An Email From Telstra & the Reply

[echnidna]

I just got this email,
Today, BigPond Broadband is available at speeds up to 20Mbps in some areas. That's pretty quick compared to what we've been used to in Australia and means we can deliver things like music and movie downloads, online games and video streaming of your favourite sports at reasonable speeds and quality.

But soon these speeds won't be enough. We'll all want more video of higher quality delivered to us over the internet. We'll want the best education tools for our kids, the latest productivity applications for our businesses and the fastest and most video rich communications applications to keep us in touch with friends and family.

But unfortunately, with the launch of ADSL2+, we have literally reached the end of the broadband road in Australia.

We need new network technologies to get higher speeds but there are regulations that prevent Telstra taking broadband forward.

We want to spend billions of dollars building an optical fibre-based network - capable of delivering up to five times the fastest current broadband speeds and equal to, or better than, the very best in the world. But under the current regulations we would have to provide access to foreign-owned competitors at below our cost.

Under those sorts of conditions, despite the fact we want to take Australian broadband to the next level, we just can't, as we'll waste our shareholders' money.

Imagine the Government telling BHP where to dig its next mine and then saying, "Now that you've spent the money setting up the mine, you have to let your competitors come and buy the ore from you, for less than it costs you to dig it up, so they can sell it too." That doesn't encourage competition; it just stifles vital investment.

Telstra has a wonderful heritage of building networks for Australia. Just a few months ago we launched our Next G™ wireless network, which is the biggest and fastest mobile 3G network in the world, providing high-speed wireless broadband access to 98% of Australia's population. Because this network is not regulated we've been able to build it in record time and we can sell it at a price determined by the market to recoup our investment over time. This is what we want to do with a high-speed optical fibre broadband network.

I'm proud of the broadband service we're providing you today. It's clearly the best in Australia as our market share continues to increase while that of our competitors declines but we'd like to do a lot better for you and will, if the regulations are changed so that Telstra can build the next generation of optical fibre infrastructure we need.

To learn more about Telstra's Broadband Australia Campaign, or if you'd like to BACK Telstra and become a Telstra Active Supporter, please visit www.nowwearetalking.com.au

In the meantime, thanks again for your business and all the best to you
and your family.

Yours sincerely,

Justin Milne
Group Managing Director
Telstra BigPond

MY REPLY

Thank you for your email,

But I must disagree with your summation

In my personal experience telstra sucks big time.

We don't have broadband.

The telephone lines here are so defective that dialup internet is unreliable as the connection continually drops out.

Telstras response to this problem was to advise us to instal isdn which is an improvement over dialup but we have to pay higher telehone costs as well as pay broadband comparable charges for slow internet.

Despite that thousands of people use the Scout camp each year mobile phone coverage is absolutely crummy.
CDMA was the best of the bunch but still not great.

Your NextG is an absolute joke, mobile phone coverage has returned to being lousy when compared to CDMA

When are we going to get a reasonable service from Telstra?

Regards
Bob Thomas

[Wood Butcher]

Go Bob!!!

[Gumby]

. Just a few months ago we launched our Next G™ wireless network, which is the biggest and fastest mobile 3G network in the world,

and the most outrageously expensive :((

[echnidna]

surprise surprise.
Just like a lot of spammers Telstra doesn't accept replies to emails sent from their address.
So I just sent it to another telstra address instead

[Poppa]

That's funny Bob, I just spent about 30 minutes replying to my email from Telstra as well. I'll post my reply when I can find it. And I'll find another email address to send it to as well. Mongrels....

[Barry_White]

Well isn't that amazing I just replied to it also along those lines but mine hasn't bounced back as yet and that was an hour and a half ago.

[fred.n]

Onya Bob

Teltra:(( :(( :(( :(( :(( :(( :(( :(( :((

[Poppa]

Here's mine:

Thank you for the email below. You've touched on a subject that I've given a great deal of thought to, as I was in the Telecommunications business for a number of years and have an in-depth understanding of the business and the technical issues that affect it.

I'd like to make a couple of points in response to your email. You state "Imagine the Government telling BHP where to dig its next mine and then saying, "Now that you've spent the money setting up the mine, you have to let your competitors come and buy the ore from you, for less than it costs you to dig it up, so they can sell it too." That doesn't encourage competition; it just stifles vital investment."

