NBN Meant to Be 25/5, Has Been Really Slow. What Should I Do?

Ldjbarnes on 10/01/2016 - 10:21
Last edited 10/01/2016 - 11:04 by 1 other user

I signed up with an ISP for 25/5mbps NBN internet at the start of December,
Since signing up the speed has been really slow. (avg over last month 8.1 down, 2.1 up)

I contacted them in December expressing my displeasure with the speed,
eventually getting them to listen and contact their wholesaler,
and then offering me 10% off my bill with an explanation that the wholesaler has high congestion during peak times,
and it should be fixed in January.
Even during off peak the highest speed test I ever got (taking 1 ever hour over the course of a month) was 16.8mb down, well short of 25mb.
I struggle to stream youtube in hd, when doing nothing else on the line!
This is despite signing up for "Superfast" NBN (not the normal fast NBN plan, the 25/5 faster plan)…

I was then away on Xmas holiday, I have come back now to the following.

  • My bill didn't have 10% off
  • My phone with them now doesn't work, it states no credit
  • My internet speed is still slow

At this stage I have had enough, but I foolishly signed up to a 24 month contract with them.
I have told them I am not happy with their service, and would like to leave, and am waiting for their response.

What do you guys recommend? Should I contact the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO)?

Internet

Comments

  • akd on 10/01/2016 - 10:31
    +1

    Welcome to the NBN. I went through all this process 1 year ago. We had fiber to the premises service which was bought by NBN. The speed from 10/2 MBPS was reduced to 5/0.5 MBps. After lot of arguments and discussion, the net result was congestion and iiNet/NBN could do nothing. I increased the internet level to 25/5 and getting speed now 16/3 MBps.

    • djbarnes on 10/01/2016 - 10:36

      yikes!
      I switched from Optus cable to this (NBN with current ISP).
      Optus cable originally gave me 100/1, but then they randomly limited it to 20/1 without telling me about 1 year ago.
      Anyway I switched to NBN to save myself $20 a month for supposedly better speed and a phone line. Regretting it already!
      My Optus cable would routinely speedtest at 24-25mb down.

      What you are telling me is that it is NBN, not my ISP that is the congested bit? Damn. Good to know but not good news :)

      • [Deactivated] on 10/01/2016 - 13:18
        +1

        Who is your ISP?

        Budget ISP over subscribe the capacity they purchase from NBN and do the same on their international links.
        With the case of TPG, my connection is slow when all the school kids get home but fine all other times. Got a second NBN connection and it was fine at the time TPG was slow.

      • McFly on 10/01/2016 - 14:28
        +1

        Yeah, Optus also turned off my speed pack a few months ago so I had to call them to turn it back on.
        No reason or apology given…

    • McFly on 10/01/2016 - 14:27
      +1

      10/2 MBPS was reduced to 5/0.5 MBps
      I increased the internet level to 25/5 and getting speed now 16/3 MBps.
      the net result was congestion

      Doesn't make sense - if it was congestion then switching to even a gigabit link would still yield (about) 5/0.5M…

  • airzone on 10/01/2016 - 11:15

    Your fibre sync speed is probably 25/5. Of course if the ISP network is congested (i.e. oversubscribed) then their backbone will never be able to handle the volumes going through their infrastructure. Your best bet is probably to try and get out of the contract and move to another ISP.

    I routinely get speed tests at least 96/38 on my 100/40 from TPG. This is in western Sydney. Previously, I lived in the st george area (adsl2 in medium density apartments) and I would get a line sync speed of ~15 - 16mb/s and it would perform pretty close to this. This was on TPG too. I notice you are not mentioning your ISP though..

  • kipps on 10/01/2016 - 11:29

    What suburb and ISP? Whirlpool is littered with complaints like this and in some threads the ISPs tell you what they're doing to remedy congestion.

    • djbarnes on 11/01/2016 - 08:54

      bellbird park queensland, ISP is mynetfone who use "Symbio networks" according to speedtest

  • Axelstrife on 10/01/2016 - 11:59
    +1

    NBN you pay for a certain speed and not a whatever you get is what you get service like old adls2+

    im on the NBN 12/1 and i get 11/0.8 which is normal.

    congestion is from the isp not NBN.

