Telstra-can the BS get any worse? (long winded)

[Dabombinable]

Its been well known for some time in Australia that since (non US) Netflix became popular our entire countries internet infrastructure has been struggling heavily, with people going from close to the advertised speed during the day to near dialup at night (think of it this way, your very lucky if you get 8Mbps). I decided to have a look at just how much Telstra made in the 2014 Financial year, so I hit google and found this interesting article: http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/telstra-sweetens-dividend-on-43b-profit-20140813-103u25.html

(Now to be clear, Telstra is by far the largest ISP in Australia with the associated overcharging for their services+overseas support centres) I was stunned to find that after taxes their profit was $4.2.8 billion, with their revenue increasing to $25.3 billion. And that's without the $1 billion share buy-back as well. This to me seems a bit odd as in the past Telstra has acted like beggars when asked to do something about the state of their Internet infrastructure which is about as good as 2 cans and a string.

There has been all sorts of odd occurrences, such as one Telstra manager after a family member spent 2 hours on the phone trying to get broadband sorted out that “Ports can't be assigned from the next street because the networks are of a different age, and your street has pair gain” as well as later on “we will not be upgrading the exchange because its only 25 years old, and too new to upgrade”. Now the manager was outright lying about the age of the networks since the other street is part of the same estate and was literally the same age, with all houses listed as having broadband connections, with enough ports assigned to that street free to have 2 lines per house. Then there is the idiocy in regards to the age of the exchange. 25 years ago (in 2012) the Internet was only just getting started. That alone is an invalid excuse for refusing to upgrade any part of their network.

 

However, it seems that Telstra is investing more money on the as it happens, more expensive mobile network as they can get away with charging large amount for internet useage. For example, in 2013 Telstra charged $180 for 12Gb of prepaid data, then in 2014 that changed to $200 for the same amount, and finally this year to match a competitor, $140 for 16GB (their previous 8GB plan). That's not the worst of their overcharging as for a grand total of $150 per month you can get 25GB with a shaped speed of 56kbps/8KBps/dialup, with non of the reliability. And do you know the funny thing? While costing people more to use than Telstra's cable based network, its also far newer.

I don't know what other people think, but what Telstra is doing is squeezing as much as they can from their customers while promising something on 1 hand and never delivering (about them not delivering, they will tell you that they can set up ADSL2 for your home, send you the router, and when you go to activate it 'oh sorry, ADSL is unavailable for your home due to your streets pair gain. Pair Gai, a cost cutting measure to help maximise profits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pair_gain).

 

Long story short, Telstra is making enough profit each year to upgrade their cable based infrastructure and keep it maintained, however they refuse to do that so they can increase profits with the lack of upgrades in some areas forcing people to pay a lot more for the very unstable mobile internet.

Please leave your thought below, and I hope I didn't make this seem like too much of a rant, I've been typing it for the last hour and a half.

 

 

 

[slightlyjaded]

I'm regional Australia...According to my provider (spintel) my advertised download is supposed to be 13 MB/s download using telstra's network, they were most surprised when I laughed in their face and told them my actual maximum ever download speed was 2MB/s.....Unlimited plan, no shaping, and yeah, I'm about 100km's away from anything anyone would actually consider broadband.

 

It isn't in telstra's best interest to provide quality infrastructure while they can get away with selling subpar internet at a premium that would make other countries disband the company under certain consumer focused laws, or at least levy hefty fines for not delivering on their promises when telstra was privatised.

[YT2002]

SNIP

 

ITs because telstra cant be bothered putting money into making better internet because their new focus is helping ballet students. All they do know is sponsor so that they get peoples attention, but then they give us this. Luckily will be getting NBN and 100Mbps!

[Dabombinable]

I'm regional Australia...According to my provider (spintel) my advertised download is supposed to be 13 MB/s download using telstra's network, they were most surprised when I laughed in their face and told them my actual maximum ever download speed was 2MB/s.....Unlimited plan, no shaping, and yeah, I'm about 100km's away from anything anyone would actually consider broadband.

 

It isn't in telstra's best interest to provide quality infrastructure while they can get away with selling subpar internet at a premium that would make other countries disband the company under certain consumer focused laws, or at least levy hefty fines for not delivering on their promises when telstra was privatised.

Even close to cities the speeds can be that bad.

[burnttoastnice]

This telstra ISP sounds like a group of turds. They should really go nibble each other up the rear end. In a digital day and age, why would an ISP do something like this? Seriously, if I was one of their customers, I would probably be saving up to take them to court. Over here it's £65 a month for UNLIMITED EVERYTHING, including access to WiFi (via login) at other BT customers' premises. The fact that you guys are being ripped off, especially for less-than-ADSL speeds, really sucks.

[elecxonica]

Yeah, I looked into them for my mobile a little while ago, they're not much better. They were starting plans around $40 where Optus and Vodafone were around $25-30. 

 

EDIT - I just looked it up, $55 is the starting price, and you don't even get unlimited calls.

[Dabombinable]

This telstra ISP sounds like a group of turds. They should really go nibble each other up the rear end. In a digital day and age, why would an ISP do something like this? Seriously, if I was one of their customers, I would probably be saving up to take them to court. Over here it's £65 a month for UNLIMITED EVERYTHING, including access to WiFi (via login) at other BT customers' premises. The fact that you guys are being ripped off, especially for less-than-ADSL speeds, really sucks.

I've actually noticed that almost all other countries also get unlimited mobile internet plans as well for less (currency converted) than what Telstra charges. I mean, WTF is going on?