I'd like to respond to that statement by making two points:
1. Telstra has been complaining long and loud recently about the unfair regulatory environment under which it is 'forced' to do business. Telstra makes more profit (some might say an obscene amount of profit) than it has market share. Thus the regulatory environment, while not perhaps ideal for Telstra, is clearly one that allows it to participate and dominate an extraordinarily profitable sphere of operations. So on this point, I'm sorry, but you really don't expect me to swallow that do you?
2. BHP wasn't built using taxpayer funds. Telstra was. It is encumbent upon Telstra to remember that the people that live in remote areas and receive the very poorest service that Telstra provides, paid their taxes and participated in the building of the company that is now Telstra long before we saw fit to import CEO's from overseas. I'm not fortunate enough to live in an area that offers even the 20Mbps service that you describe. I'm thankful that I am able to get 512Kbps service, because if I lived even a little more remotely than I currently do even that wouldn't be available. You really have nothing to be proud of regarding the broadband service that you are providing to me - you should be ashamed.

I'd also like to make some general points:
1. Telstra is entering an era where the telecommunications industry is going to change dramatically. VOIP services are getting better all the time, and they are vastly cheaper than Telstra's call rates for national and international calls. In fact I can make a VOIP local call (even on my slow broadband speed) cheaper than I can make a local call on Telstra, provided I limit the call to 10 seconds or so. The wireless technology that is now becoming available make setting up a physical network (for whatever transmission services you can think of and some that you can't think of) far cheaper and easier than it has ever been before. This will bring new players to the game and enhance the competitiveness of some of Telstra's successful competitors. And there is also a technology that is released to consumers (business and personal) in the US that allows for broadband and voice transmission over power lines (and through the internal power network within buildings for that matter). Thus in the US some of the power companies are becoming competitors with the large Telcos. Telstra is demonstrably not prepared for all of this increased competition - you can't even handle the competition you've already got without whinging to the government every 5 minutes.

2. The service that Telstra provides is appalling. You have some very talented and professional people working for your organisation. Unfortunately they are outnumbered by the rude, ignorant, morons that work for you by about 5-1. You have a culture that encourages poor job performance, high staff turnover, and allows bureaucracy to flourish. I very rarely encounter a service person from your company that I would be proud to hire. And unfortunately because of your appallingly bad billing systems and internal IT problems, I have to deal with these people a lot. A lot more than I'd like to anyway. This is something that management can do something about, yet with Telstra this hasn't improved in years. I've been a customer and a shareholder of Telstra for a long time, and I do believe that your service is getting worse not better. Instead of bleating on about the regulatory environment (that restricts you to a couple of billion dollars profit per year), fix this one issue and you will be the Telco of choice for Australia anyway.

(I then made some remarks about their CEO which on reflection I've decided not to post here)...

The email below seemed to be written in a conversational tone. You've certainly inspired me to continue that conversation. I'll be most interested in your further response.

[meerkat]

I don't get it, why do people want broadband anyway ??? Whilst we have it others in the street (if they haven't got it yet) won't be able to get it because Telstra have chosen not to make more ADSL ports available etc. That requires some $$.

Our business is IT and I find it amazing that they can prevent people from trading effectively because a "blow in" doesn't like the new sand pit hes in especially when the last one he was in he was king pin.:~

Spoke to the local members office the "Ms Gillard" and they just referred it to the minister for communications office with a sarcastic good luck.

The senators office called back, did some investigation on our behalf and gave us some info that hopefully will help. Far more help than our local elected representative.:~

[echnidna]

Try downloading a forum video on plain old dialup

[AlexS]

Received the same spam today. Think I'll respond in the same vein as Echnidna and Poppa.

[old_picker]

yer just wastin yer time lads
get over it
change to optus and see how yer go
or ozemail
or froggie
or luckyduck
or whatever
they are just billing departments
all got the same internet just different versions of really crap service

[Sturdee]

change to optus and see how yer go
.........................
all got the same internet just different versions of really crap service

I'm with Optus and on their own cable not on Telstra's cable that also runs outside our doors.

