Copper phone network to close in Darwin CBD, but some NBN customers air complaints
/More than 700 households and businesses in Darwin are told they need to switch to the National Broadband Network (NBN) or lose their internet service, but some users of the network have said it is no better than their old service.
NBN Co will close down the old copper network in parts of Darwin's CBD in February and March, forcing users to use the new infrastructure.
But NBN users in Darwin's northern suburbs have told 105.7 ABC Darwin that NBN services have been disappointing.
Lynne from Tiwi said she had been looking forward to the NBN but had been very disappointed since switching.
She said she rang up at one point in frustration and was told that as long as it ran 50 per cent of what was promised it was good enough.
"I'm just so disappointed, it's absolutely no improvement on a poor service that I already had," she said.
Lynne said the internet speed is about the same as it was on her old network.
"It doesn't function all the time, it comes and goes a bit.
A network is only as strong as its weakest link.
"I actually had a day at home recently, and that's when I had the worst experience with it, just during the day.
"Every now and again, it'll shoot up ... I literally don't see any improvement at all."
Another frustrated customer, Stephen Miles from Creative Jewellery in Darwin's CBD, said he could not get any information about when he could be connected.
"When we ring NBN or our telephone provider, they have no information to say when somebody is going to come put the box on our wall or even outside or building to connect up," he said.
"It's very frustrating because we can't afford ... to be without the service."
New technology for Darwin's CBD
Justin Jarvis from NBN Co said the company had been working on new telecommunications infrastructure in Darwin for quite a long time.
"We have now reached the point where we will start transferring over from the old copper Telstra network to the NBN," he said.
He said any customers who did not need to switch straight away would have received a letter explaining the situation.
"If people plan for this change it will have no negative impact," he said.
"It's important that businesses particularly think about this because obviously there's a whole range of different services that operate off that traditional copper network."
Responding to Mr Miles, Mr Jarvis said if there was no box on the outside of the jeweller's building then he would not be disconnected from the internet.
He also said he was happy to follow up the problem in Tiwi.
"If there is a problem with a network and it's not operating properly, that needs to be looked at," he said.
An NBN Co spokesperson said there had been no reports of a network problem across Darwin.
Customers' technology could be a problem, says expert
There were many possible factors behind poor performance from the NBN, according to one tech expert.
Senior journalist with technology website ZDNet Josh Taylor said problems could come from a person's house, the end of the street or from a much wider NBN network issue.
"A network is only as strong as its weakest link," he said.
Mr Taylor said it was difficult to work out what the problem could be without knowing specific technical details, but he said the most likely scenario would be outdated equipment owned by the individual user.
"NBN Co might not be having any issues but you might be having quite slow speeds because the technology you're using within your home is out of date or not quite up to scratch with what the NBN has on offer."
The Abbott Government has said every premises would have access to speeds of 25 megabits per second.
But that would depend on equipment used by the consumer and the methods used by internet service providers to distribute internet access, Mr Taylor said.
Speeds would also be slower depending on whether old copper phone lines were used in the delivery of internet to consumers, he said.
One of the reasons is that we're falling down the list [is] that we're moving towards utilising a copper-based access network.
NBN Co's website said there were a variety of delivery methods used in Darwin's northern suburbs, including fixed line, fixed wireless and satellite services.
The new Darwin service would be all fibre to the premises, which delivers the fastest internet speed out of any option.
Mr Taylor said there were many complaints from customers when NBN Co rolled out optic fibre, but standards had improved.
"With the fixed wireless service that's a lot more happier, because the delivery of that has been much more successful," he said.
On Tuesday, the ABC reported findings from a US-based company's quarterly report looking at connection speeds and broadband adoption around the world, with Australia coming in at 44th.
The chairman of the US's FCC - the government body that regulates telecommunications - recently proposed redefining broadband as a speed of 25 megabits per second or higher.
Dr Mark Gregory, a network engineering expert from RMIT University, said the report, by cloud service provider Akamai, was reputable.
"The drop is happening because a lot of other countries over this period are moving towards fibre-based access networks, or they've already completed rollouts of what we would call the multi-technology mixing/mixed networks," he said.
"Whatever way you look at it, what it means is that the average speeds that Australians are enjoying are slowly becoming less than most of our competitors around the world."
Dr Gregory said the Federal Government's decision to switch from fibre-to-the-home to a mixed fibre/copper network was part of the reason for the decline.
"One of the reasons is that we're falling down the list [is] that we're moving towards utilising a copper-based access network," he said.