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I was gobsmacked.
I spoke to you on the Tuesday.
Birthday afternoon, there's this lovely courier man at me back door with a parcel for
me.
Just to thank you so much, because whatever your involvement, you truly got some magic
powers and don't ever let us down.
Listen, I've got some breaking news for you here folks.
It's October.
Well, tomorrow as we publish this, but most people are probably listening in October.
I mean, isn't that wild?
2025 is almost over.
October, November, December.
Three months left.
That is crazy to me.
Crazy to me.
Now, I will say the magazine is coming along slowly.
I've got like days left to finish it.
Please pay attention to the man cave group on Facebook and or just EFTM.com.
At some point in the next little while, we'll put up a page where you can either
sign up for the magazine for free if you haven't had it before, or if you got the
magazine posted to you last year, you'll be able to update your address if it is
needed.
So we're just building a back end that allows you to check your address from
last year and fix it if you've moved.
So that's happening.
The magazine will come out second week of November for Black Friday and
Black Friday at the Gamesmen.
So I'll distribute it again to many, many customers, which will be amazing.
And you can get it delivered directly to your door by Australia Post for free.
We'll pay all the costs.
I'm printing the magazine.
I'm posting it to you.
All good.
No dramas at all.
Happy to help.
And I want you to see what we've been working on.
And it's basically a year interview.
2025 year interview.
Let's call it that.
Plus our awards for the year as well.
So there's a lot to get through there.
I look forward to seeing that and hopefully I can get it done in time
because, you know, it goes to print.
And there is a deadline, by the way, is about I need to get it back from print
in time for an event.
I have an event in the city with PRs and marketing people.
If I don't have the magazine on that day, it's going to look pretty embarrassing.
So yeah, we're working backwards from there, folks.
Pretty, pretty desperate.
But it's a fun process as always.
It just doesn't help when I don't know mobile networks,
triple zero calls go down or Apple launches.
These things just delay me and keep me busy on other things.
So that's strange, but we'll get through a lot to get through this week,
though, here on I nearly said your tech life.
That's how ingrained that is in me.
But we'll we'll help talk about everything from photos,
Wi-Fi, phone cleanups, more Wi-Fi and even streaming issues.
We're going to talk to the bloke behind all the fixed line networks
at Vodafone or TPG, the man that runs their NBN systems.
And we'll talk about the tricks and traps that people are falling into
when it comes to these exciting new speed upgrades.
So not new for regular listeners, but a refresher on exactly
how the speed upgrades work and what you need to do
to make sure you're getting the most of them.
But that's all ahead on this week's episode
of the EFTM podcast.
You're listening to the EFTM podcast.
Join the conversation.
Head to eftm.com and click Ask Trev.
Great to have you company.
Wherever you're listening, however you're listening.
Lovely of you to download.
And I forget to tell a friend if you want to chat to me,
get in touch.
You know how to do it.
Keith's on the line today.
Keith, how can I help you, mate?
Good morning and thanks for talking to me.
Look, I have thousands of photos going back years
and years and years.
I'm looking at some sort of software package that I can
sort my photos with maybe face recognition,
geographical locations or something like that.
Does that make sense?
Yep.
Are you looking to do this on your local computer, though?
I'm my desktop, yes.
So the problem is there used to be a great bit of software
called Picasa.
And I used to love it.
It was a great way of organizing photos.
However, Google bought it and turned it into what I would
argue is the greatest photo sorting system on the planet
and that is Google Photos.
But it runs in the cloud.
Now you may not be a fan, but I'm telling you.
It's the greatest thing you could ever do.
You know, all you need is...
So you've got all the photos already digitized,
yes, stored somewhere?
Yes.
Are they from digital...
So are they digital camera photos
or are they scanned images as well?
No, they're all digital photos taken on iPhones.
Perfect, perfect, perfect.
So every one of those photos has some data in it
that tells some of the basic things that you want,
which is things like location, date, et cetera.
And the way...
People who have listened for a long time know
I'm just going to go into full preaching mode here,
but the way Google Photos works is you just simply sign up
and I would encourage you to pay for an account
so that you're getting good storage
and you can upload in full resolution
so you're not sacrificing quality.
And you've got a big folder of photos on your computer.
