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I received a call from TPG on the 20th of May (Friday) with the great news that my home is now eligible for NBN upgrade. I was stoked and agreed to the upgrade immediately. I was advised that a free NBN router will be provided and I just have to pay for delivery ($10).

NBN upgrade is mandatory however to appease all subscribers the carrier would need to have a plan that won't cost them any extra. I am on an unlimited ADSL2+ package with TPG that included line rental and prepaid calls costing $59.99 per month. With ADSL2+ the maximum speed that you can have is 24M down and 1M up (you can only achieve this speed if you live close to a Telstra exchange in your suburb). I currently live 4 km away from my local exchange therefore my sync rate is only 5M down.

There are 3 TPG NBN offerings available:
1. Pay the same $59.99 to get 12M down and 1M up.
2. Pay $79.99 to get up to 25M down and 1M up.
3. Pay $99.99 to get up to 100M down and 1M up.


I went for option 2 without hesitation. Unfortunately I got Fibre To The Node (FTTN) in my suburb therefore the last hope from the node to my house is still copper; where as previous roll out of NBN has been Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) therefore 100M is definitely achievable.

When NBN riggers were building the new node on my street, my house was more than 500 metres away therefore there would have been no chance for me to get 50M+ download speed. I opt for Plan 2 because I waasn't sure if I could even get 25M but it would be worth a try and downgrade to 12M if it doesn't work out.

After a few days I got an email from TPG subject "NBN Bundle Installation Confirmed" and the date has been locked in on the 31st of May between 0800 to 1200. The email also mentions that I am NOT required to be home for this installation. Once the cutover has been done all I have to do is connect the new TPG supplied modem.

TPG supplied modem is a Huawei HG658 VDSL enabled modem/router. I got the package from Star Track on the 25th, 3 days after dispatch (very efficient).

Huawei HG658 box

Huawei HG658 unit

Being a network engineer I had an idea what has to happened therefore I had some expectation of how it was all going to unfold.
1. Wake up on the 31st and stay at home between 0800 to 1200.
2. In between 0800 to 1200, my ADSL will disconnect.
3. I then have to plug in the TPG supplied router and we are all set.

Unfortunately we don't live in a prefect world! So what actually happened:

1. Wake up oon the 31st; stay home and wait for my ADSL to disconnect.
2. I was working remotely therefore I was constantly on the Internet.
3. At 0922 I received an email from TPG; NBN Change Request in Progress.
....Hmm... Nope! ADSL hasn't disconnect yet.
4.At 0938 I received an email from TPG; NBN Service ACTIVE
....Hmm... WTF? Seriously ADSL is still operational.

Self brain storming - this is a technology change, there has to be a cutover therefore my ADSL would need to drop for sure! Unless they can just add VDSL codes onto my copper pair? Maybe? Alright, let's go plug the Huawei in and test.

Plug Huawei in and guess what? I get no "Internet" LED. When I login to the router, it recognize my phone line codes to be ADSL2+. Call TPG support straight away and raised a ticket. What I was impressed was that they were able to schedule someone to come out the next day.

I then get an SMS from TPG, NBN technician booked on 1st June between 0800 to 1200. I didn't bother to wait at home anymore today. My gf was at home so she can managed. I received a call from NBN technician at 0930 and said he will be at my house in 10-15 minutes time. I said no worries, someone will be home to let him in. He arrive at about 1000+- and test the lines at my home. 30 minutes after my NBN started to work.


YAY! But there still wasn't any internet connection on my PC, but that was because I had my PC set to static IP and my gateway wasn't configured to what the Huawei is. After making the change, TADA! Internet works!

SPEED TEST! SPEED TEST! BOOM! 23Mb download! IMPRESSIVE....


Download rate at 1.6MB/s which was triple the rate I used to get. I used to download at 300-400kb/s. When I got home later that day I managed to achieve download speed up to 2MB/s which was exciting!


My sync rate is now 28Mb download and 6Mb upload! 25Mb is a good plan to stick with. Very happy camper today!