Phil Tuttle of Titirangi in West Auckland says his family's broadband connection has been unusable for nearly three weeks because it runs so slowly. Photo / Supplied
Phil Tuttle of Titirangi in West Auckland says his family's broadband connection has been unusable for nearly three weeks because it runs so slowly. Photo / Supplied
A West Auckland family are at their wits' end over a broadband internet service they say is so bad they have asked for it to be fixed more than a dozen times in 10 months.
Phil Tuttle said the broadband speeds to their home in Kopiko Rd in Titirangi wereso low the service was "unusable" and the internet-based landline wasn't working either.
"This kind of service makes it impossible to send chunky emails with photography, a must-have service for my business operations within the building officials industry."
He said the problems dated from August, but had worsened at Queen's Birthday Weekend; the service had in effect been out of use for the past three weeks.
He is now using a Wi-Fi device that connects to the cellphone network.
"We have been contacting Vodafone for some resolution every other day [for three weeks] and have been receiving the same reply of 'a ticket has been issued'."
He blames lines company Chorus, not his internet service provider Vodafone.
"Not just frustrating, bloody incompetence on behalf of Chorus. How can Vodafone rely on being a service provider when they can't manipulate their line management team, Chorus, to maintain a serviceable connection?"
Tuttle said his household - his wife, four children from primary school to university age, and his mother-in-law - rely on the internet for business, personal communication and entertainment. He is a freelance building inspector and his wife is a midwife.
The internet-and-landline connection costs them about $130 a month.
Tuttle said he had received a Chorus letterbox pamphlet which said internet services from a fibre-optic cable would be available in his area from November 2019. He believed as a result Chorus wasn't willing to replace the existing overhead cable of copper wires, which technicians had told him had deteriorated in tree-lined Kopiko Rd.
After the Herald approached Chorus yesterday, the company issued an apology to Tuttle, but insisted it remained "fully committed to its copper network and is continuing to support and maintain this vital infrastructure".
Titirangi resident blames Chorus for broadband speed so bad it's unusable. File photo / 123RF
A Chorus spokesman said the company had responded to Tuttle's concerns in reasonable timeframes. A fault was first logged for his line on June 3.
"Our technician visited and this fault was shown as resolved on 8th June. In a second call out a technician visited but found no fault on the line, everything testing well; this was on 21st June.
"On 22 June [Saturday] a fault was located in a 15-pair copper cable and this has since been referred to a specialist cable technician. As this is a 15-pair cable this is likely affecting other residents in the street as Mr Tuttle has indicated.
"A complication with Mr Tuttle's line is that it is an unbundled copper local loop (UCLL) line which means his provider, Vodafone, rents the line from Chorus but Vodafone then provides the broadband and voice services using their own electronics.
"Regardless, this has clearly been a frustrating time for Mr Tuttle and on behalf of Chorus I apologise for the delay in getting his services fully restored. We believe we'll have the 15-pair cable - and Mr Tuttle's services - fully operational again tomorrow."
