We are committed to providing the best broadband service to your customers.

 

An important part of this is identifying what broadband technology options are available at a customer site, and what speed a customer can expect from these technologies, so that you can set and manage the customer expectations.

This is a challenge for rate adaptive technologies, such as ADSL2+ and VDSL2, which adjust their access speed based on individual line characteristics. Over the last two years, we have introduced and refined a number of international best practice tools that significantly improve our ability to predict these speeds.

 

These tools have been rolled out across a number of different channels, including our Broadband Checker website, Service Availability API and broadband footprint report. In December we are updating our online order and tracking system.

(OO&T) prequalification business rules to use this same information, ensuring accurate and consistent information regardless of which channel you decide to use.

 

What’s changing

OO&T allows you to request broadband services at a customer location. Prequalification is an ordering function that prevents you from submitting service requests for technology that isn’t available at that particular location.

 

Currently, for xDSL technologies, prequalification works by checking whether broadband is available on the local exchange, and then whether the line length is capable of supporting the requested technology. Unfortunately this approach has some weaknesses. There are other factors that impact broadband performance, and estimated line length is not always accurate.

 

With the introduction of the new speed prediction tools, we are changing the business rules to focus on speed. This will not change the prequalification information returned, but it means that some customers who we previously thought could not get broadband will now be able to get it, whereas others who can upgrade to VDSL2 but wouldn’t see a significant speed improvement may change to “Inconclusive.”

 

This change will ensure that all Chorus channels use the new speed prediction tools in a consistent manner, ensuring the best possible customer experience.

 

Supporting details

Our new speed prediction algorithms use a combination of network analytics, historical data and international best practice techniques to provide the best and most accurate estimation of broadband speed at a customer site. We have documented these algorithms and tools in a whitepaper that we are looking to publish at the end of November.
 

As part of this final upgrade, we have noticed a number of scenarios where the predicted speed is actually lower than what it should be based on line length. This is generally where there are issues with premises wiring that prevent higher speeds and, for these scenarios, we recommend requesting connection and wiring to ensure the optimum broadband experience.

 

Next steps

The good news is that you won’t have to do anything. The new prequalification business rules will automatically activate on 5 December 2018.

You may notice some changes to individual service requests. Some customers that were classified as ‘inconclusive’ or ‘not available’ previously will now be able to get better broadband. Others who were marked as available will now be classified as ‘inconclusive’ or ‘not available’.

 

We will be indicating if a line is a vectoring capable address. Please note vectoring is CPE dependant.

Manual prequalification will also use these new Business Rules where we will also be providing guidance as to whether connection and wiring is recommended to get the optimum broadband experience

 

For any queries please contact your service delivery manager.