How Gigacomm got our home office internet gig

I’m a bit of a geek and I love my gadgets but I am as nervous as anyone when it comes to untried and untested technology – especially in strata and even more so when you’re talking about internet provision.

So when a company called Gigacomm announced that they had installed their gear in our block, I was highly skeptical.

We had gone with Telstra when the NBN cable first snaked its way to our door.  And it was fine for a start.  We were almost getting 100Mb/s downloads which seemed lightning fast at the time.

But then as more people signed in and hooked up, there were increasing numbers of drop-outs and watching the buffering circle as all our neighbours streamed the lates binge-worthy TV shows in the evening was a form of torture.

So we thought we’d give Gigacomm a try.  Their technology seemed to turn the whole concept on its head.

Rather than a cable coming in at the basement and then being distributed up through the building on copper wires that previously ran phone signals, Gigacomm’s signals come in through a transmitter/receiver on the roof, are cabled down to the basement and then get hooked up to the copper wire.

And even though it sounded too good to be true – twice the speed for just over half the price – we took it on a trial basis.  The technician connected it to a redundant fax socket (remember faxes?)  and the signal was coming through strong and clear.

All good – except it wasn’t.  Later, my computer dropped off the internet and in the evening the TVs refused to recognise there was a signal.

We went back to our Telstra connection.  We reckoned that if enough of our neighbours switched, there would be less demand on the bandwidth anyway.

I called Gigacomm and asked them to take their kit away.  “Give us one more chance,” they asked and sent a technician (rather than an installer) round to check the installation.

We tested high and we tested low  but he kept getting “fail” messages from a Netgear switch (a device that distributes computer signals via cables).

That was strange as it seemed to be working and I’d only just bought it two days previously.

Then I remembered I’d been using an old Netgear wi-fi extender to distribute the signals in my room.  We took it out of the loop and everything worked perfectly. And I mean absolutely bloody perfectly.

I hoard kit and previously the extender seemed to be working perfectly – but it couldn’t cope with the much faster speeds coming down the wire.

Hats off to Gigacomm.  I am in the process of cancelling the Telstra internet (though we’ll still need the telephone landline).

And, just for the record, Gigacomm didn’t pay or even ask me to write this – they don’t even know I’m doing it.  I just think when someone goes the extra mile to fulfill their promise – especially when you’re the one at fault – they deserve a pat on the back.

And if they come knocking on your door, give them a try.  It could be life-changing.