Have you been sold a ‘line’ on broadband communications access?

Published in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, page 6 NEXT section, OPINION
Tuesday, April 2, 2002

PLATFORM
Kate Lundy

Telstra is accused of failing internet users with pair gain, or line-splitting technology.

Have you ever wondered why your Internet connection is so slow? If so, you are not the only one, because hundreds of thousands of Australians share the same frustration. More often than not, the blame for slow Internet connections is levelled at ISPs, modems or computer configurations.

However, recent evidence I extracted from Telstra at Senate Estimates hearings revealed that for thousands of Australians, the frustration of the world wide wait can be attributed to Telstra.

In the hearing, Telstra admitted to extensive use of what is called “pair gain” technology. Don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of pair gains. It’s not a term Telstra wants you to hear, for reasons that will become obvious. Effectively, a pair gain splits a line into two or more lines, and it has the effect of reducing Internet speeds for a standard dial up connection, sometimes significantly.

According to Telstra, the effect for the user at home can be to reduce Internet speeds for a standard dial up connection to around 26 kilobits. For Internet users who have bought a 56 kilobit modem, this is half the speed that they were expecting! And as for a faster connection, such as an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), forget it. A pair gain is worse than a bottle-neck, it is a road block.

Having heard Telstra’s extraordinary admission in the hearing, and with Telstra being determinedly vague as to the extent of its use, it was incumbent upon me to attempt to ascertain the extent and impact of the use of pair gains. 

However, the extent to which pair gains have been used within Telstra’s copper network remains unclear.  During the Senate Estimates hearings, Telstra acknowledged it may be between five and ten percent.  However, during Question Time in the last sitting week of sitting, Minister Alston, who is always likes to lend Telstra a hand when things get tough, shed a little more light on the matter when he said:

“The fact of the matter is that less than eight per cent of new connections involve the use of pair gain technology.”

Even if seven percent of Telstra’s 8 million or so customers were affected, this equates to hundreds of thousands of customers.  Telstra have until the end of the month to provide answers to the Senate committee regard the number of customers who have a pair gain and the relative impact on their services.

Knowing bandwidth is a hot issue for internet-connected citizens, I built a web page to survey people’s experiences.  My pair gain victims web site (www.katelundy.com.au/pairgainvictims.htm) has had an extraordinary response.

Over one thousand stories have been related to me over this website, painting a very disappointing picture of Telstra. I have been told how the telecommunications giant refused to advise customers of the effect of pair gains, and in some situations, falsely denied even using the technology.

When confronted by customers, Telstra hides behind the defence that it ‘sells a service, not a technology’. In other words, because they do not guarantee a minimum internet connection speeds when they sell you another ‘line’, you just have to cop whatever you get, whether it is 14.4 kilobits per second or 26.4!  This is not just arrogant and disingenuous – it is unacceptable, and to the informed internet user, downright insulting.

Considering how Telstra sells this technology to consumers who are seeking a second line into their home, often precisely for the purpose of improving access to the internet, it should not be surprising that pair gains are causing frustration to Internet users around the country.

Unfortunately, the problems caused by pair gains technology is not limited to Internet users with 56 kilobit modems and a dial-up service. Beyond the serious issue of slow connection speeds of standard dial-up connections, there lies an even more insidious effect of pair gains.

According to Telstra’s evidence at the Senate hearing, this pair gain arrangement prevents access to ADSL, a compression-based technology that allows a much faster internet connection.  So for all of Telstra’s rhetoric and advertising, they know full well that they have taken a decision to lock hundreds of thousands of Australians out of broadband. All to boost their bottom line in the short term.

Feedback from my web page has also shed some light on the constraints to accessing ADSL if Telstra has used RIM (Remote Integrated Multiplexor) technology.  This technology takes ‘fibre to the kerb’ with copper rolled out to homes from there.  In the words of one frustrated, wired citizen “the use of RIM is entirely, entirely reasonable in a pre-broadband era, as a way to avoid digging up roads and putting in more copper.  But it kills ADSL dead.”

However, my survey indicates that RIM is the favoured approach by Telstra in new suburbs and housing estates across the country.  This is the scenario right now for many people: new home owners anticipate they will have access to the latest and greatest bandwidth opportunities because ‘fibre to the curb’ was perhaps part of the developer’s promotion of the housing estate.  The new owners may have even confirmed that the local exchange is ‘ADSL enabled’. Their disappointment is very real when they are told ADSL will never be available to them.

In addition to their use of various forms of pair gain and RIM technology preventing access to ADSL the fact that if you live beyond the 4km radius of an exchange you can’t get ADSL anyway, and suddenly the percentage of people who can potentially get affordable broadband diminishes again.

Making matters worse is Telstra’s response to customers who speak up. The standard response to consumer complaints about slow Internet connection speeds appears to be an aggressively rejection of responsibility, implying that ISPs, or indeed the consumers themselves, are responsible.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, in the Senate hearings, Telstra admitted that it is not their policy to ‘fess up and tell customers if they are on a pair gain and that could explain their slow Internet connection speeds.  Feedback from my website has confirmed that many people pursuing the facts about their connection have been treated with contempt by Telstra. This is a company that knows it is pulling a swifty, and doing everything they can to continue to get away with it.

Even if the use of pair gain technology has a legitimate role in maximising the profitability of Telstra’s existing network, there is no excuse for using it by stealth.

And this issue goes beyond just the fair treatment of consumers. According to feedback from my website, Telstra are not shy in using complaints about low connection speeds as an opportunity to promote their internet service provider product as a possible solution.

For all of Telstra's rhetoric and advertising, it knows full well that it has taken a decision to lock hundreds of thousands or Australians out of broadband.  All to boost its bottom line in the short term.

It is little wonder that both the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman and the ACCC are interested in Telstra’s activities in this regard.

These facts and experiences expose the farcical nature of Telstra’s rhetorical commitment to broadband services to Australia. 

To appreciate the extent of this farce and the incredible frustration felt by so many people it is worth exploring Telstra's motivation for using pair gain technology in the first place.

Public comments from Telstra to date shed some light, with Telstra spokespeople unequivocally citing cost cutting as the motivation.  Pair gain technology was perfect. There were minimal infrastructure costs but rent could be charged on a whole new line, and voila: maximum revenue generation.

The Minister once again helped out by confirming in the Senate that the motivation for the use of pair gains was cost cutting.

‘Pair gain technology is used in circumstances where Telstra deems that there is not a sufficient demand for a full upgrade of the copper network. In other words, it is used selectively. It is used in accordance with a cost-benefit analysis, and it does the job in the vast majority of cases.’

Telstra knows that if it cannot physically deliver this service then no-one can. So, regardless of what line-sharing agreements are made with other carriers or what ACCC declarations are made, no other carrier can get an ADSL service to those people either; it is physically impossible.

Citizens are left with expensive alternatives like satellite, cable modem or even ISDN.  For most the costs are prohibitive. 

The Minister, rather than join me in demanding Telstra reveal the extent and impact of the use of pair gains, has chosen to throw a cool $50 million of taxpayers dollars to help Telstra cover it up.  The Internet Assistance Program (IAP) is a joint venture between Telstra and the Coalition Government.

The Howard Government claims the IAP will ensure Internet users across the country can achieve data speeds equivalent to a mere 19.2 kilobits per second.

As more people demand broadband access, the deficiencies of Telstra’s copper network will be increasingly exposed.  This will fuel speculation about the long-term value of this network and sharpen the public debate about the need for alternative infrastructure.

The author is the federal opposition spokeswoman on information technology and sport, and a senator for the ACT.