Not getting the NBN

My last blog post was preparing for the NBN. To recap, NBN is short for the National Broadband Network which is the name for the broadband network that exists in Australia. The NBN is a wholesaler providing the infrastructures which exists in a lot of homes in Australia. To get an NBN order, you must ring a telecommunications company providing the NBN technology for an order. For several years, I have been a customer of the Optus cable technology. Before the NBN was ready, I had high hopes with the availability of this technology in the inner-west suburbs of Sydney which is the area of my residence. Not long after my last blog post, the NBN was ready around my residence. I got letters from telecommunications companies where I am not a customer. Not long after it was Optus. Their letter had a disconnection date with the current technology as early as September 2017. If not making an NBN order by that date. For personal reasons, I was not ready to make an NBN order considering trying to make for September but given June or July connection dates which were not to all right for me. I made two orders for Optus NBN but cancelled them both for personal reasons. I decided not to make another order for the NBN with Optus or other companies because I was very dissatisfied big time with customer service of a very low standard.

I did manage to buy a 4G wireless broadband product with a subsidiary brand of a big telecommunications business & got connected with no hassle after going to an electrical business to buy a modem. The current strange scenario is I have a 4G wireless broadband account with this other telecommunications business & as well, still have an Optus home account with their technology. The disconnection date of the Optus letter never happened & the date of disconnection is not till the end of 2018 according to the NBN. It is a shame that I have spent hundreds of dollars no thanks to Optus that I could have saved. I could have connected with the 4G wireless broadband with the telecommunications business I recently signed up with later for my liking. If I want to proceed with future disconnection, I must ring Optus personally to switch it off. Not at all using this so called old equipment for free either. I am totally not all interested in getting the NBN now. Sticking with this 4G wireless broadband product that I have signed up with for quite a while.

Not a fan of the Windows 10 upgrade

windows10
This image is courtesy of the Microsoft Australia website

The latest operating system that you can upgrade to is the Windows 10 operating system if you bought a personal computer (PC) with Windows 7 or Windows 8. I bought a PC with Windows 7 a few years back. I did upgrade my PC to Windows 8. My main issue that it made the PC more complicated. The speed of the PC surprising didn’t slow down. Windows 8 saw the introduction of the App Store for the PC which didn’t exist in Windows 7. Had to navigate to go to websites to retrieve the applications. The intention of Windows 10 was to simplify from Windows 8 and the navigate with less time. One unique feature is the introduction of Microsoft Edge, a new browser only available for Windows 10 users which is intended to replaced Internet Explorer which served Microsoft well for a couple of decades.

I have tried the Windows 10 upgrade to feel the simplicity but feel too many teething problems. One problem was the performance of the PC was too slow. Finding Microsoft Edge could not handle using reading the newspaper replica of The Sydney Morning Herald because The Sydney Morning Herald was using the older Adobe Flash software. I was finding so many performance issues with Microsoft Edge that I returned to Windows 8 where speed was lesser a problem. With my current PC, I want to stay with Windows 8 still support from Microsoft remains. I will only use Windows 10 if I get a new computer one day pre-installed with Windows 10.

P.S.: The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily newspaper from Sydney, Australia.