We had an interesting enquiry come to us last week. It was from someone who had previously submitted an order for Naked DSL with iinet. They were advised that there were no spare ports at their particular exchange – the Cannington phone exchange in WA. The customer was a little unsure what was going to happen from here and after waiting several weeks he contacted us to see if we could help.
We looked into the situation and discovered that iinet does not hold any “waiting list” for customers who are at an exchange with no spare ports. Seeing there were no available ports every time he submitted an application, his only option was to go with ADSL1 with iinet. Not as fast as Naked DSL, not as much data allowance and you can’t get broadband without a phone line with ADSL1. So you’re stuck paying line rental.
Are You Automatically Upgraded When A Port Is Available?
The short answer is ‘no’. As far as we know this consistent across all Naked DSL providers. So if the customer had connected to ADSL1 and a port became available (because someone else connected to that exchange disconnected their service or moved away), then they would stay on ADSL1. The lucky person who submits the next application for Naked DSL or ADSL2+ would then get the available port.
In many cases if an ISP can build new ports in the exchange, then they will start a migration of customers from ADSL1 to ADSL2+. But the migration won’t happen to Naked DSL. Once you are connected to ADSL2+ you would need to speak to your ISP about the process of moving to Naked DSL.
So What Can You Do About Ports Being Full?
1) Contact Us – Send us your landline phone number and/or address. In the case at the Cannington exchange, we found an alternate Naked DSL supplier with available ports called Amnet. They have some competitive plans and are based mainly in WA and SA. Let us know what your situation is and we’ll help find the best option to get cost-effective, fast broadband.
2) Evaluate Alternatives – Think about what is best for you in the short-term and long-term. You obviously need all the alternatives to be able to do this effectively, so once you have contacted us about alternatives or researched them yourself, then list the pros and cons for each option.
3) Make a Decision – Weigh up the short and long term pros and cons and make some decisions around what is most important for you. If you take one course of action will it have distinctly negative outcomes at some stage in the future? We can help with this if you need some help. We won’t make the decision for you, but we have helped thousands of people choose braodband plans, so we have experience in this area.
Remember that ‘doing nothing’, may be the best decision you can make – but for many it won’t be. For the customer in Cannington, ‘doing nothing’ wasn’t an alternative – he’d just moved to a new house and needed internet. But remember the evaluation process is different for everyone, so do what’s best for you!
If you want to find out what providers are in your area please use the Naked DSL Checker or Contact Us.