You tick a box on the Google Photos app on your computer
and that's the folder that synchronizes with the cloud.
And look, it depends on your internet connection,
depends on the number of photos,
but it could take days, maybe even a couple of weeks
to fully upload your library.
But once it's done, once it's uploaded,
then what you do is you install the Google Photos app
on your phone so that anything new,
any new photos that you take
are automatically synchronized
into your photo library in the cloud.
So I haven't done anything specific,
but just logging on to now my website, photos.google.com,
I can see photos that I took on the weekend
because I took them with my iPhone,
the Google Photos app is installed on my iPhone
and it simply synchronizes regularly to the cloud.
And it's phenomenal because the first and foremost,
I can just, I can search,
I can log on to a browser or use the app on your phone
and I can go, I can just type a date.
I can go 2012, done.
And it will just show me photos from 2012.
I can then scroll through 2012
because they come up in chronological order.
But the more powerful thing about Google Photos
is people and pets.
So what it does is it categorizes all the faces
that it can see and you can name them.
So it doesn't know who they are,
I've obviously, the top five faces in my library
are Trevor Long, Harrison Long, Victoria Long,
Jackson Long and Amanda Long.
Now troubling, the next two faces are Stephen,
Fennink and Carl Stephanovic,
but leaving that aside because my mum is in like eighth place here,
it automatically finds faces.
Now I've got to scroll down a long way
because I've gone to the trouble of naming everyone in my library.
So I've just scrolled down a bit of a way to where there's no name.
And I can see, well that's Oscar Piastri,
I can see who that is.
So I can now give that album a name
and I can call it Oscar Piastri.
I can, if I recognize a person,
there's Christian, my hairdresser, boom, I can name him.
So I can name whoever I want or I can just leave them unnamed.
It doesn't matter.
But then, then I can,
so my youngest son, Harrison,
is turning 14 in a couple of days.
I can just go into my Google Photos and search for Harrison Long.
And it will just show me photos of Harrison Long.
Mate, it's unbelievable.
And it is very good.
And facial recognition, very good.
So mate, I can't recommend it.
I think you'll enjoy just how powerful it is.
And the last thing I'll tell you is this,
it also can just see things.
So let's say, let's come up with a green car.
I can search for green car.
And I haven't told it about anything,
but because it has the smarts to find green cars.
It's found me a photo of a Green Lamborghini I took.
It's found a photo of a Green Lotus
at a recent electric vehicle show.
It's found a photo of a Green BMW
I took just a couple of weeks ago in Berlin.
It's just coming up with photos of green cars.
Now, when I scroll down, I'm like,
there's no green cars in this photo.
What's going on here?
But, you know, it hit and miss sometimes.
But the top results most relevant to my search
are absolutely green cars.
And mate, it's awesome.
Very powerful.
Very powerful, mate.
You are going to be a cloud convert
once you kick this off.
So mate, photos.google.com.
Go and sign up.
Get an account.
Pay for the minimum storage that's there.
Because once you upload all your photos,
you might find you need to pay for more storage
or you might be fine.
And that's the last subscription I'll get rid of.
So if I start hitting the ropes and money's tight,
I'll get rid of Netflix.
I'll get rid of Paramount.
I'll get rid of Stan.
I'll get rid of everything
before I get rid of Google Photos.
Wow.
That's awesome.
All right, good luck.
Sounds like what I want.
Thank you so much.
Excuse me.
Much appreciated.
Enjoy.
Well, thank you.
There you go.
Enjoy the library.
Definitely well.
Thanks, Trevor.
Cheers, mate, anytime.
So yeah, look, I know I preach a lot about Google Photos,
but I've yet to find anything as useful.
I've got a local network storage here at the office
that's powerful and huge.
And I can fit gigabytes, terabytes of photos on it.
But it just doesn't do the categorization
like I'd want it to do.
People will tell me there's software that'll do it.
Sorry.
Not as good as Google's doing it.
Sorry.
This is not happening.
So check it out.
Google Photos.
It's a win.
The EFTM podcast, thanks to Swan MaxRanger 4K,
Strongest Wireless Maximum Security.
Great to have you company and happy to help wherever I can
get in touch.
You know how to do it.
Bill's on the line today.
Bill, how are you doing?
Good.
Thanks, Trevor.
