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Telstra NextG wireless - learn from my mistake

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Thursday, 06 December 2007

An absolute disgrace

Not a single person who sees the words 'Telstra' and 'disgrace' in the same sentence are ever surprised anymore and unfortunately for the Australian public (the very populace of which demographic Telstra has cornered with a big wet blanket) it just isn't getting any better. Telstra's Bigpond 'service' is the pinnacle example of the term oxymoron... you all know this. But here I'm going to tell you something that some of you don't know. I get asked about this all the time, both in person, via email and private message: whats Bigpond NextG wireless connectivity like?'

In a word, it's terrible - especially for the traveller. Almost as terrible as the apparent skill and capability of their tech support 'team'. I have a few words to say about the service itself and a few more words to say about their notion of tech support. Lets begin with the connectivity and how much they are charging for it.

I'll start by saying that yes, when the going is good (this is typically dependant on your location) the actual speed of NextG wireless isn't so bad. With a 4 or 5 bar connection, it's usually fairly workable. Not as good as ADSL, but certainly better than dial up. There are two problems that potential users need to be aware of, however. 4 or 5 bar connections are rare. You really need to be in a fairly well populated area to get that kind of connectivity and lets face it - most people in such areas are likely to have access to a wired connection. As far as I'm concerned, wireless connectivity is made for people who travel, just like I have been doing over the past 5 - 6 months. And if you do travel - particularly if you're going to be in any remote areas (which is likely) that connectivity is likely to suck.

But here's a problem that I see as being even worse. Seemingly regardless of what sort of connection you have, drops out will occur - sometimes frequently. It wouldn't be so frustrating if it was just a matter of hitting reconnect, but it isn't. Most often a reboot is required to be able to reconnect. Imagine how much power this drains. Let me assure you, it's quite a lot. And it's this very fact that caused me 2 significant problems trying to achieve what I was hoping to achieve on this trip. It was very difficult to update content as frequently as I had planned when a) the connection kept dropping out and b) I kept running out of power because of it. Simply put, Telstra's claim that NextG provides coverage to 98% of the population is laughable. Quality and reliability of said connection is actually more important, but they don't like to talk about that.

Then there is the ridiculous costs involved. Using NextG, you're not just charged by what you download, you're also charged by what you upload. And either way, prices are daylight robbery to begin with - especially given the issues I've raised above. You need a swiss bank account to keep up with NextG and this is exactly one of the reasons I ran out of funds as quickly as I did. In an effort to continue updating this site, I had to keep upgrading my plan - sometimes to the point where it was costing me $180 a month. That's not a misprint. $180 A MONTH!

Here is why I'm so pissed off about this: it shouldn't be like this. In Mali, Africa, almost all remote villages and farms have wireless connectivity. The antennas used for this are made of coke bottles and cans (the latter often referred to as 'cantenna'). This is a 3rd world country I'm talking about. Have a guess how much it costs them. Zero. I know this because my last job was centred around exposing the 'digital divide' in developing countries (which I wrote alot about at www.viapc-1.com). Wireless should not cost this much, full stop. The very existence of TV proves it. Telstra are just capitalizing on a bare market. It's as simple as that. And they should be ashamed of themselves for blatent daylight robbery, because thats exactly what it is.

After hitting the road it didn't take me long to figure any of this out. But I persisted anyway, simply because I'd set a standard that I wanted to uphold (which became increasingly difficult). That was my choice and I can't hold Telstra responsible for it. I have remained fairly quiet about my feelings on the topic, however, because I really didn't want to whine publicly. But after tonight's experience I feel it's time to share my true feelings on the topic. What happened tonight? I'm glad you asked...

Due to further problems with the laptop I've been using, I purchased a new notebook the other day. It's a fairly powerful computer, with all the bells and whistles - I could probably move satellites with this thing. But you know what I can't do? Install my wireless modem, thats what. I'm not surprised either because it uses the 64 bit version of Windows Vista. I knew before I bought it that many devices simply don't have 64 bit drivers. Such is the case for the express wireless modems available for Bigpond NextG. One would think that a company as gargantuan as Bigpond would be able to keep their drivers relatively up to date with Microsoft, but apparently not. Oh well... as I said, I wasn't so surprised by this.

But the moronic broken 'engrish' speaking staff member (of Indian descent, of course) was. When he asked me 'where you got the modem' I knew I was in for a 40 minute phone call. And he refused to listen to my insistence that I needed 64 bit drivers (which I clearly do) and continually tried to get me to turn off various features of Vista to get it to work. His final conclusion? there's nothing we can do - ring Microsoft.

I knew there was nothing MS could do. This was the fault of Telstra, and indeed the manufacturer of their express wireless modem, who obviously have not bothered to develop drivers for a 64bit operating system. Oh well, I thought (and said). There was, however, something further that I thought this tech support moron could do for me - transfer me to the department that I needed to speak to in order to get my account closed. Contract or no contract, if they can;t supply drivers for my MS certified PC, I'm not honoring it. Pure and simple.

OK he says, and then puts me on hold. 5 minutes later I am transferred to the orders department. Sheeesh!

You just know that any company that has a 'customer retention' department - such as companies like Telstra and Primus (both of which do) that they have serious issues with customer service. If not, they simply wouldn't need a customer retention department. I can assure you of one thing... their customer retention department will have their hands full when I can finally get through to them, because if they try to give me any grief in closing this account without incurring charges I will simply refuse to pay. And if they try to take me to court over it, I'll happily take them up on the challenge.

Even the person I spoke to in the orders department (who was really quite polite) admitted how hopeless their company structure was. You know things are really bad when their own staff are openly admitting to that. Fools. F'kn fools.

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Comments (1)

06-12-2007 21:20

Cold comfort Josh, but you may be pleased to know that the ACCC today successfully prosecuted Telstra for the claims they made in their Next G advertising.

They took issue with the phrase 'coverage everywhere you need it'

Two seperate issues - the coverage issue and issues with their modem, and then the issue of their completely sub standard customer service and support.

I'm not sure I blame Telstra for the lack of wireless coverage - although no doubt they are profiteering by being the only provider.
But they are completely responsible for their reprehensible service. Unfortunately having a virtual monopoly means that you can treat the customer like shite.

I'm a beliver in karma. It may not happen overnight, but market forces will sort them out. They will then get either 1) better or 2) bankrupt.

And I never understood why it was cheaper to plug your mobile into your laptop to get coverage vs using the wireless modem provided.

Would now been a good time to put in a gratuitous plug for Internode?

Ant

Written by leftieant

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