Full speed ahead for South Brisbane fibre connections
Filed under: broadband, consumer, Foxtel, Queensland
After much planning, designing, consultation and construction the first connections to the new fibre optic network in the South Brisbane exchange area begins today.
The new fibre to the premise (FTTP) network is being installed as the South Brisbane telephone exchange is being closed to make way for the new Queensland Children’s Hospital. Rather than relocating the exchange and all the equipment in it, Telstra has chosen to upgrade its copper network in the area to high-speed fibre optic cable.
It is anticipated that around 18,000 services will be upgraded to the fibre network, including fixed phone services and Telstra’s cable broadband services.
This is a phased approach over the next 18 months with plans for residents and businesses in the area to be progressively migrated onto the new network. As construction is completed and areas are ready to be moved on to the new fibre network, residents and businesses will be contacted by their service provider to arrange their installation.
With the closure of the exchange we need to disconnect all the existing copper wires in the area. As a result, anyone currently using the copper cable network for either a telephone or broadband service (or both), either as a Telstra customer or through another service provider, will need to be connected to the new fibre or they will not have a working service once the copper cables are disconnected.
This upgrade will not affect mobile services, Foxtel Pay TV services or services provided over alternative networks (such as Hybrid Fibre Coaxial cable) by other service providers.
The migration of services on to the new fibre network is expected to be completed by December 2012.After this date we will then focus on the removal of the exchange building ahead of handing the vacant site to the Queensland Government.
Visit www.fibretosouthbrisbane.com.au for more information and to view the project video detailing the project.
It great that you are progressing but in my, selfish I guess, opinion it would have been greater to start in the rural areas such as mine as they not able to get quality ADSL or the like as they can in the urban areas. In my case I cant even get a fixed cable land line and have to rely on Telstras wireless network for both fixed phone and broadband which means I am behind the 8 ball so to speak when it comes to quality service and quality plans and the fibre system would have fixed all this not only for myself but also the others in the village that are on a similar system. Having said all this I must also say thanks however to Telstra, you at least gave me a service where the other Telco’s were not interested as there was not as much money in it for them.
I live within 20 KM of the centre of Brisbane and can not get wired broadband so have to rely on Mobile Broadband that is relatively slow,when it does work and expansive.
It you are going to roll out fibre to major cities it would seem sensible to do so to those that can not get wired broadband at all first.
Micknicho & Geoff, The Fibre to South Brisbane project is a unique project for this particular exchange area and not part of a fibre roll out plan. This project is being undertaken due to the closure of the South Brisbane Exchange to make way for the new Queensland Children’s Hospital.
Good work Telstra now we want the Prime Minister present for the switch on. lol, I do understand the politics and sensibilities of the issue.
I live and work in the South Brisbane Exchange district so this project affects me greatly. I have a naked ADSL2+ service with Internode. It annoys me that Telstra keep saying that the end-users should contact their ISP about migration but in the background, Telstra is not providing wholesale products to these ISPs to allow them to replicate the current plans and price points that they can offer now.
This should be possible as Telstra told me that they plan to migrate their own customers with the same plans and prices (default migration) but with a minimum 30Mbps speed.
This is one positive aspect of the NBN. It removes the situation where the wholesaler makes decisions based on the needs of their own retail arm.
A telecommunication technician job looks awesome!!
I’m in year 12 at the moment can you suggest a career path a should follow to get into this field or maybe like a Telstra/Bigpond traineeship or apprenticeship?
I’ve tried contacting Telstra careers but they only have an email address and haven’t replied.
Thanks
Hey Damo,
Great to hear you’re excited about the Technician Opportunites! The South Brisbane Exchange project is an exciting one, in particular for Field Techs – the skills picked up by techs in this project will be invaluable for future rollouts including NBN.
Have you checked out: http://careers.telstra.com/getdoc/6e73e435-7aa1-4fed-a4c7-4761c3e5a0d8/Technicians.aspx
Hope this helps you out.
Cheers
Brilliant initiative by Mr Piltz and his team – well done Telstra !
Peter G,
If you think this is a brilliant initiative then you are wrong. It could be brilliant but Telstra is not implementing equivalent speeds or pricing (or even features to allow IPTV) like NBN so it is actually worse for many people (read that as anyone connected to a Telstra competitor).
What I want to know is will the new fibre exchange have increased port capacity. I’m moving into the area and every ISP has the same story for broadband… “No ports available”.
Will this upgrade also increase the number of possible connections in the area, to meet the increasing demand?
This new service is really screwing us over.
We now have to cancel our naked ADSL line and pay for an overly expensive connection with far less download quota and have to have a home phone line to boot.
