I’m chatting to business owners every day about the benefits which high speed business internet brings to businesses.
Time and time again, I hear “I’ll wait for the NBN”.
Little do they know that the National Broadband Network is a consumer grade product which isn’t fit for business purpose.
NBN have failed to explain that you might not always get what you pay for. Part of the Fibre to the Node technology is “Co-Existence”.
What does that mean to you as a customer?
You can order a 100/40Mbps service, but NBN only have to guarantee 12/1Mbps. (See Here Section 3.2b)
Yep, you read that right, you order and pay for a Ferrari and you get delivered a rusty old Holden Barina.
Why do they do this though?
The reason is very simple. NBN is using the existing Telstra Copper Network which already has other “tenants” on it.
NBN are moving in next door and “co-existing” on the network. Part of that is they have to play nicely with others.
This means they can’t cause interference to another carriers’ network.
By co-existing, they have to run lower power on their equipment which affects the speed which they can deliver you.
Here’s a recent response from NBN in regards to this;
This FTTN service has been identified as being delivered to an NBN Co-Existence site and your service is achieving the objective layer 2 speed, as stipulated in the NBN Co Ethernet Bitstream Service Product Description.
Due to the presence of legacy copper services (ie: co-existence) at the site and due to the subsequent potential for interference to occur, speeds have been limited by NBNCo to ensure service stability.Checks of the networks have been carried out to ensure you are achieving the minimum layer 2 speed for your service (as specified in the NBN Co Ethernet Bitstream Service Product Description) and that there are no additional issues contributing to the speed limitations.As such, and until the Co-Existence period is deemed to be over by NBNCo, your service will continue have a guaranteed minimum layer 2 bit rate of 12/1 Mbps. Please note that this not a guarantee of the layer 3 throughput your service is capable of achieving.If you have ordered a service with a higher profile than this, your service will have the expected profile applied automatically once NBNCo declares the co-existence period to be over.
Please note that we are unable to provide an ETA regarding when the cessation of the co-existence period at this site will be declared by NBNCo.
So, there you go, straight from the horses mouth. We’ll take your money, we won’t deliver you the service you paid for.
The Australian Consumer Watchdog, the ACCC, needs to step in and do something here. Surely, under Australian Consumer Law, they can’t keep getting away with delivering lipstick on a pig.
NBN need to stop blaming us, the ISP, for the poor design and implementation of their network and start taking responsibility for the complete and utter shemozzle they are creating for businesses.
We’re here to help businesses with real business grade fibre solutions which are not delivered over the NBN.
If you value uptime, speed guarantees and happy staff and want to get what you pay for then please reach out to my team. We’re here to help businesses achieve good outcomes with the right product.