Indianinoz Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 Hello, I'm a tenant in Queensland. This home does not have a wired home phone i.e. landline. Can I request the agent/landlord to pay for the installation? Is it my right to get a home phone? I've been given a huge bill for home phone installation and ADSL. $5,300 to get a lead in of the copper wire into my property. However, I'm only on a 6 months rental(which may be renewed). It can't pay such a big amount with uncertainty of being evicted from the home once the contract ends. Is there a way to have the landlord contribute to this capital cost rather than me bearing everything? After all, its an improvement on his property. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unzippy Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 You can request but I doubt they'll pay. According to this article, if you want one, you pay for one: https://www.rent.com.au/blog/phone-line Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skani Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 1 hour ago, Indianinoz said: Is it my right to get a home phone? No, it was never a "right", even in the days before mobile phones existed. Now, when many people are ditching landlines for mobile phone only, it would be considered even less necessary. I gather from your other post that the NBN is available through fixed wireless in your area so a landline would not be considered necessary for the internet either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slean Wolfhead Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 Actually, i think it is a right under the Universal Service Obligation (USO that every home in Australia has "available" access to a fixed copper telephone line, and that it will function during an electrical outage to contact emergency services. It doesn't say the line needs to be connected if the owner doesn't want it to be, and if you're in a rural area somebody needs to stump up the extra for the excavation and run. Standard connection charges don't apply if they can't connect you from the nearest telegraph pole.....and I guess that is why this house has never been connected up ? Also debatable whether ADSL or ADSL2 would even work over a potentially long distance, but you'd get voice calls no problem. The problem is, the USO is becoming out of date fast and the contract is worth $300 million which the Govt wants to save, so it will be scrapped. As everybody knows it will be scrapped sooner or later, Telstra don't wish to invest anything and the Govt probably hasn't got the power nor the will to make them. It's no different to people waiting for NBN and asking Telstra to upgrade the exchange capacity for end of life ADSL services. They just won't do it. I'd just get a 3G/4G modem for internet and use mobiles. $5000 is ludicrous on a 6 month lease for a crappy ADSL service, and I'm pretty sure NBN Wireless providers don't offer short contracts either because they need to recoup their investments. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skani Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 The USO does involve making a "standard telephone service" available....but the phrase Telstra now uses is Quote our obligation is technology neutral meaning we can choose the technology over which we provide you with this service. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calNgary Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 If you took the lease on without a landline and didn't ask the landlord to pay for one,then i find it highly unlikely they will. You can only ask though. Cal x 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indianinoz Posted March 4, 2019 Author Share Posted March 4, 2019 On 25/02/2019 at 18:29, Slean Wolfhead said: Actually, i think it is a right under the Universal Service Obligation (USO that every home in Australia has "available" access to a fixed copper telephone line, and that it will function during an electrical outage to contact emergency services. It doesn't say the line needs to be connected if the owner doesn't want it to be, and if you're in a rural area somebody needs to stump up the extra for the excavation and run. Standard connection charges don't apply if they can't connect you from the nearest telegraph pole.....and I guess that is why this house has never been connected up ? Also debatable whether ADSL or ADSL2 would even work over a potentially long distance, but you'd get voice calls no problem. The problem is, the USO is becoming out of date fast and the contract is worth $300 million which the Govt wants to save, so it will be scrapped. As everybody knows it will be scrapped sooner or later, Telstra don't wish to invest anything and the Govt probably hasn't got the power nor the will to make them. It's no different to people waiting for NBN and asking Telstra to upgrade the exchange capacity for end of life ADSL services. They just won't do it. I'd just get a 3G/4G modem for internet and use mobiles. $5000 is ludicrous on a 6 month lease for a crappy ADSL service, and I'm pretty sure NBN Wireless providers don't offer short contracts either because they need to recoup their investments. Sorry for the late reply. Due to a medical condition for someone in my home, I cannot use wireless phone and internet. My home is 5.9kms from the telephone exchange. Do you think ADSL or ADSL2 should work reasonably well? I'm not looking for blazing fast speeds. I'm looking for internet which is stable with at least about 1-2MBPS of speed. I'm an accountant so don't need to download HD movies or graphics. But need to work on softwares like Xero/MYOB(cloud) etc. Slow is fine, but it should be stable connection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skani Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 4 hours ago, Indianinoz said: Sorry for the late reply. Due to a medical condition for someone in my home, I cannot use wireless phone and internet. My home is 5.9kms from the telephone exchange. Do you think ADSL or ADSL2 should work reasonably well? It would depend on the quality of the copper installation and how many other users were using the same infrastructure. Our house is about 6 km from the local telephone exchange and we could not get any ADSL service, even when the exchange was upgraded to ADSL2. However other houses in our area could. However.... the NBN rollout is replacing existing most landline networks, including copper - are you sure the ADSL service will remain in your area indefinitely? You can put your address into this website and it will tell you the status of the NBN rollout in your area and should also show a switch off date for ADSL if applicable. https://www.nbnco.com.au/residential/learn/rollout-map Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indianinoz Posted March 4, 2019 Author Share Posted March 4, 2019 2 hours ago, Skani said: It would depend on the quality of the copper installation and how many other users were using the same infrastructure. Our house is about 6 km from the local telephone exchange and we could not get any ADSL service, even when the exchange was upgraded to ADSL2. However other houses in our area could. However.... the NBN rollout is replacing existing most landline networks, including copper - are you sure the ADSL service will remain in your area indefinitely? You can put your address into this website and it will tell you the status of the NBN rollout in your area and should also show a switch off date for ADSL if applicable. https://www.nbnco.com.au/residential/learn/rollout-map I don't know. My area is into a NBN Fixed Wireless area. Hence, they're not providing new copper line connections(whether phone or internet) unless somebody pays $$$ to get it installed. Before it was declared a NBN Fixed Wireless area, they would maximum charge $240 for installation which was very reasonable. Now, even though lines go right outside my home, I have to pay $5,300 to get it connected because lines have to be trenched a new pit has to be dug up. Some Telstra support staff told me that even though an area goes into NBN, they will not cut off the existing copper lines. Is this not true? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skani Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 51 minutes ago, Indianinoz said: I don't know. My area is into a NBN Fixed Wireless area...... Some Telstra support staff told me that even though an area goes into NBN, they will not cut off the existing copper lines. Is this not true? Maybe your area is covered by this from NBN: https://www2.nbnco.com.au/residential/learn/device-compatibility/services-that-will-be-switched-off Quote Some existing phone lines The copper network within nbn™ Fixed Wireless and Sky Muster™ Satellite areas will not be switched off. Premises within these areas will have the choice to keep their existing landline phone service over the copper network active, or switch over to a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service on the nbn™ access network It's very confusing for everyone because they have so many different variations of the NBN all over the country. As for the potential quality of ADSL: I guess you need a technician with knowledge of the infrastructure in your area to advise on how good it is likely to be. Have you spoken to your neighbours about their experience with ADSL (even if they are now converting to fixed wireless)? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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