One in four households capable of top NBN speeds

The disclosure to a parliamentary committee revealed when the rollout concludes in 2020, three out of four fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) customers are not expected to be able to access its fastest download speeds of 100 megabits a second (Mbps).

The FTTN connection uses fibre to the nearest neighbourhood node with copper wire to the premises and accounts for the majority of connections in Orange.

Jim Halsey spoke to the Central Western Daily a year ago about his attempts to access a 100Mbps plan, saying his speeds dropped as low as 3Mbps in the evening. 

After about 30 hours on the phone in six months, Mr Halsey now has a reliable service, but he said it was unclear which of the measures by NBN and his internet service provider (ISP) Optus fixed the problem.

“We replaced the modem three times,” he said. 

“They rewired part of the copper and they changed the fibre node cards in the box.

“It’s cost them a help to placate me so the cost for everyone else must be horrendous.”

Midstate Communications’ Adam Irwin said residents were increasingly approaching him for help setting up their home service when they didn’t know what to do with their modem or were confused by call centres. 

Mr Irwin said most businesses opted for a 50Mbps plan, but speeds were hampered by a lack of bandwidth because NBN had added extra charges and ISPs had not purchased enough.

“Everything’s online, including the phone, and that can make a difference between a clear phone call and a choppy one, which is not acceptable,” he said.

But he said drop-outs were the main problem. 

“To reconnect takes five minutes and in that time, phone calls are gone, internet connections drop out – you want reliability first and speed second,” he said.

Councillor Jeff Whitton said he was waiting for more news on a possible writedown on the value of the NBN before he escalated his idea for a community body to take over the ‘last mile’. 

He said several linesmen were leaving the industry because much of the work was completed by companies without the correct qualifications.