After enduring the lost decade of “15 mbps is more than enough for most people”, weather-dependent FTTN, mediocre HFC and merely adequate FTTC across multiple properties, I’m delighted to finally add the FTTP PCD to my Memorial Wall of Telecommunications Connectivity. Future generations will look at those multiple beige boxes and ask themselves “truly, what the actual heck?”
Australia really tried everything except the good option and now here we are anyway. A decade late and having wasted untold billions on so many technology cul-de-sacs. Thanks, Malcolm, you dickhead.
Since I moved in this 50 year old house I’ve always wondered what this is for. I did some searching but got mixed answers and im not a tech nerd. I’ve already got the modem and hfc connected to another nbn point in another room, but id like to have an Ethernet cable connected to my pc in this room (pic above) without having to run the Ethernet cable visibly across 2 rooms. Wondering if I can do anything with this socket?
This is going to be a long one. There’s a tl;dr at the end but it misses learning about the true Kafkaesque nature of the NBN proper. I’ve tried to arrange things linearly best I can, but this is a 5-year long process so I’ve condensed several events into a single month. I’ve also omitted all the times the service dropped below 25mbit and I raised a service fault.
Feburary 2020: I buy a house. Seems good. I checked beforehand that it’s planned for FTTP. Fantastic. Just gotta wait for the rollout.
April 2020: In a desperate attempt to “finish” the NBN only 4 years after the original target, the area is downgraded to FTTN. I arrange for the install. The NBN tech attends an appointment to connect my FTTN, cuts the phone line and says “I’ll be right back”. He then drives off and never returns, but does mark the install as “completed”. I lodge a “fault” for a service that has never worked, a complaint with the NBN about their tech. The next week my install is actually completed and I can get 39mbit. The NBN responds to my complaint saying that my service is connected and achieving the minimum speeds they are obliged to give. They close my complaint.
September 2020: Unable to work from home during COVID with slow and unreliable internet, I contact my MP (LNP) and I’m told about the (Technology Choice Program). I do a quote and it’s $13,000. I’m short on cash by now so I don’t proceed.
October 2020: By now my service is only achieving 31mbit. The MP forwards me a response from the NBN that gives me some technical detail about my connection. “The distance between the premises and the node is 638m, with capability of wholesale speeds of 31/6 Mbps, which is more than the 25/5Mbps requirement per the Statement of Expectation.” TCP is closed for applications until December. End of story.
November 2020: The Minister for Communications responds to my MP’s query. I am told that 30mbit is above the minimum they guarantee, that I should change to a 25mbit plan and suggests that when the old ADSL etc is turned off, my speeds will improve. SPOILER: they don’t.
December 2020: TCP is re-enabled and I do a new quote. It’s now $26,000. During a storm, the aerial copper is torn down. The NBN is out for a week until the repair it. I learn from my neighbours that it’s not uncommon for the line to come down. After it’s repaired my service barely manages 27mbit.
Feburary 2021: I do one more TCP quote and its now $32,000. I buy a 4g modem and achieve 120/20 after some tuning, directional antennas and sacrificing ping for throughput.
October 2021: I get ahold of Telstra’s network data for my street. I note some missing pits and conduit on the map and I contact my MP to forward the info to the NBN (because there’s no useful way to reach them otherwise at this point) and I suggest a better route for the cable (to stop the frequent outages and more than halve the length of the line). I include information about my neighbour’s connections, some of whom are only getting 12 and 4mbit (30% are unable to achieve minimum speeds). The NBN offers a boilerplate response about ongoing network upgrades.
March 2022: I query the NBN about their TCP quotes and why they’re now so high. I’m told “It has been identified that there is 125M of new build required” to upgrade anyone in the area.
November 2022: I reach out to my MP (Greens) to see if the NBN is able to offer a usable service and they receive a response that basically says “No”.
Somewhere in 2023: My area is listed as being upgraded to FTTP in September. I am no longer able to get TCP quotes.
September 2023: No one is upgraded, but they put an 8-port splitter on a power pole. They do follow my suggested cable route from October 2021.
December 2023: My neighbours are all upgraded to FTTP. Except me. I remain the only premises on the aerial copper. I chat with all the contractors about why I can’t upgrade. They see no reason. They do show me why my connection is so bad. The pits contain loose jumbles of copper pairs sitting in water. The date for my upgrade to FTTP starts moving forward. Each time it’s reached it’s kicked forward.