How are you?
What can I do for you, mate?
I've just upgraded the Fiber to the premise.
Yeah.
And I've been running the old Gateway Tulsa modem.
Yeah.
And it's just really not strong enough to get the signal down
to the bedroom where I've got the Foxtel and, you know,
streaming services.
Yeah.
I'm just wondering is there a better router
you could recommend?
100%.
Just quickly, what were you on beforehand?
What technology?
Fiber to the node?
Yeah.
Fiber to the node, yeah.
And what was the maximum speed you could get then?
While I was only on the 50 plan.
Yeah.
Did you sign up to the 100 or more?
No, I signed up to the 100 and I just got upgraded yesterday
to the 500.
500.
How good is it?
Isn't that wild?
No, it's good.
Do you know what speed you're getting down the back?
About 10.
Wow.
Okay.
How far is down the back?
What are we talking distance wise?
It's about 18 metres.
Oh, so it's not.
And is that kind of the extent of the house's depth?
Like what are we talking to the size of the whole house?
It's about a 20 square house.
So the study is at the back of the house
and the front bedroom is the front, which is about 18 metres.
And the study is where the NBN connection is?
Yes.
I feel like you'll probably get away.
So what you need is a mesh system,
which is basically whatever's there now, you throw that away
and you plug.
A mesh system comes with at least one,
sorry, comes with two, three or more little boxes.
One of them is a router.
You just plug that directly into the NBN box.
You get online.
The other ones are called satellites
and they just need a PowerPoint.
And so a two, I actually think a two pack system
might be enough for you.
My only concern is, and I've said this to other callers too,
my only concern is that the three pack solution.
So let's say a two pack was $600 or $700.
An extra one, if you need it, is like another $600.
Whereas a three pack from the get go is $1,000.
So it's just a bit frustrating to say
you might need the bigger one, but you don't know.
But my gut feeling is you're probably going to be OK.
What sort of things are you doing in the home
other than obviously the obvious streaming and on your phones?
What other kind of...
Yeah, basically just the streaming and phones
and I've got the main computer is connected up to the...
It's hard to type.
Mate, I think you could probably get away.
I would hedge your bets here
and go on a not the latest system,
but a bit of bigger system.
So the Netki Orbi Wi-Fi 6,
I'm looking at the JV Hi-Fi website if that helps for reference.
They've got this.
It's called the AX1800 and it's $399,
which is discounted by about $150 right now.
It's a bloody good one.
It's a three pack system.
So one of them in the study,
one of them, you know,
a quarter of the way into the house
and then another, you know,
two-thirds of the way into the house.
Not in the bedroom, but, you know,
room or so before the bedroom.
And what you'll end up with there is a great coverage
across the whole home.
So if you can get a three pack...
So the compromise there is you're not buying
the absolute latest technology,
you're not buying Wi-Fi 7,
but with what you're doing,
I'm not sure you'll notice.
I think you'll still get what you want
is optimal speed and connectivity
and you're going to get that from the Orbi AX1800.
You're only going to need to spend $399.
What's the age of the household members?
That's just made my life.
So I take over the land
and she goes into the bedroom to watch her shows.
Yeah, OK.
Happy wife, happy life, mate.
Go and get yourself the Orbi AX1800.
$399.
You do that today.
Plug it in directly to the NBN.
Get rid of the other box.
And, mate, you will be blown away.
And before you do it,
do some speed tests around the house
in different locations to then write them down.
Draw a little map of your home
and write speed on your Wi-Fi on your phone
at the modem, at the front of the house,
at the side of the house, in the middle of the house
and do some Wi-Fi tests
and then put the Orbi in
and then do the speed test again, mate.
No worries.
Good luck.
Sounds good.
Thanks very much.
No worries at all.
Thanks for getting in touch.
Thank you. Bye.
There you go.
Another happy mesh customer.
As I said, it's definitely going to be the hot topic.
Simple as that.
It's everyone.
Look at that upgrade.
He's gone from 50 to 500.
He's now getting 10 times the speed
from a simple fibre upgrade.
It's just outstanding.
So really well done.
Yeah, let me know what you think.
If you've got solutions for people
or you've got a question of your own,
go to the website ftm.com.
047-657-657.
That's the text line.
Thanks to Vodafone.
