On Sunday evening about 6pm, our internet went out. We run two modems through two separate ISPs and use the NBN Co Fibre to the Home system, so if both ’SPS’s are down, then obviously it’s an NBN issue.
Of course, we have lost internet connectivity before, but only on one ISP and usually its back up and running a few minutes later, an hour at most.
But by midday on Monday, and we still have nothing.
Can ISPs Help?
Have we contacted the ISPs? Yes, first thing Monday morning, and all they can tell us is that it is an unplanned NBN outage. A check of the NBN website asks for my address on the Support page, and this confirms it. But no indication of why, how or when it might be back.
Fast forward and it is now midday on Tuesday and still nothing. I have contacted the ISPs again and they say, the website says – yes, I know I looked, it’s an unplanned outage, but this time there is an added piece that it will back at 5:06 this morning, but that was 5 hours ago and of course, as yet nothing.
Interestingly, we have still not had any official contact from anyone, and even the ISP says they have not been officially told about it.
Can you contact the NBN directly? Nope. The website just refers you back to your ISP.
What About The Telecom Ombudsman?
What about the Telecom Ombudsman? Worth a shot. But no, all they can do is take a complaint regarding an ISP and act on it, and in this case, the ISP has done nothing untoward as they are as much in the dark as me.
Off the record, the nice chap at the Telecom Ombudsman says that the government of the day when the NBN Co was created made damn sure it was out of reach of any responsibility, and the best advice was to go through your Federal Member, make a complaint and see what they can do.
R-i-g-h-t.
The Local Federal Member Then?
I’ll try anything by now, so a quick phone call to their local electoral office advises me I have to document it all in an email and send it in.
Duly done. I don’t hold much hope though. Cynical? Me?
Call NBN Co Direct?
But what’s this on the NBN Co website? A hotline phone number for the media. Well, I am media, so I am going to use it. I got through to a very apologetic chap who took all my details and promised it would be escalated immediately, and he’d get back to me.
So all I can do is wait, and every half hour or so, reboot the NBN box on the wall and hope that damn red optical light turns green.
In this day and age, this is ridiculous. It’s a good job some of my or my wife’s income doesn’t rely on the internet.
Oh, wait …
Update: the NBN website just updated that it will be resolved at midnight tonight. So that will be 2 days and 6 hours with no direct communication from NBNCo. And we still don’t know what the fault is / was.
You need to do better NBNCo.