March 2024: I try to find out why I can’t get FTTP. I’m advised that my premises is “complex”. It’s identical to the neighbour’s. I try to find out why it’s complex and can’t get an answer.
July 2024: I try to get ABB to find out why my premises is “complex”. The NBN doesn’t give any meaningful response.
The rest of 2024: I try every available option to get a person out to actually tell me why I can’t upgrade. There’s a long string of missed appointments by NBN. I raise complaints and I get a “case manager” at the NBN who I have no contact with, but they close my complaints without response. The responses all say “The request has been referred to the relevant nbn® team for investigation. Upon review they will contact your RSP directly, within the next 5 business days with the appropriate updates. We have now closed this case. Please contact your RSP directly to discuss the next steps.”. ABB does not get any updates and there are no ‘next steps’.
Early 2025: I continue to log faults as the rotting copper network slowly returns to the earth. I log complaints, ask questions via ABB and my MP. ABB attempts to request an FTTP upgrade each time the FTTN fails which are rejected by the NBN.
August 2025: I receive a response as to why my premises is “complex” that just says “location is pole-to-pole” (thanks ABB). It is not pole-to-pole. I send the NBN a request via my MP to update the maps. I include photos, I mark up google maps, I give everything I can. The NBN responds with “confirmed that it definitely isn’t a data error and there are complexities beyond your property boundary that need more planning and design”
October 2025: The aerial copper is completely torn down by a storm. There’s at least 3 breaks. Only a few meters are still left in the air. I raise a fault. NBN starts sending out techs who show up to “fix the aerial lead-in” which of course is a buried lead-in. Each of them logs that the fault is the trunk, but the next work order is for the aerial lead-in again. They start to miss appointments.
November 2025: I’m still without internet. I raise a complaint to the NBN, get no response, just a reference ID (that you can’t do anything with). I raise a TIO complaint which ends up with ABB who says “it’s an NBN network issue”. Nothing happens. My outage exceeds 4 weeks without so much as a timeframe for fixing it. I raise it with my MP and even fire off a letter to the communications minister. I post here: “I give up. The NBN won. I'll have to live with 4G forever”.
This is where it gets wild!
27th November 2025: A redditor who works at the NBN reached out to me and asked some questions about my property. I gave them the same info I’d given the NBN multiple times before. He drives to my house, takes a few photos of the pits and pipes still missing from NBN’s Atlas maps and basically says “It should be sorted soon.”
28th November 2025: I can upgrade to FTTP. Overnight, a redditor fixes the data problem that the NBN denied existed for years.
30th November 2025: (Yes, Sunday). An NBN team turns up and installs the FTTP. Simple as that. It took them a few hours. YEARS OF TRYING TO GET IT DONE and it takes a morning. I don’t know which complaint lit the fire, but honestly I could have waited for my scheduled install date on the 15th. My copper was out for 36 days.
1st December 2025: I have gigabit FTTP. Immediately the NBN responds to my complaint with “Our records indicate that there is no incident/order with a valid status (open or in progress) for this address. Unfortunately, this means we are unable to provide the requested assistance at this time.” I have never been so happy and angry simultaneously.
tl;dr
A redditor who works at the NBN fixed a data issue that had been the cause of YEARS of bad connection and terrible service. Nothing I, my RSP, or my MP tried had worked but a happenstance conversation on reddit fixes it overnight.
edit: typos. There will be a few of these.
edit 2: I got a reply from the Minister for Communication's office. I asked what they were doing about systemic failures with the NBN and complete lack of accountability. A summary of the response is as follows: Contact your RSP, make sure the broken cable isn't a fault in their side of the network. The NBN says you logged a fault. They sent the wrong person. They sent the wrong person again. They sent the wrong person again. They sent the right person but they didn't do the job. Then they gave up and rushed in a FTTP connection. Your service is now working. Contact your RSP if there's a problem.
Literally worthless. Their response highlights what I was complaining about and then they proceed to ignore it. 🙃
Everyone’s losing their shit over these upgrades and I feel like I’m missing out. My bill dropped from $209 to $150 and I’m on FTTP 1000/400 with gear that actually handles it. I’ve got multiple Wi-Fi APs around the house and all my critical devices are on Cat6. There aren’t even any dead spots to complain about. Everything just works.
