Yes you were able to use your mobile -- IF you had one -- many older folk and some not so old never had one and also never had or had any idea how to use a computer or a mobile either -- also computer batteries do not last that long if running on their own power -- and if you have a LONG outage -- we had one here for 10 days --  yes I now have the portable charger -- but how many older folk have these or even know about them!

Plus the extra cost it has caused for those people-- having to buy a mobile and a charger -- that had never used a mobile b4

I was asked if I had an emergency neck bit -- (I haven't)  as they will not work with the NBN if there is a power outage -- how many know about that!?

As I understand it, the core point raised by Doodlebug44 was that the NBN is totally dependant on continuity of our mains supply.  Any loss of mains power and your NBN is useless.  This fact is irrespective of whether you have Fibre to the Node or Fibre to the Home.  It all relies on mains powered modems within your home.  This weakness in service is not a fault of Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.  It would've been obvious to the half wits who decided that the entire country would need to be forced to move to the NBN system even though they already had a system that met all of their needs and worked regardless of whether the power was switched on or not.

Saying that a person need only have a mobile phone as their backup is almost idiotic.  That is forcing a person to pay extra for a device and service that previously they had no need for.  Additonal expense for no pre-existing need.

As far as continuity of supply and service, let's listen for feed back from the over 200,000 consumers in Victoria who had their power turned of on Friday the 25th because the weather got too hot.  Even a laptop cannont connect if there's no Wi-Fi available.  A tablet with no SIM is only for entertainment.  A standard mobile phone won't show the user why their whole suburb has been turned off.

No, the NBN was not fully thought through by the original proponents.

If you can't change things, try to work with it. I do have a few hiccups with the NBN but overall it's not too bad.

I wouldn't get rid of my landline. It's a good standby. A mobile phone charger as suggested by Abraham is a must in my opinion.

My friend (who is 81) lost the ability to receive phone calls before December 1. I spent every other day at his place up to & including Xmas Eve going through the motions of changing passwoards for the modem via the PC. I would be there for at least 3 hours as they would tell me after 2 hours that they will do some checks & ring me back straight away. None of them ever did. Every new tech I spoke to on the help line wanted to do the same tests every time in spite of my telling them I had already done it with the last one. They would say we have to do them.  I took my phone over & that did what his did so it wasn't the phone, they sent a new modem & I configured that with their help & that did not fix it. I kept saying why not check the line, but for over 6 weeks they kept wanting to do the same thing. I wanted  a technician sent out to check but they kept saying they don't have them. As soon as I contacted the ombudsman & told them they sent a technician out & on his shirt was a badge with the company name. Wow so they did have a technician. The phone has been fixed but now the medi alarm he wears & connects to a box won't work. If he has a fall nobody can be reached. NBN again. So now we troubleshoot all over again, I hope the alarm people are more considerate than telcos. Never had any trouble before the NBN was put on.

My experience with the NBN and my ISP provider saw me with my phone, plugged into my modem, that a couple of phone numbers in other parts of Adelaide simply wouldnt connect to. To them my number was totally 'dead'.

Despite numerous requests to my ISP, other than Telstra, where I'm on a contract/package and providing the phone numbers that wouldnt connect, it took Telstra 14 MONTHS to fix. Because my ISP could get their calls to connect they ASSUMED it was all OK and completely disregarded every complaint I lodged.

Things started to happen once I aired my ISP providers name, and that one of their (I suspect) employees ridiculed me on a website where I referred to them as bottom of the birdcage providers, un-recommendable to even my worst enemy. Plus my less than flattering comments on their feed-back surveys, which apparently are forwarded to upper management if they are negative

Once fixed my ISP offered to release me from my contract and gave me a months credit ONLY but NO apology. I would have changed providers but with them buying up many other smaller providers I probably would have eventually ended up back in their deplorable system