Much better and never any interruptions of service.


Peter.

[squashedfrog1]

Ahhh,

You've all reminded me to ring Telstra and start drilling someone a new a-hole. I'm in a remote area. No broadband is available nor will be made available.

However.......There is an Telstra OPTIC FIBRE CABLE buried ON MY PROPERTY! But oh no, I cant use that........errrm? Why?


SF

[Big Shed]

Ahhh,

You've all reminded me to ring Telstra and start drilling someone a new a-hole. I'm in a remote area. No broadband is available nor will be made available.

However.......There is an Telstra OPTIC FIBRE CABLE buried ON MY PROPERTY! But oh no, I cant use that........errrm? Why?


SF

Are you aware that under the Federal Govt Broadband Connect scheme you can have a satellite broadband connection installed free of charge? Look at ISPs like Bordernet, or look at the Whirlpool site for other ISPs in your area.

[echnidna]

Have thoughtabout satellite but we are surrounded by a mature messmate forest so even the satellite might have problems. Might even need a high tower for the satellite dish.

And that won't fix lousy mobile phone reception

[DavidG]

Aren't we sorry now that the Gov?? did not break Telstra up into a service provider agency and a retail business.:~

Now we have a foreign controlled monster telling us all to go .....:o

At least if labour wins the next election we MAY??? have an independent infrastructure.:roll:

[rrich]

When are we going to get a reasonable service from Telstra?

Regards
Bob Thomas

Bob,
If your Telstra is anything like our Verizon, I don't think that it will get cold enough. :)

[echnidna]

Well after numerous to & fro emails I asked the Telstra man he was just a spin doctor whose task was to make problems look like they had dissappeared.

So I got this blog from him

Dear Bob,

I’m happy that I was able to assist you with getting connected to the
internet.

While I appreciate that you may require a fixed ADSL service the only
other way to get a broadband connection to you at this time is with the
Next G Network.

As we are unable to supply that at this time I recommend that you keep
an eye on the BigPond web site to find out when your local exchange
will become enabled, at this time we have no expected time when that will
be completed.

Thank you for taking the time to contact BigPond.

Yours sincerely,


Eddy Alekna
The BigPond Team
www.bigpond.com

Wonder if I should ask him to read the original reply again,
nuthin's changed.

[echnidna]

So I just sent Telstra another email

Hi Eddy,

Please read my entire original reply to
Justin Milne
Group Managing Director
Telstra BigPond

Your efforts have achieved absolutely nothing.

I followed your suggestion
and went to the bigpond website and it's associated maps which says we have NextG coverage.

But NextG phones don't work in the area shown in the bigpond map so how can NextG internet work?

[squashedfrog1]

Big Shed,

I got all excited......then I found this....

The Australian Government officially announced on 13th March 2007, that all funds in the Broadband Connect (http://www.dcita.gov.au/communications_for_consumers/funding_programs__and__support/broadband_connect) program had been utilized.

All new applications submitted as of 14th March 2007, will attract a $599 installation fee.


Back to square one.


Now about that optic fibre cable that runs thru my place.......:~

sf

[echnidna]

Are you aware that under the Federal Govt Broadband Connect scheme you can have a satellite broadband connection installed free of charge? Look at ISPs like Bordernet, or look at the Whirlpool site for other ISPs in your area.

I spent a few hours on the Whirlpool site a few months ago and the consenus of opinion is that slow old isdn ISDN is far faster and more reliable than satellite (especially a 2 way satellite)

The big advantage of 2 way satellite is bye bye Telstra & Bigpond.
IF
I can work out whether voip is a workable phone service to ordinary everyday landline phones

[Big Shed]

Big Shed,

I got all excited......then I found this....

The Australian Government officially announced on 13th March 2007, that all funds in the Broadband Connect (http://www.dcita.gov.au/communications_for_consumers/funding_programs__and__support/broadband_connect) program had been utilized.

All new applications submitted as of 14th March 2007, will attract a $599 installation fee.


Back to square one.


Now about that optic fibre cable that runs thru my place.......:~

sf


When you consider that the normal installation fee is $3000 for 2-way satellite, then it is still not a bad deal. ISDN is another option, but is quite expensive.