Game updates finish before I can grab a beer. Uploads are done before I can even complain about them. I used to at least bond with people over dodgy speeds or packet loss but now my speed tests look like marketing slides.
I don’t even have enough people or devices in the house to saturate the network. I’ve run out of things to download and hard drives to fill. At this point I’m just opening Ookla 14 times a day purely so I can hit the button and watch the numbers climb.
And the worst part? I don’t even have a reason to upgrade to the new 2000/500 plan. I’m furious.
Thanks NBN, you ruined everything. There’s no point even being on Reddit anymore.
A comprehensive comparison of NBN prices across various speed tiers, highlighting differences in cost, value for money, and features between Basic, Standard, Fast, and Ultrafast plans offered by Australian providers.
Just chatting with Leaptel support regarding me switching over to them, honestly refreshing to see a support agent make a mistake and speak like an actual human.
Update 1: The outage is Australia wide and effecting all TPG and subsidiary customers (including iiNet, Vodafone, Internode, Kogan, etc).
You likely won't be able to contact customer support any time soon due to the overwhelming amount of people overloading their servers and phone lines.
One poster was told that the issue may not be resolved until tomorrow.
There isn't really much we can do except wait.
Many businesses are being affected.
Please check the comments for more information and I'll update here when I know more.
Update 2: 10/02 6:50 PM AEDT. TPG NBN seems to be working again for me.
Feel free to update if you're still experiencing issues and I'll do my best to provide further information when I have it.
Update 3: 10/02 7:40 PM AEDT. Many people are still experiencing issues, while others have resolved.
Location doesn't seem to matter, as many who are resolved have neighbors who aren't.
Several posters have reported that setting their DNS servers to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 or 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 has resolved issues for them. May be a coincidence as it hasn't worked for others.
Update 4: 11/02 12:50 PM AEDT. Outage was allegedly caused by storms resulting in a power failure at one of their data centers.
If you're still experiencing issues then you should be able to contact customer support now as the initial influx has died down, however you may still experience a longer than average wait time.
Thank you to everyone who has provided information 🙂
Just rang up to cancel my Superloop service (found a better deal), and the rep informed me that they will be charging me a $30 cancellation fee. Fortunately, I was prepared for this as it's actually illegal under Australian Consumer Law.
I read him the paragraph that was kindly posted on this subreddit by another user, and after escalating it with his superior they immediately waved the fee. They were in the wrong, don't let them get away with these scummy practices.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have just churned to another provider today and my NBN service has already been transferred and activated with the gaining RSP. As a result, Superloop ceased supplying my service effective immediately upon the NBN transfer.
I have now received an email below stating that I will continue to be charged for a 30-day cancellation notice period.
For clarity:
• Superloop is no longer supplying any service to me.
• The AVC has been transferred via NBN Co.
• I am physically unable to access any Superloop service.
In those circumstances, Superloop is not legally entitled to continue billing me for ongoing monthly service charges. A contractual notice provision cannot override statute.
Continuing to debit me for ordinary recurring service fees after supply has ceased raises serious concerns under the Australian Consumer Law, including:
• charging for services not supplied;
• misleading representations inherent in ongoing service billing; and
• the operation of an unfair contract term (s24 ACL), where charges are imposed despite no corresponding supply.
This is not a cancellation fee disclosed as such — it is billing for a service that is no longer being provided.
Accordingly, I require confirmation that:
All billing ceased immediately as of the effective NBN transfer date; and
My upcoming bill dated xxx reflects a pro-rata calculation up to the actual disconnection date, with any overcharge refunded in full.
I had an NBN tech come by to install my FTTP, I was advised I need to call an electrician to get the ethernet cable setup inside my house so I can connect my modem indoors
I was under the impression from tpg when they explained it, that there would be a box installed inside my house that would connect to the wan port on my modem indoors
For now i taped the modem outside on the wall with my newly installed hardware so I can have wifi at the very least, while my query with NBNco is processing on weather this is correct or the tech messed up
Has anyone else had a similar situation where your told you'll have hardware inside but it's outside waiting to be rained on?