  • neil on 10/01/2016 - 14:36

    I have similar issues. I have a 100/40 NBN connection from Exetel in Brunswick. Exetel Speedtests go from about 25-55 Mbps. Local speedtests do well however once you try international the speed gets quite slow. At nighttime, it sometimes gets usuable (forget streaming).

    Support have told me:

    Please note,that there are known network related issues in your area which causes services to experience slow speed issues.We have already this matter with our higher management.

    Exetel is slow in Brunswick but it may be faster at another less congested exchange so its pretty difficult to find a fast ISP other than trying them all. I'm going to sign up to Belong on a 1 month plan on my 2nd NBN port to compare speeds. May be an option for the OP.

    • McFly on 10/01/2016 - 15:20

      We have already this matter

      Doesn't fill me with confidence!

    • Diji1 on 10/01/2016 - 15:43
      +5

      @neil: do yourself a favour and change to an ISP that isn't ripping people off by claiming to sell high speed broadband and then slowing users to something approaching dialup speeds every single night.

      Here's a tip from an ex-Exetel customer: it never gets better. When you complain they will inform you that nothing is wrong and then have you conduct a number of completely pointless tasks such as arranging to swap a modem etc.

      They will never fix it. Its been like this for about 12 months and it's getting worse not better.

  • boccos on 11/01/2016 - 07:38

    Just been through the same thing. Was made to do 6 simultaneous downloads several times over peak and Off-peak times. My result was an average of 2.4Mb/sec peak, and 2.7Mb/sec Off peak. When I asked my ISP if this should be considered reasonable. This was their reply.
    .
    "The email which was sent on the 01/01/2016 suggest that you are currently receiving acceptable speeds.

    8.46pm 31st December 2015, 2.704 MB/sec (Peak Time) => 2.704 MB/sec * 8 => 21.6 Mb/sec
    9.55pm 1st January 2016, 2.420 MB/Sec (Peak Time) => 2.420 MB/Sec * 8 => 19.36 Mb/sec
    1.28Pm 1st January 2016, 2.666 MB/Sec (Off Peak) => 2.666 MB/Sec * 8 => 21.3 Mb/sec

    You are currently sign up for a 25/5 Mbps plan and the current speeds that you are achieving is acceptable."
    .
    (I have no idea why they would multiply my actual speeds by a factor of 8)

    • swilsonau on 11/01/2016 - 08:06
      +7

      I think you are confusing megabytes and megabits. You are currently on a 25 megabit (25 Mbps) plan. Your browser or download client is reporting a speed in Megabytes per second (MB/sec). To convert megabytes to megabits, you times by 8 (there are 8 bits in a byte). So your ISP is converting your results to megabits to show that your speeds are acceptable.

      • boccos on 15/01/2016 - 08:36

        Thanks for that information, which now makes sense.
        Still gettting NBN congestion issues on Monday and Tuesday peak times 8pm-11pm. These are actually worse that when on copper line Broadband. Some sites stand at "loading" and never complete, but next morning they very quickly load.
        From my original expectations of the NBN to the reality, had been a hard landing. Best way to describe it is like changing from a Corolla to a Camry. Much the same but a little bigger motor. I was hoping for a Lexus!
        Hard to believe that so much money was spent to bring the NBN to the people, and for such lacklustre results…

  • djbarnes on 11/01/2016 - 08:57

    Thanks guys for your help, I will try and cancel my contract and select another ISP on NBN. Any recommendations?

    • neil on 11/01/2016 - 09:35
      +1

      Belong & Skymesh both offer 1 month plans so you could try those out and see how you go. I've heard both good & bad speed results from those companies so guess it depends on your exchange.

      • itschrisraymond on 16/02/2016 - 00:31

        Belong only has a speed pack for 20 mbps or am I missing something?

        • neil on 16/02/2016 - 00:49

          It has a speed boost option of 25/5 or 100/40.

          Base download speeds into the home are up to 12Mbps. Add a Speed Boost and enjoy downloads of up to 25Mbps for $10/month or up to 100Mpbs for $25/month.

        • itschrisraymond on 16/02/2016 - 00:56

          @neil: don't think the option applies to my area unfortunately :( no 100 option

    • [Deactivated] on 11/01/2016 - 12:54
      +1

      if they try to charge you any fees to cancel, threaten to go to the TIO (and actually go to the TIO if they don't help). you shouldn't have to pay anything if their network can't provide a reasonable level of service.

