[AusNOG] NBN Action (potentially semi-political post)

[Ross Wheeler]

Really just putting this "out there" for ideas, thoughts, directions...

There is signigicant and growing unrest in the community over the nbn - 
what it's costing, what it's delivering, etc.

In some areas I'm sure it's doing an adequate job.
In other areas, and to some customers, it isn't.

I cite by way of example, an individual consumer whos only option was 
nbn fixed wireless. The fastest service available to them from any vendor 
was listed as 50/20. (Well, "up to" in small print of course)

The delivered service - which has been tested with now 4 completely 
different and unrelated RSPs - has been entirely unacceptable, with peak 
speeds (2-3am) reaching a blistering 25Mbps down and 10Mbps up (50%), 
while peak-use-time (pretty much 3pm to 11pm) that drops to as low as 
1.2Mbps down and about 2Mbps up.

This isn't uncommon from what I'm hearing.

The thing that really gets under my skin is that virtually all the public 
reporting on this blames the RSP for under-provisioning CVC. The nbn 
themselves of course can't be reached directly by end-users, and widely, 
loudly and constantly blame RSPs. I have sufficient evidence from 
different suppliers to prove that in some cases this simply is not the 
case, and it's in fact congestion between the POI and the customer (I'm 
talking here specifically with reference to fixed-wireless, but the same 
problems may exist with other technologies).

Through their ongoing "mis-information" campaign, the end users are 
getting shafted. Many carriers/RSPs are probably happy to maintain the 
current situation because they blame nbn, nbn blame the RSP, and nobody 
can prove how much blame resides with either, and eventually just give up.

Complaints to the TIO cost us, as an industry. WE have to wear the costs, 
even when it is outside our control. Where WE buy more capacity in an 
attempt to alleviate the congestion, in many cases it does nothing to 
address the problem (because it wasn't our CVC in the first place) so 
we're getting ripped off by nbn just as the customer is.

The ACCC seem to be doing nothing of any substance. Oh, sure, they're 
going to fund some end-user speed-monitoring devices, but it still doesn't 
necessarily show where the problem is. Sure, they're telling RSPs to 
advertise realistic "peak use" speeds rather than headline "up to" speeds, 
but we're still not addressing the root of the problem.

Is there any interest, cohesive push, group or collective with any desire 
to bring pressure to bear to increase transparency and actually get the 
steaming pile of sh!t that is the current nbn (company, staff, 
infrastructure, policy, etc, etc) to a position that is actually what was 
intended?

I believe it will require political directives. As it stands, there is no 
desire or incentive for nbn to change the way it is, and lots of reasons 
for them to want to continue with the secret, hidden, non-disclosure, 
maximm profit for minimum effort policies they've had for ages.

We - as industry players and Australian citizens both - deserve better, 
but I don't see it happening unless enough of us make a noise about it.

(Or should I just resign myself to a world where jamtins and string are 
the peak of technical innovation?)

R.