Telephony Blues

[kerravonsen]

Well, it looks as if I might have a saga similar to the one that hawkeye7 went through, well, hopefully not as bad as that.

The Story So Far:

On the 19th, I applied for ADSL with WestNet. I was always intending to eventually get ADSL, but the installation costs made me keep on putting it off. However, November-December seems to be the time of Christmas specials, for, lo, I discovered that WestNet (one of the ISPs on my list of possibles) had an installation special, so I decided to apply post-haste.

One week later, I was told that the application had failed, but they didn't say why. They said they would get back to me today. I was puzzled about why it had failed, because I surely couldn't be too far from the exchange, because my father had just gotten ADSL last week, and they live basically one block away.

I also had a dilemma, because I wanted to cancel my cable TV, because it was costing me too much, I didn't use it enough, and another way of saving money would be to go back to one phone line, and manage on that until I did get ADSL. I'd been putting this off, and putting it off, but if I was going to be paying for ADSL, then I darned well better turn off the cable TV. So I determined to do it today. But I also needed to know the reason for the ADSL failure, so that I could talk to the Optus person about what to do about it, if, for example, I had something on my line that needed to be turned off.

So I rang the WestNet people instead of waiting for them to get back to me. And I discovered why my ADSL application failed. It's because, when I went over to Optus, I also went over to their network, which means I can't get ADSL from anyone! My only broadband choice is OptusNet cable. My only choice, so long as I'm with Optus. Well, cable may be faster, but they don't allow you to run servers, and that's one of the things that is motivating me to change to ADSL in the first place. I don't ruddy care if cable is ten times faster than ADSL (or whatever), if I'm forced to be Consumer instead of a Participant, I Don't Want It.

However, I hadn't realized the full extent of the problem when I rang up Optus and cancelled my TV. The Optus lady tried very hard to persuade me to get OptusNet, but I wouldn't be pressured, I wanted to find out more, first (which is just as well, because at that point I didn't know that they didn't allow servers). However, she did persuade me to keep my second line, by making me a special offer on its rental which would last until August next year. It probably comes under the category of "specials offered to try to keep customers from leaving".

However, then I surfed around and found out the Awful Truth; that in order to get what I wanted, I would have to go with ADSL, not cable, and in order to do that, I would have to switch to Telstra, that it would probably be a full $209 connection fee, and that it would probably take 21 business days(!!!) (sigh)

I then went and talked to Telstra (gee, I have been good with phones today! Probably because I'm mad...) and she said that it probably wouldn't cost more than $22 to re-connect me, seeing as my house was originally wired to Telstra in the first place.

However, I haven't applied to switch yet, because I don't want the Optus people getting too confused with too many requests on the same day... Tomorrow, maybe.

Tomorrow is also the last day of my cable TV. I must remember to watch "Seconds From Disaster" tonight. Ever since I was stuck at home with my heel trouble, I've gotten much more interested in Discovery Channel and National Geographic Channel. However, there's just certain favourite programs I've been watching, and it's gotten to the point where I've been watching them long enough to start repeating them, so it's just as well I'm stopping. There's only so many times one can see the same episode of "Air Crash Investigation" or "The FBI Files" or "The New Detectives" or "Tales of the Living Dead"...
(What, me morbid?)

Comments

[hawkeye7.livejournal.com]

At $26.50, a second Telstra phone line costs nearly as much as bottom-of-the-line ADSL. You also don't have to pay the 15c per call connection fee with ADSL, which can easily make up the difference. Installation was free at my parents' house in Melbourne. (Although I ultimately went for cable there, it was free for ADSL as well).

The reasons why ADSL applications fail are frustrating, especially when the Telstra sales people do not have access to the screen which explains why. One of the guys at work lives in a townhouse complex where other townhouses have ADSL but can't get it. Apparently all the ADSL ports at the exchange have been taken. A while back Telstra said that it would not allow more than 12% of the customers on a single exchange to have ADSL but since then have relented a bit. However, he has to wait until they upgrade the exchange next March.

[kerravonsen]

Oh yes, once I actually do get it installed ADSL will save me money, because instead of having to pay for (a) extra line rental (b) cost-per-call (c) ISP fees, it just comes down to ISP fees, which, though more expensive than dialup fees for anything that's decent, will probably end up being less than, or at worst, the same as, what I'm paying already, with a lot better features.