Vodafone NZ sux (yet again!)

I'd expect it just needs the necessary hardware in the cabinet, a VDSL
modem in your house, and a short enough span of copper from the cabinet
to your house. Maximum useful distance for VDSL is much shorter than
ADSL variants.

The ISP doesn't need anything special to support VDSL, just a fast
enough digital connection to the network of whoever owns the cabinet.

18 months might just be too long ago, so your local cabinet might have
missed out on VDSL, or perhaps it is too far away from your house. A
friend recently got VDSL after his local cabinet was upgraded about 6
months ago. I think his cabinet is about two houses away so he is
getting very good speed.

 

Thanks for the explaination David.
--
/Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1).
[Sent from my OrbitalT ocular implant interface]

 

So... if I switched from ADSL2+ to VDSL, I need the rather pricey VDSL modem, but also someone has to make some wiring changes from the street to the house? or does it still run over the existing phone line?

 

I doubt most help desks know anything. They're basically give a
"script" to run through to try to solve your problem, but they rely too
heavily on that script and the rather useless "Network Status" pages
run by the provider - those pages are often purposely not updated
properly so that it makes them look better (Vodafone's Network Status
only shows about a quarter of their actual issues, even if you discount
the ones they don't believe are happening!).[/QUOTE]

I am giving examples of help desks that can.
Suggest *we* support those that can and leave those that can't to talk to
themselves.

 

Telecom's standard upgrade the box time was about 2 years (from time of
asking).

We had a box close and asked for it to be upgraded. Heard nothing (typical
and not surprising), then about 2 years later, telecom rings saying "faster
broadband is now available in your area". I ask why I care, and they sound
confused and tell me I asked for it to be upgraded. When pressed, they admit
this was 'some time ago'.

It may simply be that the box has been upgraded and no one except
telecom/choru knows ?

 

.... while the two comapnies are busy playing "pass the blame", you're
stuck with a faulty service.

If there's a problem with the phoneline, then Telecom (who do still own
99.9% of the lines and equipment, even if it is through the "separate"
Chorus). If you're telephone account is with Telecom, then there's
nobody they can play "pass the balme" with, and the problem actually
gets fixed.[/QUOTE]

You can believe that is you like. Certainly true with power and liners
companies.

But ... Actrix has sorted out lines problems before for us, quite quickly,
and they don't own any.

 

1) It will be cheaper
2) What is your time valued at ? ... and what is aggravation valued at ?
3) It won't take as long as you fear.
4) If what you want is not being provided and you put up with it, it just
encourages them to contine to provide that level of "service".

The solution remains yours to implement.

 

We need a phone line, and we don't need multiple device connected at
once. Again, dial-up is perfectly fine ... it's non-working dial-up
that is the problem.[/QUOTE]

The solution remains obvious ... sorry.

If you won't do anything about the problem, then please, at least stop
complaining about it.

Thanks

 

Cheaper?!? Paying two IPSs for the same thing?? You might want to go
back to maths classes. ;-)

No, it'll take longer ... most things take longer than you think they
will. It's one of Sod's Laws. ;-)

 

Yeah, I was wondering about that being the case - it might have actually
been last spring rather than 18 months ago too. Then again I don't know
where 'my' cabinet is so have no idea of the distance. I get a pretty good
ADSL2+ connection. <shrug>
--
/Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1).
[Sent from my OrbitalT ocular implant interface]

 

Yep, they seem to have quite a bit of 'push' with chorus. When it was
established that I needed to have my line swapped to another port at the
exchange to fix an issue it was done within 26 hours. When I had line issues
when I was with Xtra several years back when they and Chorus were all part
of Telecom it took over a week to get a tech out.
--
/Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1).
[Sent from my OrbitalT ocular implant interface]

 

No wiring changes from the cabinet to the house, just changes in the
cabinet (reconnecting your phone line from an ADSL2+ system to a VDSL
system) and replacing your modem.

The key question is the length of the telephone line between your house
and the cabinet. The usual way that gets shortened is if another cabinet
gets installed closer to your house. You aren't likely to be able to
arrange to have your telephone line rerouted in a straighter/shorter
line.

According to Wikipedia, NZ is using VDSL2, which drops off in
performance to the point where if the length of telephone line from your
house to the cabinet is at least 1.6 km, it will be no better than
ADSL2+ for downstream data (but might do better for upstream).

At 1.0 km, maximum downstream speed is 50 Mbps. At 0.5 km, maximum
downstream speed is 100 Mbps, which is where it gets speed capped (if
not at a lower speed), so being closer than 0.5 km won't help.

Upstream speed is capped at 10 Mbps, so should be consistent out to at
least 1.6 km unless there is a mode change at some point which drops it
to a lower speed.

 

Again, great info. Is there any way I can find out where 'my' cabinet is?

Cheers,
--
/Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1).
[Sent from my OrbitalT ocular implant interface]

 

Again, great info. Is there any way I can find out where 'my' cabinet is?[/QUOTE]

It's an almost certainly grey box about 1.5 m tall by 0.5 ish ? Look for it
in a street near you.

 

Cheaper?!? Paying two IPSs for the same thing?? You might want to go
back to maths classes. ;-)[/QUOTE]

1) that's arithmetic, nt maths
2) no, you *only pay one ISP* (the good one).

Longer than you think it will, but shorter than it could.

Seriously, lower your aggravation levels and switch. You *will* love it.

 

... and I bet they said it wasn't their fault lots of times before that.

 

Telecom / Chorus / whoever was going around installing "mini-cabinets"
in many locations at one stage as a remedy to the long copper wiring
used here. (Apparently "kiwi ingenuity" meant they were originally able
to put cabinets further apart, which was a great cost saving in the
days of voice phone calls, but became a problem with broadband
internet.)

 

1) that's arithmetic, nt maths [/QUOTE]

Arithmetic is part of maths.

A I said before, you have to keep paying the original ISP until you're
sure you've updated all the people and places using the old email
address.

 

Thanks Dave - very informative.

I would say we are less than 100m from the cabinet - it is on the corner ofour street and we are the second house from it. We get up to about 16Mb/s on ADSL2 but it drops away to less than half that when the kids in the neighbourhood get home from school and sign into iTunes and YouTube.

I work a lot from home and it would be nice to get the higher upload speed.

 

There will be a green steel cabinet on the side of the road somewhere nearby - similar to this:
http://www.mfe.govt.nz/laws/standards/panel-antennae-roadside-cabinet.jpg