You can always tap into that fibre optic cable:roll:

[Big Shed]

I spent a few hours on the Whirlpool site a few months ago and the consenus of opinion is that slow old isdn ISDN is far faster and more reliable than satellite (especially a 2 way satellite)


The big advantage of 2 way satellite is bye bye Telstra & Bigpond.
IF
I can work out whether voip is a workable phone service to ordinary everyday landline phones

I was under the impression that 2-way satellite was faster than 1-way satellite?

The disadvantage of 1-way satellite is that it still ties up your phone line, unless you put in a dedicated line.

I seriously considered putting in satellite but decided against it in the end, especially when a Geelong company put in wireless broadband in the area. I then knew Telstra would not be far behind in enabling the exchange for ADSL:cool: Sure enough within 3 months they enabled the exchange for ADSL, this is after the locals lobbying for years and being told "it is not technically feasible".
Telstra are a mob of b******s:oo:

Anyway now have broadband, but not with Telstra:2tsup:

[Barry_White]

Big Shed,

I got all excited......then I found this....

The Australian Government officially announced on 13th March 2007, that all funds in the Broadband Connect (http://www.dcita.gov.au/communications_for_consumers/funding_programs__and__support/broadband_connect) program had been utilized.

All new applications submitted as of 14th March 2007, will attract a $599 installation fee.


Back to square one.


Now about that optic fibre cable that runs thru my place.......:~

sf

This is a brochure I received in the mail box a couple of weeks ago good until the 31/4/07

Just be quick.

[Poppa]

I got a reply that porports to be from Justin Milne. Here 'tis (my comments in black):

Dear Bob,
Thanks for taking the time and effort to respond to my recent email. Without revisiting the contents of the email, I'll try to be brief in responding to your comments.
- The regulatory environment requires Telstra's shareholders to subsidise its competitors. There is no way to view that as fair. It is an obligation no other company in Australia faces. This is bollocks - Optus is affected by exactly the same regulation, as is any other company that owns and runs a network in Australia. Besides, the regulations allow Telstra to make more profit per market share than any of their competitors. How can they be making a disproportionately larger share of the available profit in Australia and still have the hide to whinge?
- We do not shirk our social obligations. Both the Federal Government and the Opposition agree the Universal Service Obligation needs review. The Opposition recently stated the net cost to Telstra of delivering the USO was about $550 million a year, yet Telstra received only $150 million towards this cost. The USO is a joke. The standards referred to in it are out of date before they are printed, and Telstra never adheres to them anyway.
- Telstra's network, those parts of it built before 1997, were paid for by taxpayers, but these were sold to Telstra shareholders in T1, T2 and T3. Nah, sorry, not falling for that one. The staff and infrastructure of Telstra were built with taxpayers money, because the country needed a communications network. The country still needs a communications network, but unfortunately we've sold off all of those assets so that we can pay the pollies super. Whether Telstra likes it or not, it still has an obligation to all Australian citizens to provide a service, which is what the government is trying to make it do.
- Customers such as yourself, who cannot access full broadband services or speeds, are precisely the people our campaign seeks to help. We will improve broadband availability when we know our investments will not simply subsidise our competitors. This is a complete cop-out. If they provided the network and decent service at a decent price, no one would want to be a customer of any of the other providers. So they'd knock their competition out of the race just by doing it better. What they want is a situation where they have no competition. And can therefore charge whatever they want for the service and not give a rat's about keeping customers happy.
- We welcome competition - it's just that the current regulatory regime makes it easier for competitors to access our networks at below cost rather than build infrastructure. Like they welcomed Optus into the industry. Like they welcomed Vodafone. They overcharged these competitors for years. Telstra is the single most targeted company by the ACCC in our corporate history - guess why? Telstra hate competition because they know they are really bad at keeping their own customers happy. Anyone faced with a choice of providers goes elsewhere. As I mentioned in my email, the day is fast approaching when putting in a network will be cheap and quick (watch the power companies do it - it is already being done in the US). Once that happens Telstra will be dead in the water.
- Our Customer Service has been ranked #1 in the industry for the past year in consecutive quarterly independent surveys. Bollocks. If it has then the survey process is severely broken. This bloke sounds like an ostrich.
- I have no doubts that everything Sol does at Telstra is in the best interests of Telstra and ultimately is going to take Australia forward. He already is winning international acclaim for the Next G™ network in Australia, which has made the rest of the world sit up and take notice of what we are achieving. This is in response to the serve I gave Sol, that I didn't include here. Can I just point out that I haven't been in the Telco industry for more than two years. 3G was launched in Europe before I left there olver two years ago. This is hardly innovative or new technology. And I'd be wary of anywhere that Sol is winning acclaim. Read his work history. Find out something about the companies that he has been in the past. It makes for very interesting reading. And then remember that this is the man that McGauchie insisted on having as CEO. Makes me wonder how bright McGauchie is....
Thank you for being a BigPond Member and Telstra shareholder. Not for long mate.
Yours sincerely

