Paradise lost...?
For almost three months now TelstraClear
broadband users have been enduring what I can only describe as an
on-going series of micro-outages -- with no apparent end in sight. They
manifest themselves either as an uncharacteristically slow response, or
no response at all. Here, for example, is what I got when I went to
check my email this morning...
The second time I clicked the Get Mail button, it arrived.
From a technical viewpoint, the network seems to lose all awareness of you. Here's what I got pinging Paradise at 11:45 this morning...
Ping tries for around 30 seconds before giving up, so the outage here is about a minute. Then it suddenly connects.
To be fair, TelstraClear sent out letters in early December saying they were going to be working on the network and that monthly charges would be discounted by $20 for the inconvenience. But that was nearly three months ago and the micro-outages seem to be getting worse.
In an attempt to find out how long this situation's going to continue, I logged a question with TelstraClear's online help system. I was promptly informed by a Customer Care representative that Question Reference No. 080207-000123 had been forwarded "to the team that will assist with your request. One of our representatives will be in touch with you shortly."
That was more than a fortnight ago.
I tried phoning the Helpdesk this morning to chase it up, but was told wait times were currently 33 minutes so promptly gave up.
Is anyone else experiencing these sorts of problems? Can anyone -- inisde or outside TelstraClear -- tell me what's going on and how long these upgrades or repairs are expected to take?
In the March issue of PC World I'll be exploring the new Telecommunications Disputes Resolution service. I just didn't think I'd be needing it quite so soon.
PC World is New Zealand’s top selling computing and technology magazine.
Comments
An interesting article which shows how *utterly pathetic* our so-called "broadband" is -
http://www.physorg.com/news123046442.html
It is about an Internet satellite that Japan has just launched. A quote from the article -
"The agency (JAXA) said it hoped to enable data transmission of up to 1.2 gigabytes per second at a low cost across Japan and in 19 different places in Southeast Asia."
1.2 **GIGAbytes per second!** And here I am, going over the moon if my downloads reach 400 *kilo*bytes per sec.
Posted by: Andy | February 25, 2008 9:26 PM
Ive been with TCL for years, they did go thru a rough patch and seemed to upgrade certain areas without notifying the customer, changing ip addresses etc. A tip is if you ring them and dont get a resolution to your problem, keep ringing back until you get a technician who can resolve your problem on the spot, most issues are usually on their side, especially if your connection just suddenly drops with no apparent reason.
Posted by: ned | February 25, 2008 6:34 PM
Getting the same problem with my TCL cable connection in Southgate, Wellington. Wife blames me when she cannot get access to e-mail, but now I can prove that it is not my fault.
Posted by: Anonymous | February 25, 2008 12:43 PM
Hi -
Oddly enough, things have improved for me, but yes, I had been getting the same thing, up until about two weeks ago. Then, things suddenly seemed to improve, and I can't remember the last time my connection went down.
What I *have* noticed though is that my connection speeds have been pretty slow. Downloads almost always hover around 50-60 kB/sec.
Yeah (sigh) - Oh for the speeds in places like South Korea, where (iirc) around 50-60 *M*b/sec is normal. We'd need fibre-to-the-home for that, though, and I don't think that'll be coming any time soon!
I'd be keen to see you do a post on FTTH - getting that here is essential to us moving up the speed rankings - otherwise we might as well give up now.
Posted by: Andy | February 23, 2008 1:14 PM
I'm using Paradise via Telstraclear (PDQ Max ) down here in Napier and have experienced no such outages. But I'm moving house soon ( staying with Telstraclear ) so hopefully the good service will stay the same. I will however comment about TC's help lines. While trying to get the existing telephone line and PDQ changed over to the new occupant's details I was told there would be 3-5 days of no phone while one account was stopped and the new one opened! I told them that was 'pathetic' and that we could transfer the line back to Telecom without service interruption. Only then after mentioning the competition was I transferred to a very helpful guy who did the change over on the spot.
Posted by: chris | February 23, 2008 8:54 AM