Look out world, I'll be blogging more nonsense again!
This title is the bongly bongly deng diggy diggy
Having lived with tethered internet and one of those misleadingly titled Open Network dongles, this morning our new modem arrived. We connected it up and... we have DSL! After a two month hiatus, we've now returned to the 21st century.
Given our home line is with Optus we went with them for the DSL, but we paid a larger deposit (or whatever it was) so we're not locked into a contract. Our attempts to have service provisioned with Internode and TPG were fruitless, but mysteriously Optus had us online within two days.
Not knowing anything about Aussie telcos I can only assume they were able to pull strings that resellers couldn't, I don't know. Maybe I need to get a bloke called Andrew or Alex to explain this! In Singapore we always had direct cable so all this reseller stuff is foreign and weird and strange and all that.
Your strange national customs confuse me
Maybe we'll churn after this billing month (a term I just learned, makes it sound like your ISP has stomach problems), but for now we're just glad to have something! Once again I can blog nonsense on a more regular basis ^_^.
For those interested or who have nothing better to do, I first discussed the problems with provisioning internet at this address back on the 14th of September. We'd been trying since August.
There's a whole decision tree of reasons that basically all amount to how evil Telstra is. Any ISP in America can switch on DSL over the phone in minutes I'm told, but they have other anti-competitive issues about fiber/cable to each apartment building. However Telstra make it painful if not impossible - they were recently convicted of flat out lying about if/when resellers could sign people up to exchanges which Telstra customers could of course sign up immediately.
Firstly, you can check the status of Internode(Agile)/Telstra/Optus @ https://secure.internode.on.net/webtools/dsl-coverage-table and TPG at http://www.tpg.com.au/dslam/
It's strange that Internode couldn't connect you because they have all 3 networks to try you on. We had some crazy phone setup here and Internode sorted it all out with us having minimal contact with Telstra. Unlike the time they had to actually replace the phone line (something you would think a telco would have a Standard Operating Procedure for)...
I read this hilarious essay recently that outlines similar DSL hijinks: http://www.acma.gov.au/webwr/_assets/main/lib311946/11_jonothan_borwein-reconnecting_the_customer.pdf
I'll have to download that PDF to read tomorrow when my brain is working, thank you ^^.
In regards to the status of Internode and TPG, both claimed our area was available and serviceable according to their sites, I made sure to check before going through the process of provisioning. Both reported problems, which is weird. In Adelaide it took a long time but we did get Internode eventually.
We really do need to whip Telstra into shape!
Hm. I also wonder what happened. It seems very strange to me that Internode couldn't get you connected: I wonder what the problems were?
Aw. I tried to send you a DM but Twitter says I not allowed because it is stupid.
[...] barely qualifies as a post, but I’m simply far too excited to contain myself. Having had DSL just provisioned today, this is what I’ve been able to [...]