Justin Milne
The BigPond Team

[Barry_White]

As I said earlier in this thread I also sent an email to Mr Milne at Telstra and this is what I sent.

"Mr. Milne
<O:p</O:p

I feel insulted that you send an email such as this to me. You keep telling me how good Telstra is but I would be happy to have ADSL 1 at the prices people in the towns and cities get it for. I am using Bigpond 2 way satellite at the rip off price of $68.50 a month that I can ill afford on a pension.
<O:p</O:p

There are other providers that provide it at much cheaper prices and it annoys me that I can’t change. I have equipment that I now own that is useless unless I am connected to Telstra. As I have been given one subsidy from the government I can’t legally get it again from another provider.
<O:p</O:p

My only other option is to shortly cancel my Bigpond satellite when I run out of money and go back to a crappy unreliable dial up access to reduce my costs. I may then have to consider changing all my other services over to another provider, not that would probably matter to you because I am only one little fish in a big ocean.
<O:p</O:p

Sure Telstra wants support to create a monopoly so that you can set the highest prices in the market place the same as you have with the 3G network.
<O:p</O:p

Regards,
<O:p</O:p
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comhttp://www.woodworkforums.com/ /><st1:PersonName w:st=</st1:PersonName>
<st1:PersonName w:st="on">Barry White"</st1:PersonName>
<st1:PersonName w:st="on"></st1:PersonName>
<st1:PersonName w:st="on"></st1:PersonName>
<st1:PersonName w:st="on"></st1:PersonName>
<st1:PersonName w:st="on">This is the reply I received this afternoon.</st1:PersonName>
<st1:PersonName w:st="on"></st1:PersonName>
<st1:PersonName w:st="on"></st1:PersonName>
<st1:PersonName w:st="on"></st1:PersonName>
<st1:PersonName w:st="on"></st1:PersonName>
<st1:PersonName w:st="on">Dear Barry,

I appreciate you taking the time to respond to us in response to our Broadband Australia Campaign email and I’d like to thank you for choosing BigPond as your ISP. I understand your frustration in relation to not being able to get any service other than our BigPond Satellite service, and apologise for any inconvenience you have experienced as a result.
Ironically, however, your situation - and that of others like you - is precisely the reason for our campaign. We want to invest our money in improving broadband access, but under the current regulatory rules we cannot do so on a commercial basis. If the rules are changed, then Telstra can start investing in new infrastructure, knowing it will make a fair return on its investment.
Barry, thanks for taking the time to write in response to my email. We do value you as a BigPond Member and hopefully we will see some changes that let us respond better to your needs.
Yours Sincerely

Justin Milne
The BigPond Team

Which really didn't address my concerns. Probably just a canned response.



Poppa just had a quick look at the reply you got. Leaves mine for dead.
</st1:PersonName><st1:PersonName w:st="on"></st1:PersonName>

[ernknot]

Arrrrrrrrrrgh! Don't you guys know we are mere victims???

[MajorPanic]

Just think, only a small percentage of the population has 'broadband'.

Anywhere else in the world broadband is supplied with fibre-optic cable & speeds that make ours look decidedly pedestrian!

ADSL is just dial-up in another guise & has the inherent problems of the copper wire infrastructure.