Get in touch and Ask Trev today.
Happy to help wherever I can.
You can text us as Dixie said 047-657-657.
Jeff's on the line today, Jeff.
How are you, Trevor?
Yeah, mate, really good.
What can I do for you?
I've got a feeling I've got crap
running in the background on my iPhone 15.
And I'd like something.
Is there an app or a program
I can get to clean it up?
When you say crap running,
what do you think is running?
What are you experiencing?
It's the same as my iPad.
In less than 12 months,
the way that it doesn't hold the electricity,
the power, as long as it used to.
Now, I know they degrade over time,
but it's only about 10 months,
both of these,
and they're running out of power
in sort of the iPad
in about four hours
and the iPhone in about 10.
Interesting.
So the first thing is diagnosing it.
Before you take crazy action,
the first thing you want to know
is what's actually going on.
So as I look at my iPhone,
I go, well, it's coming up to mid-none.
I've down to 39% battery.
Now, that doesn't sound good,
but I've been up since 3 a.m.
So it's actually pretty darn good usage.
It's not really that big a deal.
But what I do is,
I regularly do this,
obviously, when I'm reviewing phones,
but I go into settings
and into battery
and then scroll down
to view all battery usage.
And what you'll get there
is a very clear indication
of what has used your battery today.
So for me, Tiktok, 23%.
Being on the phone, 6%.
So I do a lot of radio on a Tuesday.
And it's funny because
it's kind of alerting me
to differences in normal schedule.
Instagram is using Life360,
which is the kind of tracking app
we use as a family.
So I look at that and I go,
well, actually nothing there
that I could really do
other than not use Tiktok as much.
But if you go in there
and you see an app
that stands out
and you're like,
I don't even use that regularly.
What is going on?
Then uninstall the app.
Okay.
Delete the app.
Right.
The other thing you probably,
what model iPhone have you got?
15, iPhone 15, the big one.
Yeah.
So make sure you also check
the battery health
and check that you've got,
you should have 90% plus battery health.
It should be normal.
There should be no issues there.
If it's,
if the battery health
is getting towards 70%,
then there's something massively wrong.
And you should probably go to Apple
and say, what?
This is not what's going on here.
But yeah, basically,
what you want to do is
you want to monitor battery usage.
So on those days
where you truly notice
that something strange is going on
or the battery is depleting,
have a look at what it is.
Because you've got to remember
often we give permissions to apps
and we don't know why we did it.
So for example,
who?
The Maccas app.
He's a funny one.
My Maccas app
can use your location all the time.
Not because they're tracking you,
but because when you make an order,
you can close the app
and it can track you
when you get near a Maccas,
it'll pop up and say,
are you ready to pick up your order?
That's why.
But,
and they've built that smart enough
that it doesn't,
like today,
I haven't used Maccas today,
so it's not using my battery.
So if it was on a day
that I had made the Maccas order
and then maybe I'd stop,
turn off that permission.
I'd turn off the,
the location permission.
So over the course of a few days,
when you get home at the end of the day,
have a look at the battery usage
and to,
and see if you can see a trend.
You know,
Spotify streaming in the background.
Apple CarPlay,
Waze or Google Maps,
those things will chew through the battery
if you're in the car a lot.
But,
no,
no,
yes,
that will chew,
that will chew.
Okay.
Oh, well, that's interesting.
I'll do that.
And if I,
if I find any other problems
or if it doesn't work,
I'll contact you again.
Yeah, get back in touch with the bottom line is,
you have control by,
A, firstly,
you could fully delete the app.
B,
you could change your usage of the app.
And C,
you could just look at the permissions
that you give each app
and kind of just look at it and go,
actually, I,
I don't need it to have that much permission
and go from there.
I think it's time I went through
and deleted a whole lot of apps
that I don't use.
And,
well, that's the other,
it sounds extreme,
but here's the other thing you can do.
Now,
I use a different phone
every few weeks, right?
And when I change
from an iPhone to an iPhone,
I don't restore from backup.
I start from fresh,
which is stupidly annoying
when you're,
when you've got,
you know,
25 million apps to download.
But
the opposite to that is,
it means that I don't have any apps on here
that I don't need.
Yep.
Cause, cause mate,
that makes a lot of sense.
