

Robyn Gray,

Eureka.