[coastie]

If the opposition leader Mr.Rudd wants to build a new network who is he going to get to build it?
Murdoch,Packer,??
We live in interesting times:?

[echnidna]

a consortium of telstra's competitors ?

now that might be interesting
he puts up his loot and they put up the rest!!!

hmmm

[rrich]

Dumb question???

At home I have cable TV service. (TV signals come out of the cable and not through the air.) Cable TV has been successful here because it started serving rural areas that were beyond the range of adaquate through the air signals. As cable only network stations were created, the cable TV service was installed in urban areas.

The cable TV network offers broadband Internet service. I have been using broadband over cable TV for at least 10 years. Before I retired, I worked for a major communications company here. I had been under the impression that the US networks were among the most under featured ones in the world. I had been told that the US telephony and data networks were the second best preserved telephony museum in the world.

I'm very surprised of the difficulties that you are having getting reasonable, decent and reliable Internet services. The question is, Can't you get internet service through your cable TV company?

[Big Shed]

Rrich, yes both cable companies, Telstra and Optus, provide internet services. The problem is that cable tends to be only available in the big cities, where most houses have TWO cables going past them, usually one underground (Telstra) and one overhead (Optus).

This situation was created by brain-dead government policies.

In country areas we have a service called Austar which comes in through a small satellite dish. This is also internet enabled, but gives only 1-way broadband, you still need your telephone for uploads, it is also quite expensive.

Then we have an array of satellite providers, both one-way and two-way, again quite expensive and typically a 256Mb service, cost about $A3000 to install. Until recently this installation was reimbursed by the Governments' Broadband Connect Scheme, but that money has now run out.

We also have quite e few wireless broadband providers, where an ISP puts up a wireless transmitter to service a fairly localised area, again reasonably slow (256 typically) and expensive, $49.95/month for 500Mb.

So as you can see we don't have a "real" broadband network, most ISPs go for a max 1.5Mb connection, 512 typical. Some city exchanges now have ADSL2, with a limit of 24Mb speed, but that typically only works up to 2.5-3k from the exchange.

Our largest telco, Telstra, is run by a Mexican American who really doesn't give 2 hoots for anything but spin. He is pushing their G3 network, which is basically a mobile phone tower type network and so expensive that "normal" people cannot afford to send an email, let alone download a movie.

[Tas_Dean]

Some of what has been said in this thread reminds me of the runaround mum got when she rang "dial before you dig" when she wanted to replace her front fence on her (small) rural property.

Dial before you dig said that Aurora (the local power company) and Telstra would contact her within 48 hours (The mandated response time) with their plans of the underground services in the area. Aurora did, as promised. Telstra meanwhile, only supplied their maps 5 days later, after numerous phonecalls.

The Telstra plan showed the fibre optic cable running under the middle of the road, which at that point would have left mum free to dig! The plan also stated that if she had any concerns, she could get a (free) visit from a Telstra (or perhaps telstra subcontractor) engineer to actually locate the cables.

Knowing the plan to be incorrect (we knew that the fibre optic cable which runs to at least 5 towns past mum, actually ran through her property), she rang Telstra on the supplied number to request them to locate the cable, to which they said they would not be able to do for a fortnight.

They changed their tune when she said that the excavator would be coming in at 10AM the following morning, She KNOWS that the Optical Fibre runs through inside her boundary, She had fulfilled her legal obligation by contacting Dial before You Dig, and received the plans (albeit already two days later than their obligation), and that the excavator would be digging a nice long trench and would be sure to find the optic fibre. 7 am the next morning a telstra contractor was on site, locating the cables.

It's just yet another case of how telstra don't care about the little guy. Mum needed her front fence, she had already pulled the old one down, expecting the cable plans to have arrived before the fence was down, and had stock in other paddocks due to not having a fence. The attitude was simply "Don't Care".

There has since been more to this saga, but I'll refrain from comment as it may end up in a massive lawsuit yet (Involves a person with "Medical Priority" and connection, billing and other MASSIVE stuffups).

Incidently, for those who aren't aware, if you have a genuine "life threatening medical condition", if you fill out the relevant paperwork you will get granted "Medical Priority" status, whereby any line faults etc are required to be fixed within (I think) 48 Hours.

Cheers, Dean