Telstra is really monopolizing our connection and uprooting everything we have here. What the hell is the point in having a super high speed internet connection if it is so shaped in download quota that you can’t use it!
It’s like making a Ferrari and giving it such a small fuel tank that you can only go around the block.
Horrible horrible service.
I agree, TELSTRA doesn’t think about people, just profit.
umm, massive dilema. my partner and i just moved into the area. we CANNOT find any providers that are willing to connect our unit to either the existing copper network, or the new fibre network. this blows!! we’d never have moved into the area if we’d have know about this. can anyone help with info???
Hi Drewberry – Please call 1800 008 994 and they will be able to assist you in connecting your services.
What suburb are you in? We are in Highgate hill and have literally signed up with internode in the last week; our Adsl should be usable in the next day or two. Internode had no problem signing us up and already have plans in place for when the fibre changes over, so it will be easy to switch then to one of their new fibre plans.
I usually go with TPG but they have squat at the moment in regards to fibre plans, so I went with internode instead. There is not a lot of options at present, firstly because most providers haven’t sorted themselves out in regards to wholesale fibre deals with telstra, and secondly because the existing adsl ports of most providers at Sth brisbane exchange are full and have been for quite a while.
thanks peter, we are also in highgate hill, on derby st. Initially we had applied with internode, and they said their technicians were unable to churn a new connection. Then i recieved an email a week later giving me an appointment time for when a technician would arrive. So we are finally awaiting our new internet connection. But it also saddens me the report of quite small download quotas for the fibre network. Seems it all to bloody complicated for me really. I just want reliable internet with a decent download quota and good customer service…. Is that too much to ask?
When is Bulimba exchange area going to be cut over? As far as I’m concerned it can’t happen soon enough. Why not just cutover all of Brisbane & make Sydney, Melbourne & the rest of Australia seeth with envy? The only dense wits who don’t want fibre to the premises are the federal opposition so leave them on copper & give them candlestick phones. Antiquated technology for those with similar thinking & no vision.
I currently have an ADSL2+ internet connection & it’s the slowest part of my PC system. Fast processor, RAM, Solid State Drive & motherboard that scores a top 7.9 on Microsoft’s test index. This program doesn’t test internet connection & through put at all but it would be very revealing if it did. I’m completely confident mine wouldn’t score a 7.9 or remotely close to that figure. We’ve been in the 21st century for 11 years now. Expecting much better than what’s currently on offer speedwise from all but optic connections is NOT at all unreasonable.
Just want to know when West end will actually be able to use fibre for internet. We are in upgrade zone 1 and currently have really slow adsl. Can’t wait to migrate over – any idea when the big switch on happens?
Wayne, The Fibre to South Brisbane project is a unique project for this particular exchange area and not part of a fibre roll out plan. Bulimba is not a part of this project.
Hi Ian, Can you please contact 1800 008 994 and they will be able to assist you in connecting your services.
Contacted Telstra last week and I’m scheduled to be migrated to 100M speeds next week – cant wait. Telstra has been extremely helpful – which I’m very pleasantly surprised at.
David,
Unicomm is a CPE installer/maintainer. eg PABX, Networks etc.
Can you provide me with a contact number to call who knows what is happening to customers who have Telstra ISDN2 basic rate services (which are copper fed). I have tried your 1800 008 994 service with various IVR options (2/4, 1/3) however no one I have spoken to knows. Spent approximately a total of 4 hours on the phone over the last two weeks without success. Unicomms phone number is 07 3251 3333
Thanks
Hello Lex, I’ve asked for someone from Telstra Business to get in touch as soon as possible.
100 Mbits installed on Friday and fully operational – speedtest.net reports at 89 Mbits. Can down load at 4-5 megabytes per sec – incredible.
Ian
Is it possible for someone from telstra to let us know which ISP’s are providing fibre services in sth brisbane. Also where can I view Telstra’s pricing plan?
Unfortunately, due to obligations of confidentiality to our wholesale customers, we are unable to provide you with a list of ISPs who will be providing fibre services in South Brisbane. There are however a large number of ISPs who will be offering fibre services in South Brisbane and suggest you contact those known to you to ascertain whether they will be doing so.
There are two consumer products available over fibre – voice and broadband. We sell these as stand-alone products or as part of a bundle. It is important to note that a phone service is required for a broadband service.
Telstra’s HomeLine plans can be viewed here:
http://www.telstra.com.au/home-phone/plans-rates-connections/index.htm
BigPond Velocity plans are available here:
http://www.telstra.com.au/smart-community/download/document/velocity-rate-card.pdf
further information on the broadband product is here:
http://go.bigpond.com/broadband/what-is-broadband/
The bundles are listed here:
http://go.bigpond.com/bundles/index.jsp
If the customer calls 1800 008 994, the team would be happy to provide more information on Telstra’s retail plans.