[Dabombinable]

Yeah, I looked into them for my mobile a little while ago, they're not much better. They were starting plans around $40 where Optus and Vodafone were around $25-30. 

 

EDIT - I just looked it up, $55 is the starting price, and you don't even get unlimited calls.

They seem to be trying to compete with Optus at the moment-but they are definately monopolising coverage (I take Optus's coverage boasting with a grain of salt) and therefore charging shitloads.

[slightlyjaded]

on paper it's a duopoly, in reality vodaphone isn't competition, and optuses own coverage sucks. For anyone outside of the capital cities there are only two choices, one sucks, and you won't get reception on the other.

[Hoppa]

I'd switch to optus in a heart beat if they offered cable in my area.

Telstra gave us an extra 500gb a month 'for free' totalling in 1TB a month to make it sound like they care (they know we don't ever use over 400gb a month)

 

But that doesn't matter because I'm stuck at 2.4mbps aka 300KB/s upload - in which they throttle on a regular basis, meaning sometimes my 100mbps download is useless if I can't even shake hands with another server.

 

Well done telstra, you're the real MVP.

[Dabombinable]

I'd switch to optus in a heart beat if they offered cable in my area.

Telstra gave us an extra 500gb a month 'for free' totalling in 1TB a month to make it sound like they care (they know we don't ever use over 400gb a month)

 

But that doesn't matter because I'm stuck at 2.4mbps aka 300KB/s upload - in which they throttle on a regular basis, meaning sometimes my 100mbps download is useless if I can't even shake hands with another server.

 

Well done telstra, you're the real MVP.

Your upload speeds with Telstra are that good? :blink:

[Hoppa]

Your upload speeds with Telstra are that good? :blink:

if I'm lucky

But I know what you're saying. Compared to other people in australia I have fantastic internet.

Which is pretty sad.

[Dabombinable]

if I'm lucky

But I know what you're saying. Compared to other people in australia I have fantastic internet.

Which is pretty sad.

Well....it just hit 10:16pm and my internet suddenly jumped to full speed. There is no way in hell that many people go offline at the same time in my neighbourhood. (Nvidia driver just went from 50% downloaded at 16KBps to 100% at 1.1MBps-massive speed jump)

[Technous285]

This telstra ISP sounds like a group of turds. They should really go nibble each other up the rear end. In a digital day and age, why would an ISP do something like this? Seriously, if I was one of their customers, I would probably be saving up to take them to court. Over here it's £65 a month for UNLIMITED EVERYTHING, including access to WiFi (via login) at other BT customers' premises. The fact that you guys are being ripped off, especially for less-than-ADSL speeds, really sucks.

Compared to a US company like Comcast or Verizon; Telstra is the teleco wing (they run and maintain the backbone infrastructure such as phonelines and things like payphones along with providing your landline/mobile phone services), Bigpond is the ISP wing & Fotxtel is the PayTV wing.

[Dabombinable]

Compared to a US company like Comcast or Verizon; Telstra is the teleco wing (they run and maintain the backbone infrastructure such as phonelines and things like payphones along with providing your landline/mobile phone services), Bigpond is the ISP wing & Fotxtel is the PayTV wing.

The funny thing with Bigpond-Telstra treats them like a completely seperate entity.

[carguy86]

STOP COMPLAINIMG ABOUT 1-8MBPS!!!!!! (i get 2-30kbps)

[Virus__]

It's funny, I know Telstra is pretty much the worst Telco in this country to deal with, and i've always found that over the 15 or so years i've had to deal with them. But sadly they're now the cheapest on offer for me for line rental, ADSL2+ with a decent cap which for me is 500GB, I pay $90 for that. Any of the other ISP's i've looked at charge that much alone for the ADSL connection & then you need line rental on top of that, with either them so there's as little at $30 through them or $22 to Telstra, and that is always without any bundled calls, so yeah.

 

But saying that, at least there's decent MVNO's that rent their 3G to have my mobile with. Granted it is not 4G or even their Next G, but eh, it's enough.

 

I also think i'm lucky, I get at most like 10mbps download, but i'm probably the only person in the street or even entire neighbourhood who actually downloads stuff and uses Netflix, so I never really experience a bad connection, apart from that time lightning fried my phone line, but even so Telstra were out the same day we reported it to replace it.

 

Maybe round up a couple thousand salty Australians and call up Google?

Eh, Google was asked if they had intentions to ever expand into Australia, their answer was no

[comicsansms]

The best i got was 1.1MB/s that was @ 10PM on a Tuesday that was a school day WITH DODO!!!!

 

Optus Sucked, I use to get 60KB/s on average and NO HIGHER THAN 100KB/s

 

Now with Dodo I am getting on average 300KB/s and 1.1MB/s at the best.

 

It also throttles like a bitch!!!

[Dabombinable]

The best i got was 1.1MB/s that was @ 10PM on a Tuesday that was a school day WITH DODO!!!!

 

Optus Sucked, I use to get 60KB/s on average and NO HIGHER THAN 100KB/s

 

Now with Dodo I am getting on average 300KB/s and 1.1MB/s at the best.

 

It also throttles like a bitch!!!

Point is, Australia's internet infrastructure is crumbling, and the main ISP who makes shitloads of profit only bothers to upgrade their most expensive to use network.

[comicsansms]

Point is, Australia's internet infrastructure is crumbling, and the main ISP who makes shitloads of profits only bothers to upgrade their most expensive to use network.

I know that.

Everyone is SHIT!!!

Unless you have NBN you ARE FUCKED!!!

[Guest]

Even after conversion...

My $65 U.S. Unlimited Sprint plan is still better than that, and I get 50 down.