ADSL Availability in our area
Post date: 30-Jan-2017 09:23:32
As a group, WCAG often gets asked about the existing communications infrastructure - and specifically about ADSL in the area. To help out some of the newer residents, we have compiled some information.
Disclaimer: Information herein is a summary of what we have found out so far. It is based on publicly available information. We are NOT Telstra technicians, and the information may be inaccurate and should be used at your own risk.
Here are a few dot points on what we know at the moment:
Infrastructure
Telstra exchanges at:
Sutton (Sutton Rd/Federal Hwy),
Geary's Gap (Old Federal Hwy/Bungendore Road) and
Wamboin (Amungula Place)
RIMs at:
Geary's Gap (Denley Drive/Woolshed Lane)
Bungendore (Norton Road East)
Unknown (possibly older) equipment at:
Wamboin (Norton Road Mid-East)
As a first pass, you can check out the attached map of the area and the exchange boundaries, and RIM locations. Typically (but not always) RIM's will serve the area around them extending away from the exchange they are connected to.
You can check available ports at each of these locations by visiting:
http://www.telstrawholesale.com.au/products/broadband/adsl/adsl-reports-plans.html
And downloading the latest version of the "Available ADSL Capacity - Exchanges" and "Available ADSL Capacity - CAN" documents. These are updated monthly, and while the latest January update appears to have read errors, a quick trip to the Internet Archive show the December 2016 documents which show:
Available Exchange ports:
Sutton = 57x ADSL2
Geary's Gap = 1x ADSL1 (probably long used up by now)
Wamboin = 20x ADSL2
Available RIM ports:
Geary's Gap = 46x ADSL2
Bungendore = 27x ADSL1
Please note that these are subject to change regularly, and its best to find the most up-to-date information from the link above. Also note, that even if you live right next to a RIM, you may or may not have access to it (eg. your telephone line could be patched through to the exchange).
To find out more about your actual Telephone line (eg. its location and in which way it is heading), you can always do your own "Dial-Before-You-Dig" inquiry at:
Registering is free, as is requesting plan information (if you say it is for excavation purposes - eg. planting trees). This will provide you with the Telstra (and Essential Energy) asset locations in your vicinity. Please note that if the area you request is too large to fit onto an A3 page, Telstra provides the information in DWF format (rather than a more usable PDF) and you will need appropriate software to view this.
Speeds
Technically Telstra's ADSL2 can give you speeds up to 24Mbps down and 1Mbps Up (these are not generally Annex M capable exchanges). While ADSL1 can give you up to 8Mbps down and 0.3Mbps Up. However, as you will find, these are theoretical speeds only, and anyone in the area with an actual speed of more than 12Mbps down can be jumping with joy (and will probably be the only one) - most consider themselves very lucky to get 5Mbps down, and quite a few will report speeds down in the 1.5Mbps levels... distance and copper line conditions can make for difficult connections - especially after rain.
Due to the use of older Pair-Gain technologies, some properties will not even be able to get ADSL1 service at all. For them, the only options are either expensive mobile 3G broadband (with external antenna on a big mast - since most of us are is in a mobile black-spot) or via similarly expensive wireless internet providers.
Also, the Exchanges may have spare ports for a simple reason that they have been burnt out by lightning! Some ports will always give you bad connections until you get swapped over to a better port.
We know that the Wamboin Exchange is ancient and falling apart. We have also heard similar stories from affected locals in Sutton and Bywong - some of which have been without phone services for many weeks.
Service providers:
Just because you are connecting to Telstra exchanges and RIM's does NOT mean you have to use Telstra as your ISP. In fact, you will likely get better value and better service out of using an ISP that is not Telstra. The only caveat is that your ISP must use the Telstra infrastructure to get you your ADSL line, and that means the ISP needs to have agreements with Telstra. Some of the larger alternate ISPs like to use their own ADSL equipment and exchanges, but this will NOT work in our area, as none of the above listed equipment/locations is enabled (to our knowledge) with 3rd party ADSL equipment.
We try to stay out of recommending individual ISP's because we wish to stay completely non-commercial. All we can say is: shop around. If one ISP says they can't help you, ask them WHY. If the answer is that they do not have their own ADSL equipment in your area, go to another (possibly smaller) ISP and try again. Some of the local Australian ISPs are more than willing to help out and to do all the hard battling with Telstra on your behalf (they also have local call centres).