12 March 2019
The strike this week by Telstra technicians is likely to exacerbate the threatening bottleneck of ISDN and NBN migration orders. Advice to business - act early to avoid disruption.
Strike impacts customers
The 24-hour strike by 5,000 Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) members on Tuesday 12 March, was concentrated in the group's maintenance area, which covers fault repairs, investigations, new national broadband network (NBN) connections and diagnostics.
There is also an ongoing ban on all scheduled and unscheduled overtime.
Technician shortage and order bottleneck threats
ISDN migrations and NBN connections are already being impacted by a shortage of NBN technicians, and the strike action of Telstra technicians is only going to exacerbate the problem.
Already in some regions there is a delay of 4-12 weeks to secure a technician appointment. This situation may worsen and become more widespread as the deadline for ISDN disconnection approaches on 30 September, less 7 months away.
No downside to migrating now
VoicePlus is advising customers to migrate off ISDN immediately to ensure there is time to implement a new solution and replace obsolete equipment before the disconnection date.
VoicePlus technical solutions executive, Asif Mahmud, says he is urging business on ISDN lines to act now and understand when their services will be disconnected.
"The migration process can be time-consuming, with decision-making about a new solution, upgrading of equipment, and implementation.
"If your business premise is in the first batch of disconnections at the end of September, action needs to be taken now to protect business continuity.
"There is only upside - financial and operational - to migrating now. The downside is major business disruption if migration does not occur before the ISDN disconnection dates, and with the Telstra technician strike and NBN technician shortages, the threat is real."
Should you engage an ISDN Migration Managed Service?
There are two reasons to consider using a specialist managed migration service such as offered by VoicePlus:
1. Time:
This is a time-consuming process which will eat up your internal IT team resource. Besides the infrastructure audit, and the build of the order, there is also a process for order lodgement and order processing which inevitably requires hours of time on the phone to the chosen network provider. There is also the coordination of equipment being supplied to the site, and site visits from both nbn and the carrier technicians for installation of equipment.
2. Knowledge mitigates Risk:
A specialist Migration Vendor should hold official nbnTM Business Accredited Adviser status. This accreditation ensures the people working on your migration are certified by nbnTM Co. They will up to date with the latest migration requirements and the potential pitfalls. Look for the accreditation logo.
VoicePlus provides a fully managed ISDN migration and NBN migration service.. We will complete all the operational tasks and manage your business migration with minimal input from your IT resource.
We will manage the order build, equipment supply, on-site network technicians, and network service connectivity. We stay with you from start to finish. Pricing and scope of works
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