Has anyone else in the fibre roll-out area had their footpath demolished by the bottom-feeder contractors Telstra are using to lay these cables? What was advised to be a 3 to 4 day inconvenience with the footpath restored to council standards turned into a month from hell with dust and noise, damaged gutters and roads, multiple severed phone lines & water pipes, service pit misplacements, amateurish concreting, dumped rubble and the list goes on. Our steep footpath is a sad mess with the \sawdust/sand\ top-up soil being washed away each times it rains. Complaints led to a few patches of turf being haphazardly applied in a totally inefficient manner. The very next day the postie skidded over some of it ripping it out of place. It probably doesn’t matter as it appears to be dying anyway despite the rain. I suspect it has no \soil\ under it to root into. The community should not have to put up with garbage like this from a company cutting corners!
PS There is still dumped rubble in our yard and street!
Hi Peter, Just had a message with the construction lead on the project and he’s going to email you so we can find out more information and get any issues fixed up asap. Brendan
That would be nice. Pity it didn’t happen after complaints to the contractor and a Telstra employee that I spoke to (by chance) on site. To be fair to him he was sympathetic and did say he would “get something done about it” ….and we got a few squares of turf. I look forward to some real action. I’ve also lodged a complaint with the council today.
I think that what needs to be understood, and please before you accuse me as being an employee of the contractor or Telstra, I am not and have been retired since 1993 (on medical grounds) but I was in the industry for 41 years before that, is that with work outside your premises that needs to be restored in most cases the contractor is not permitted to do this as the various Councils consider this to be their responsibility and charge the contractor to carry out restoration and it is not because they think it cant be done better than they do it but because it is another of their ways to make money so all the contractor can do is make temporary restoration and then submit the job to Council for completion. Further Council will not do it as it occurs but will wait until the whole area is finished and then probably put it out to tender as they will make more money again this way.
Thanks very much Tel$tra for not providing multicast in South Brisbane and jacking up the prices for everyone else. Will you be refunding the $900 I put down for the PVR hardware for Fetch Tv? As long as T-Box works I guess it’s ok huh?
Multicasting is not currently supported on Telstra’s copper network and, as you have pointed out, will not be available over fibre in South Brisbane. Telstra investigated whether it would be feasible to provide multicasting over fibre in the South Brisbane exchange area. The outcome of the investigation was that it would not be commercially viable to deliver this feature given the development costs and the small number of services. We recommend you speak with your service provider about what options are available to you. We have explained to wholesale customers that we are in discussions with NBN Co to transfer ownership and/or control of the fibre infrastructure in the South Brisbane exchange area to them at some stage following completion of the network upgrade. If this occurs wholesale customers will be able to access any features available on the NBN, which is expected to include multicasting.
FetchTV and multicasting are currently supported by the South Brisbane copper network/exchange. I’m quite sure there was a statement saying this upgrade would be to NBN standard but that’s not what ended up happening. I’m annoyed because I would love to use the fibre right now but switching would be far more expensive than NBN plans and the aforementioned PVR I purchased would become a very expensive paperweight. Waiting until the completion of the upgrade before uninflated prices could be a minimum of at least a year away.
Also, I got home yesterday to find my Internet wasn’t working. I rang up iiNet and they said Telstra sent an authorisation to churn my Naked DSL service over to them. I just got off the phone with possibly an unhelpful Telstra rep who said “Well what do you want me to do about it? I don’t have a phone number so I can’t be expected to look up any information about it now can I”. Unbelievable, must be all my fault I guess.
I swear they have a griefing department
Hi Jonathon. Please send me whatever info you do have and I’ll have someone investigate. I sent you an email, you can reply or use this form. Please include a contact number. Brendan
David, why is multicast making commercial sense to the NBN but not to Telstra? I think the commercial disincentive is that it would compete with Foxtel and so must be avoided.
It’s not true that multicast was not previously (or even currently for most of the area) available. The network should be built to NBN standards and include the same features and speeds (NBN has 100/40, 50/20, 25/5, 12/1).
I see Internode has released NBN pricing and now it is obvious that what they are being charged at wholesale in South Brisbane is hugely different (eg they can offer triple the data for 67% of the cost for the 100/40,300Gb NBN plan compared to the 100/5,100Gb South Brisbane plan).
Jeremy, The network upgrade in South Brisbane is a separate project to the NBN.
There is no relationship between the price NBN may charge for services and Telstra’s South Brisbane exchange wholesale prices.
