What to do if you are experiencing nbn^® dropouts (FTTN/FTTB/FTTC)?

Save On Award Winning nbn® - See Plans

In 2014 the Australian Government made the decision to use a mixed technology approach to the nbn^® rollout. This means that certain properties will use parts of the old legacy copper telephone network to complete the nbn^® connection to your property. This legacy copper network is unfortunately prone to issues and we encounter some users using FTTN/FTTB and FTTC technologies experiencing connection dropouts due to this.

It is important to troubleshoot your FTTN/FTTB/FTTC connection prior to us logging a fault to nbn^® Co as in certain cases it is local internal copper wiring that can be causing the dropout issues.

In order to properly troubleshoot you should consider the following scenarios:

1. Only a single device is dropping out and other devices are not affected.

In this case it is likely an issue with a particular device. We recommend checking and replacing any network cabling used for this device. If the device is connecting via wifi, ensure that the device is within wifi range and try connecting it directly to your modem using a network cable.

2. All devices are dropping out at the same time.

In this case it is likely an issue with your nbn^® service. We recommend completing the following troubleshooting steps before calling us to raise the fault up to NBN:

a) Take a note of the date, time and duration that your service is dropping out. We may need this later if a fault needs to be raised to nbn^® Co.

b) Ensure that your modem is connected in isolation and directly to the primary telephone wall socket in your property. To do this remove any filters, splitters and telephone extension cables and connect the modem directly to the primary telephone wall socket inside your property. Also ensure that any traditional telephones are disconnected from other wall sockets inside your property. You may wish to replace the telephone cable used to connect your modem to the wall socket if this is not brand new.

c) Test an alternative modem. There is around a 40% chance that the modem could be the issue. nbn^® Co also insist on seeing at least two different MAC addresses from different devices before engaging a field technician to attend site to check your line. As such it is important to try an alternative modem to see if this resolved your issues.

d) If the above does not resolve your dropout issue it is recommended to engage an ACMI qualified telephone technician to isolate the main telephone socket within the property (we recommend Mr Telco as a national provider of ACMI qualified technicians). This work involves disconnecting any additional wall sockets in your property so that your connection does not incur interference with the VDSL signal bouncing off unused telephone sockets in your home. By having unused sockets in your house connected to your main socket, the VDSL signal will reflect back down the wire and cancel the signal on your primary socket – causing a dropout. We also recommend replacing the lead in cable from the boundary of your property to your primary telephone socket with new copper wire. This internal cabling work is quite common and in April 2019 (at the time of writing) the shadow Labor Government announced a policy to replace or repair internal wiring for FTTN connected homes.

e) If after working through all the above steps there could be an issue with the nbn^® line running to your property. Please get in touch with our technical team with details of your drop outs since the above steps have been undertaken and we will arrange for an nbn^® technician to check your line back to the node or point of connection to NBN.