We received an interesting email this week which may be a common query for a lot of people. So I thought I’d answer the question here as well. All personal details from the initial email have been removed. Here it is:
I have previously gotten this home phone number from TPG when i first moved
into this premises and applied for the home phone plus broadband bundle. now
that the contract is over, i have intentions to apply for iinet broadband
instead. however, my home phone number is not showing up in any databases at
all and TPG wanted me to check with Telstra. I have done so but telstra has
no records either. What baffles me is that the number was provided by TPG
but it is not showing up in their records. I hope that you can do a manual
check on the number and advise me on the problem. Thank you in advance.
Here is my response:
The TPG Home phone plus broadband bundle does not in fact include a “standard” home phone. It is not a Telstra line and hence can’t be checked in any database that checks the Telstra system. So TPG is trying to check for a number in the Telstra database and it doesn’t exist there. They should know better than that!
A service like TPG’s ADSL2+ with Home Phone Bundle is quite similar in technology to Naked DSL – the ADSL2+ broadband where you don’t pay for line rental. It is a ULL service which means that you don’t have to pay line rental to Telstra – your ISP simply pays a fee for wholesale access to the copper line.
So does that mean it’s not a good idea to go with a service like TPG ADSL2+ Home Phone Bundle? Not at all – the TPG plans are some of the best value in the market. But you do need to understand that if you want to change services in the future there may be a little extra complexity involved because it is a ULL service.
In the case of the customer that initially wrote us the email, she has two options for moving to iinet ADSL2+ with a Telstra landline.
- She can connect a second line to her apartment. And after that is done she can apply for ADSL2+. An ISP can connect the phone line as well, so she might as well put the application through iinet at the same time. The line connection fee will likely be $125 if a technician visit is required – but may be $59 or $299 depending on how Telstra needs to connect the line.
- The other option is likely cheaper, but involves more downtime. It is to disconnect the TPG ADSL2+ with Home Phone service and once disconnected applying for a new landline and ADSL2+ service.