Telstra investigated whether it would be feasible to provide multicasting over fibre at the South Brisbane exchange. The outcome of the investigation was that it would not be commercially viable to deliver this feature given the development costs and the small number of services in this exchange service area.
Thanks
Was notified by letter dated 1st October that my ISP will terminate copper service to my street in Highgate Hill on 1st November. Have rung iinet, internode and TPG to find that I am already too late to switch providers. Now have NO CHOICE but to have Telstra as supplier. No Bundling, Mandatory Home phone line @ $29/mth, Less Download for more money – if this is not a monopoly, it sure feels like one.
I would like to know why these mysterious cut-off dates are not published.
I would like to know why when I contacted Telstra about a connection they said I would also have to pay between $59 and $299 for a Telstra copper wire (yes, the same ones being removed).
Patrice, The dates that the fibre network will be rolled out in particular areas can be found on http://www.fibretosouthbrisbane.com.au. We cannot comment why you were informed that it is too late to switch providers but our migration process has been developed to allow end users to change providers at any time before and after migration of services to fibre.
There are a number of fibre providers servicing the area, Telstra being one of them. A search on the internet may also provide you with more telecommunication provider choices.
The Telstra fee that you were quoted would be applicable if you did not currently have a phone service connected at your address or you are reconnecting an existing service or a new service at to your address. If your address is ready to be upgraded to fibre and you already have an active phone line connected at your address the upgrade to fibre would be at no charge.
If you wish to send through your details through I can arrange for someone to contact you.
I moved to Highgate Hill area on 14th October and chose to go onto the Fibre Optic network that was only days away, which turned into three weeks with no land line or internet. I was connected to fibre optic on 1st November, all is well except I cannot logg onto my bigpond account nor receive my emails. I have had numerous very long phone calls two & three hours being switched from person to person to fix the problem. Last night after two hours and being told all was fixed and I would have access after midnight, but today same story, no access.This has now been eight weeks with no email access. Last night I had many helpful people, one guy in particular who was transferring me to his supervisor in technical support put me through to landline problems, which ended with a very helpful lady who tried to get me to the right area. So guess I will again have to spend another afternoon after work for hours on the phone, to hear many more explanations. Apparantly my problem is unique, I just want it fixed. Please don’t reply to my email as I am unable to receive any.
Hi Kerry. I have requested someone call you. Brendan
I live in highgate hill and received a letter from my current ISP (Optus) at the end of October that my home phone and broadband services would be disconnected as of 31 december due to the recent south Brisbane fibre upgrade. I have spent countless hours trawling through the ‘bits and parts’ information relating to the issue (which might I add has only included one fact sheet from telstra, contrary to that as expressed on the ‘fibre to south brisbane’ website) to only realise that I am looking at around $500 in installation/setup costs!!! This includes $299 connection fee, plus new wireless router (which you need for fibre) plus various setup fees with a new ISP. I love how the \wholesale\ cost of the connection cannot be waived with any ISP but telstra! So you already want to lock me into a 24 month contract, with useless overpriced Internet bundles that will no doubt be more competitive in a year or so. And they say will live in a consumer driven society, what a load of s@&t! Two questions for a telstra community respresentative to respond to: (1) how would you feel/react if you were in my situation? (2) what is telstra going to do to ‘compensate’ me for all of this inconvienience?
Kerry,
I hope your problem was eventually fixed. I’ve had fibre internet since mid September and my bigpond email account still doesn’t work. I tried to get support a couple of times but kept getting transferred around and just gave up. I’m going to try one more time now.
Hello Jeremy, I’d like to help. Please can you use this online form to send me your contact details and your account number. I’ll have someone local call you.
Hi Brendan,
I did contact support earlier today to give that one more try. They agree that the email does not work with the credentials that are used to access the internet service.
The report is now sent to back-of-house so I will give them a chance to try to get it working and will submit your online form if that doesn’t resolve the matter. Thanks again.
Your welcome Jeremy. Let me know how it goes.
Hi Brendan,
Well it’s now getting close to 3 weeks since I re-logged the ongoing fault for my bigpond email that has never worked since the Sep 2011 installation. I got an sms the following day (11/1) with a reference number – “From BigPond Tech Support. Your fault has been logged and the reference number is INxxxxxxxxxxxxx. We will keep you informed of the fault progress”. That was the last I heard of it again.
I’ve submitted the form that you suggested. Any help would be appreciated.
Hello Jerremy, I’ve followed this up for you and asked that I be kept informed also.
Hi Jeremy, Support have left you a voicemail and I just wanted to let you know that the Velocity technical team has rectified the BigPond issue.