'Mobile Broadband Backup' Service is 10 times faster than phone line ADSL

[Stewart_Oxley]

Hi

As they say, a picture paints a thousand words. We are 1.6km from the exchange and internet is terrible. If I, for example, am syncing dropbox nothing else in the house works. Our 15 year old complains constantly about not being able to compete online due to poor upload speeds. I tested the connection just now while alone with no other devices working. As usual, 7Mb DL and < 1Mb UL. I thought I'd test the emergency backup connection on my new Gateway Pro and WOW! Massive speed increase with 26Mb DL and 10Mb UL. So my question is this:

Given the appalling quality of internet in the area, and the glacial pace at which NBN in being rolled out, Can I simply leave my phone line disconnected and use this mobile service only?  I do NOT have a telephone, so lack of voice is not an issue. 

I did read that it was for outages only but the ridiculous situation that a backup service is 10 times better than what I am paying for would, in my opinion, be grounds for discussion with the ACCC ?

Thoughts ? 

[DrQ]

Official the backup is meant to only work at up to 6/1Mbps, so if you do continue to use it only, you might find that it drops to the speed that they advertise the backup to work at.

ADSL has a maximum upload of 1Mbps so that in itself is hardly a surprise and is nothing that Telstra can really do about it, it is a technological limitation, ADSL download is maxed at 20Mbps as well, so even if you were at the exchange it wouldn't be as fast as the mobile broadband.

Mobile Broadband is a part of the LTE, or Long Term Evolution 4G which means it is constantly evolving and changing and getting better. Telstra's 4G network is amongst the biggest in the world, and is theoretical capable of speeds up to 1Gbps, or 1000Mbps, so when compared to ADSL it is unsurprising that you are getting better speeds on a 4G connection, especially since you are very lucky that it hasn't restricted to the speed it is meant to restrict too...

Also 7/1 for ADSL is actually not that bad of a speed, if you are 1.5KM from the exchange directly, that could be substantially longer in cable length which would likely make it within reason for the technological limitations of ADSL.

Honestly, given that you are trying to say you should get speeds over the theoretical maximum speed of an ADSL service I would be surprised if the ACCC did anything except tell you that you are being ridiculous. Even if Telstra wanted to provide you those speeds ADSL connections cannot support those speeds so it is not something they could do if they wanted. 

[Stewart_Oxley]

Great, thanks for confirming that we're on the same page vis a vis ADSL technology though if you think 7Mb isn't bad for the best service money can buy at a property 20 minutes drive from Brisbane CBD then ... hmmmm

https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/03/australias-internet-speeds-are-a-global-embarrassment/    (new page)

My question, which was highlighted and which unfortunately has yet to be answered is simple; can I unplug the phone line, enjoy fast internet and not get approached by Telstra to stop attempting to bypass an objectively rubbish service offering ?

Thanks for taking the time to respond. 

[DrQ]

I said it wasn't bad given the technology limitation, not that it was good in general by any means. Just that as far as ADSL goes it is within expected constraints with the technological limitations.

And the official answer is no, you cannot just use the backup only:

"Can I just leave my Telstra Gateway Frontier™ unplugged to use only the 4G mobile backup?
Your fixed broadband connection will always be your primary service for internet connectivity on the Telstra Gateway Frontier. Our Customer Terms only permit the modem be used on the mobile backup connection when your fixed broadband connection is unavailable. Refer to Our Customer Terms for the Telstra Gateway Frontier here."

That is from here:
https://crowdsupport.telstra.com.au/t5/Broadband-nbn/Telstra-Frontier-Gateway-FAQ/ta-p/642180
and has a link to the full customer terms which is the legal terms.

Essentially reading the full rules, they reserve the right to just deactivate it if you are using it when you shouldn't be, but they could also just make it run at the 6Mbps / 1Mbps that the backup is meant to run at and you would end up with it being of no benefit for you anyway.

[Yastiandrie]

Probably just to note: As far as I know, if the SIM in the Frontier gets disabled due to breaking terms of use, it cannot be reactivated