[Belmont Babes]

Well as of today I am a "WAITER". According to our network provider we cannot have Broadband until someone else leaves or Telecom make the exchange bigger. Can anyone enlighten me? We had Broadband in our old rental no problem and then when we moved on 28th May we lost our connection and now have to wait in a queue. I am not a happy bunny :wah

[BaldyBeardyBloke]

We had this in our last rental. Think we had nine weeks or something until we could get connected.

'orrible init?

I feel your pain.

[Georgebulldog]

From my limited knowledge, your Broadband is a basically a connection from your home to a port at the local exchange, everyone has there own port to connect to the internet - in your last place you lived, there were ports available for you to have Broadband via your service Provider at the local exchange, but your new address must have a different exchange that is classed as your local one. If no ports are available - two options are available to the provider, more ports (expensive) or people leaving (no provider wants that!).

P.S. yes I work for a provider!!

[Mickstim]

Ouch Nat - that's a bummer! We got broadband immediately, thank heavens, but it would also drive me crazy if we had to wait for it. It's a lifeline when you are so far from everyone you know, hey? And next time you are in Tauranga - let us know!!

Barb x

[holland]

Good grief!!! I thought this was going to be an exitied post about being online...grrrrr

[Leccy-Lee]

And they say NZ isn't a third world country! lol
Move to Welly, cables much easier..

Sorry, seriously feeling your pain!

[Steadybears]

Oh thats too terrible - I know how I would feel having no comms with family back home - we a wee distance from Cambridge - but Hamilton not too far and if you wanting to come in and use ours and have a cuppa tea - Im home most the time - give me and shout. Does your libruary not allow you to use their internet - it helped us til we got ourselves connected.

[JandM]

(((((())))))

[Red Devil]

Well as of today I am a "WAITER".

Good grief!!! I thought this was going to be an exitied post about being online...grrrrr

I thought this was going to be an excited post about getting a job ;) :D

Seriously though, not a nice situation to be in... hope you get connected soon :nice1

[Carey]

That's miz. How is it determined whether one rental will have BB or not? how can we ensure we have it; can just imagine the family's reaction if we're not able to be in touch as soon as we arrive!

[StevieD]

Crappers!!! I know you told me this last week, didn't think it would still be going on.... is this with Telecom or Slingshot?

I'll see you at footy tonight, chat about it then.

Steve

[Belmont Babes]

Apparently there is no room at the local exchange. Slingshot can't put any ports in only Telecom. Telecom don't seem to be in any rush and there isn't anyone I can speak to there to complain, believe me I have tried. The reply "Madam, Telecom are doing their best and working on exchanges all of the time, you just have to wait for someone to leave or until it's given extra ports, it could take months". I explained that houses are being built all around us so I don't think anyone is about to leave but the problem will increase. Just blessed to have such lovely neighbours with a fab internet cafe :D

[PeteS]

Apparently there is no room at the local exchange. Slingshot can't put any ports in only Telecom. Telecom don't seem to be in any rush and there isn't anyone I can speak to there to complain, believe me I have tried. The reply "Madam, Telecom are doing their best and working on exchanges all of the time, you just have to wait for someone to leave or until it's given extra ports, it could take months". I explained that houses are being built all around us so I don't think anyone is about to leave but the problem will increase. Just blessed to have such lovely neighbours with a fab internet cafe :D

The Telecom lady I spoke to said "I'm sorry sir, but you don't seem to realise that we are the only people you can get this service from" WRONG. Take a look at http://www.farmside.co.nz/services/farmside_broadband/ and kick telecon into touch!

[Silverwing86]

The Telecom lady I spoke to said "I'm sorry sir, but you don't seem to realise that we are the only people you can get this service from" WRONG. Take a look at http://www.farmside.co.nz/services/farmside_broadband/ and kick telecon into touch!

That's great Pete, but have you noticed the speed (or should I say slowness ;-) ) they're offering and against what prices ?? Hardly a comparison I would say, 'Dial up' speed for 'Cable' prices ?? Whether this a good alternative is highly questionable ?! Fortunately there are other providers of Satellite Broadband with better speeds out there...

Of course, if you are dependant on the internet you may not have much choice...

We know all about this situation as we were faced with it as well when we moved into our property last year. We had everything sorted, or so we thought, landline with Telecom organised, connection with Orcon for broadband organised, even got Sky ready to connect us up, no problems you'd think.

Unfortunately, the Telecom guy who had to physically come out to our property to get the landline going did a lousy job. He said it was working, but it turned out it wasn't. Called Telecom to get it fixed, they said they couldn't come out because there were outstanding work orders from other Telecom departments for both the Orcon broadband connection and the Sky connection, which had to be removed before anything could be done about fixing the landline, can you believe it :eek: ?!!?

So we had to cancel the connection requests with Orcon and Sky, which meant we lost the one available port in the exchange, and had to now wait until someone moved away or the exchange was added to, which could take anywhere up to 6 months or more !! As OH was dependant on a decent internet connection for his work, we had no choice but to go for a Satellite connection, at great expense and not so great reliability (when the cloudcover is too thick, the connection can become very patchy indeed !) !

Along the way I found out, by being rather sneaky and pretending to be a potential Telecom broadband customer :D who wanted to make sure a connection was actually available before signing on*, that an addition to the exchange had already been applied for and granted by the council so we knew it wouldn't last the full 6 months or more, but it was still incredibly frustrating !

(* You see, apparently there are departments within Telecom that even Telecom employees cannot contact directly, only through E-mail, and they're very tight with their information to anyone, customer or fellow employee. My sneaky tactics managed to get me a contact within such a department which is how I found out about the addition to the exchange :nice1 !)

We also knew that once the addition to the exchange was in use, it was totally up to the 'discretion' of Telecom when (and if !) they would decide to let Orcon (who of course also had a waiting list of customers clamoring to get a connection !) have some of the ports and how many at that ! I believe that has changed recently (unbundling ??), so that should be a bit better now.

Anyway, in the end it took three months to get the broadband connection. We used the Satellite for that time and it worked okay most of the time. We were glad there was at least something we could use so that OH could continue working. When the Orcon connection finally did come through we had to terminate the Satellite connection (at a cost of $ 900 early termination fee !!), since it was unaffordable to pay for both.

We also had to wait with getting Sky installed until the broadband situation had sorted itself out because otherwise we were in danger of losing our 'spot' on the waiting list again ! Luckily FreeView came along to save the day and we were at least able to watch those few channels in good quality rather than just perpetual snow !

So Natalie, I can totally understand your pain and frustration, but unfortunately there is nowhere you can turn to to complain and actually get something done about it. It's simply a matter of waiting it out. Luckily you can vent your frustrations to your hearts content here though :p !

I would say though that Orcon were kind enough to give us a free dial-up connection while we waited, has your provider done the same for you ? Might be worth chasing it up if they haven't ? You never know...

Good luck with it and definitely be grateful for internet cafés and kind neighbours !

Cheers,
Silver

PS Apologies for the loooooong post, I guess there's still some residual frustration lurking about ;-) ?

[M-Squared]

We're in an area that's still being developed and is unlikely to be finished for about 3 years. Telecom aren't going to put in the hubs and exchanges until the area is complete. We have the only option available unless we want (*shriek!!!*) dial-up, and that's mobile broadband. Telecom mobile broadband has better reception than Vodafone, but I was very grateful to Vodafone for looking up our address and being very open and honest that their reception was not as good as Telecom's. :nice1 Still, some nights when I'm online, my connection drops up to 5 times. Drives me batty, but it's our only high-speed option.