  • Clear on 11/01/2016 - 12:16

    Internode has always been good in my experience. All of my offices have FTTP and usually get around 100/40 on the Melb and Sydney servers at speedtest.net. I know of a lot of other people that get similar speeds.

    • neil on 11/01/2016 - 13:15

      Have they reduced their prices? I thought I checked them a couple of months ago and they were a bit dearer.

      Quick table I just made for 100/40 NBN:

      Company 100/40 Price Data ~500GB
      Internode $95 500GB
      Exetel $79 500GB
      Belong $85 500GB
      TPG $90 500GB
      Optus $120 Unlimited
      Skymesh $100 600GB

      Note that there are various startup charges, contract lengths, off-peak quotas, free VOIP phones etc. that may provide value for you over others.

      • Clear on 11/01/2016 - 14:19

        Prices seem to be the same. I'm happy to pay more as their speeds are very close to what you're supposed to "get up to". I've tried a lot of the others and haven't got the same results.

        • neil on 14/01/2016 - 14:34

          Just realized Internode counts uploads & downloads in their quota. Meh.

        • Clear on 15/01/2016 - 14:33

          @neil: Most people wouldn't be doing a lot of uploads anyway. Unless you've got some seeding going on ;)

          I just looked at my plan and realised I'm getting 1000GB even though I'm on a 500GB plan. Either a glitch or free upgrade?

      • kipps on 11/01/2016 - 21:02

        Geez NBN is a rip off. I am on 500GB Telstra Cable with speed boost, 100mbps/2mbps, including a phone line and free local calls and calls to Telstra mobiles, for $80/month. The number of complaints I see about NBN leads me to believe I would get slower service on NBN than if I remained on Cable …. I can only hope NBN doesn't come to my area any time soon.

  • devinadalovely on 11/01/2016 - 15:38

    Definitely contact the TIO and get out of the contract. We are with telstra NBN on $89 plan with 400gbs. It's normally 200gb but they have a special. It was slower than our previous cable broadband so I bought their speed booster for $20 per month which can produce 100mps/40mps but we're not getting that high. It's approx 87mps/37mps. I was greatly annoyed initially having to pay more for supposedly 'superfast' NBN but that's the way it is.

    Some pages take a long time to load even so or time out. Facebook videos don't play at all sometimes and freeze.

    You also get to sign on two phones. One at $35 per month for $350 credit and the other is unlimited for $40 per month for standard calls, voicemail and texts.
    I was happy with that at least. I've got the unlimited phone!

  • Dazza610 on 12/01/2016 - 09:04

    Let me tell you a little "Fairy Tale" about Telcos & Promises.
    There is NO differences. There are misrepresentations & UNtruths in both.

    My first ISP was Telstra dial-up.
    Then Optus must have had a big push to take over the market. Because I had a Rep come around spouting the advantages of ADSL, and if I take this package with this function (Phone) it would only cost an extra $….

    He was saying I would receive (up-to) 20 Mb/s. Are you laughing yet.

    Once set-up and connected the best speed I could get was approx 8 Mb/s, so I contacted Optus and they explained that it was because of distance between me and the Exchange.

    Ok, my bad, I didn't read the fine print. Still not laughing yet.
    As a couple of years passed (and changes to telcos) Speed got slower and slower the best I was getting was 3 Mb/s (sometimes nothing) Contacting the Telco got me the: Have you checked this and have you checked that. Still not laughing yet.

    Then the NBN started work in our area (18 months ago) I thought WHOOPEE, speed will return.

    Now is the FUNNY part, since others in the area have switched to NBN (which makes the lines less congested) my speed with ADSL has jumped to between 12 Mb/s to 16 Mb/s. (you can laugh now)

    • MasterNoob on 12/01/2016 - 09:07

      Ha…ha…hahahhhahahahahahaa

  • itschrisraymond on 16/02/2016 - 00:34

    Im in the same exact same situation. I told Optus I wasn't happy with the service and the constant lying. I was told there were upgrades in my area and I spoke to another tech, and said they no upgrades were happening in the next 6 months.

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