NBN connection over coaxial connection

[Brentjl]

I currently have bigpond cable and a landline. Years ago the landline failed and the TELSTRA technician simply connected our internal phone line to the coaxial cable at the junction box on the house. We have no copper line as it were running from the pit to the house now. We have asked twice whether on decommissioning of the cable service does this mean we cannot switch to nbn as we have no phone line (copper/adsl).. I can guess the answer but cannot get a direct answer from TELSTRA. The pit out on the street gets flooded in heavy rain and they have had to repair at different times both the cable and in the past, phone, due to corrosion. The technician just cut the copper and connected it to the coaxial bigpond cable. Nbn keep telling me there is a phone line because TELSTRA says there is a phone line. Can’t even take photos and send it to them as they don’t want to know.

[cf4]

If your phone is working then there is also a phone cable going to the street in the coaxial cable junction box at the side of the house. A Telstra landline can not be connected back to the exchange using coaxial cable.

[Brentjl]

Thanks

We have no telephone line delivered by traditional telephone cable. 

The original phone line failed. The TELSTRA technician cut the telephone line and disconnected it from the junction box on house. He then proceeded to wire the end connection of the internal telephone cable into the coaxial cable terminal. He said it runs on different bandwidth? to the internet connection so it will also act as the phone line. He did it’s easier than trenching and relaying the line. (I had already dug the trench exposing the exisiting line for his convenience.)

The connection is -

• Street pit to house junction box - coaxial cable
• junction box to modem - coaxial cable
• junction box to telephone - copper/adsl? Telephone cable to rj/600 series socket

Cheers🙂

[SteveW_52]

Sounds like a dodgy fix...

But, what @cf4  was saying, is that the telephone line (there is no ADSL) has to already be present at the street pit because it has to be, it's how exchange cabling works. If a DSL service is required (although NBN can probably use the HFC cable) then that telephone line would have to be extended to the house.

New internet services deliver the telephone service via the modem whether it be DSL or HFC etc. 

[Brentjl · Accepted solution]

It’s a bit of a dilemma. After 20 years of TELSTRA internet and the current BigPond cable connection of about 15 years we are not happy with the nbn plan bundling the phone service. We already pay for this in our cable plan and don’t use it at all so now nbn provides a no more reliable service than a mobile we intend to ditch the landline service. You can get better nbn50 for the same price as TELSTRA nbn25 bundled with a useless landline service. 

We are not convinced that the way Telstra configured our current set up and we are concerned that if we switch provider they will respond that is TELSTRA’s issue. They did the work. So we thought we’d switch to the Telstra nbn25. Have Telstra deal with any issues then leave Telstra for a better and faster plan. Problem with that is you have to pay out for a modem that is completely useless on a non Telstra network. This means a 215 dollar cost to pay out the modem if we proceed this way. I feel that Telstra is holding us to ransom bundling and paying for a service unwanted and not being able to confirm there isn’t going to be an issue. Two days now and a promise but no guarantee. Not spoken to a technician at all. 

[cf4]

If you shift to NBN and don't have a NBN compatible modem Telstra supplies a free modem that you don't have to pay for if you leave early. It is only new customers that have to pay the remaining cost of the modem if the leave before 24 months. The modem Telstra supplies can also be used with most other ISPs. The only exception is ISPs that use VLAN ID and Optus that checks the MAC address of the modem.

[Brentjl]

Hi cf4.....

not what was advised by Telstra when contacting via the MyTelstra messaging. We have been advised we will have to pay out the balance. 

Thanks for advice about modem. What I had read was the modem cannot receive firmware updates and that it disconnects as it tries to contact Telstra as isp. You need to reboot to reconnect to the new provider. No firmware updates is clearly an issue. Your advice, and much appreciated that you followed up, doesn’t mention this stuff. Is it still an issue? I gather as it’s a badged product made for Telstra it’s Telstra that issues the firmware updates. 

[cf4]

The manufactures produce the firmware updates but Telstra servers deliver the updates. You will miss out on any future updates but that want prevent the modem operating normally. Modem only reboots to install downloaded firmware updates. The modem doesn't disconnect if it is not connected to a Telstra server. The 4G backup and VOIP functions will not work when used on a non Telstra link but all other features apart from future firmware updates should work normally.