distressed
Andrew and I were dealt a pretty low blow from "Ziggy's Empire" - aka Telstra.We were hoping to host a server at my place on ADSL. In order to do this, I rang Telstra to check if my phone line was eligible to carry ADSL, being a brand new estate and all, plus we'd heard that some areas that were on RIMs (Remote Integrated Multiplexer) were being updated. I was told by the Telstra spokesperson that Yes, I was eligble for ADSL, after asking for my phone number AND my address.
We both were very happy with this, so we went ahead with all the details, ie ordering the ADSL and the server, firewall, DSL modem and UPS etc... About $3000 worth of stuff.
Over the next week, I monitored the ADSL status through a groovy little page on the company's site. Finally it came up with that Telstra had rejected our ADSL application saying that no route was possible for this line.
Annoyed, I rang Telstra to gain more information. I spoke to one person from Telstra who looked it up for me, didn't ask for my address, but said ADSL was NOT available for my line. You can imagine the annoyance I was feeling at this time. I asked the person how was it possible that I would be told yes, but then no. They couldn't answer me. When I asked for more information on the RIM, they couldn't answer that either, but directed me to Bigpond.
The person at Bigpond (who was a lot ruder than the first person), stated that if I had called them first I would have been definitely told No, and that our exchange would NEVER be able to hold the ADSL connection we were actually after. The RIM I am on can hold a slower ADSL connection, but needs that RIM upgrade (which hasn't been done yet). I asked when the upgrade might happen and again I couldn't be answered.
For more information on RIMs and updating them for ADSL, check out these articles at Whirlpool.net.au:
| 16 May 2003 | Breakthrough for pair gain 'victims' | Dan Warne |
| 24 Apr 2003 | Disappointment for RIM victims | Dan Warne |
| 19 Jan 2003 | Telstra Broadband Chief talks network | Dan Warne |
| 23 Dec 2002 | Canberra gets ADSL over RIM first | Dan Warne |
| 12 Nov 2002 | Telstra confirms ADSL via RIM go-ahead | Simon Wright |
| 04 Oct 2002 | Telstra vows to provide ''one step churn process'' | Mark Tartano |
| 15 Sep 2002 | LEAKED: ADSL via RIM planned for March | Dan Warne |
| 30 Apr 2002 | The broadband divide - Telstra's legacy | Dan Warne |
| 18 Apr 2002 | Telstra under investigation over pair gains | Dan Warne |
| 29 Mar 2002 | RIM customers to get access to ADSL at last | Dan Warne |
| 12 Mar 2002 | Labor starts ''pair gain victims'' campaign | Dan Warne |