Remember when you used to
have to download an app
it would take half an hour
cause you're on, you know,
whatever these days,
they download so quick.
You've got logins
that are remembered,
mate,
you could actually wipe your phone.
If you,
if you have no luck
with those basic things,
then do a factory reset
of the phone,
wipe it and start from scratch.
Install the apps
day by day
as you need them.
Question.
Well,
I'll lose all my phone numbers,
wouldn't I?
No, they should be backed up
in the cloud.
But again,
before you do a factory reset,
find out where they are.
Because if your,
if your phone numbers
are in iCloud,
for example,
most Apple users by default
are in iCloud.
What you do is
go to your computer,
go to your computer,
put your phone away,
go to your computer
and,
and log into iCloud.com.
And,
and when you go to iCloud.com,
it's essentially a portal
into what Apple has stored
on their cloud.
Right?
And one of those things
is contacts.
So I'm sitting here,
my phone's down the desk,
but I'm just looking on the browser.
I'll click on contacts.
And there's only five contacts
in my iCloud.
And you know what that is?
That's a mistake.
Those contacts shouldn't be there
because I don't use Google,
iCloud for,
for contacts.
I use Google.
So now I know that
that person's number
I need to move over.
But the bottom line is
I can see
my contacts.
And I know that if I was to
lose my phone
or wipe my phone,
I know where they are.
Same with photos.
Go to iCloud.com.
Click on your photos.
Are they all there?
Yes, they are.
No, they're not.
It's,
that's the best way to do it.
Calendar,
contacts and photos.
Check that they're in the cloud
by looking at them
and through a web browser
and then format your phone.
Thank you very much, Trevor.
All right, mate.
No worries at all.
Let us know.
Here you go.
I appreciate your help.
Thank you very much, mate.
Cheers.
Thanks for getting in touch.
Kind of, you know,
it's a tough one
because you,
you think that it's
something going on in your phone
but it's actually just
something you're doing.
By the way,
if you use Apple CarPlay
and Waze
and you're not charging the phone,
that battery will deplete
so quickly.
It's not even funny.
And the reason is this.
So Apple CarPlay
is a,
especially if it's wireless,
Apple CarPlay is a
wireless projection
of a screen
in real time constantly.
Secondly,
if you're then navigating
through that screen,
it is real time updating
your location
and it's using GPS.
So it's using
both the mobile network
and the GPS.
It's using every antenna
on the phone.
It's working that
phone to the bone.
That's why it chews
through the battery.
Simple as that.
This is the EFTM podcast.
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Take any calls
if you've got a tech question
love to help you out
if you're looking to buy
something
I'll shop vicariously
for you
and if you've got
a problem with something
you've bought
let's talk about it.
But the NBN speed upgrade
is a
massive topic
and has been now
for several weeks
because A it was exciting
when it happened
B it was kind of
what is happening
and when do I get it
and then C it's like
well is it doing
what I wanted it to do
and it is creating
more traffic
shall I say
on the text line
and on the email
than normal
which I expected.
So let's just
go back to scratch here
and let's have a
talk about
your home internet
and there's no better person
to do that than someone
that lives and breathes
fixed line internet
and in this case
that's Andrew O'Connor
the general manager
of fixed line product
at TPG telecom
he joins me on the line
can I Andrew?
Hey Trevor how are you?
Really really good
this has been
an exciting couple
of weeks I guess
because
people are kind of
excited to be getting
better speeds
I reckon more people
have done speed tests
in the last two weeks
than the last two years
probably.
Oh absolutely
absolutely
is a truly exciting time
you know for
not only for broadband providers
but for customers
who at the end of the day
are getting a free upgrade
to far far faster speeds
But one of the things
that I think
is missed in this
and look I
you know I'm trying my best
I did a today show segment
on the excitement
of the update
the need to think about
what's in your home
and since the dawn of the NBN
there's been this
call it a battle
between what I expect to get
and what I'm able to get
based on what my home does
we have this with people
on fibre to the node
they have copper lining
to their home
they have old telephone
points in their home
they were often
the falling point
for speeds in their home
and now
people who've got
almost the best
technology
HFC
or the best
with fibre to the premises
coming to their home
they still have to think
about what's inside
their home don't they
100%
look now fundamentally
the bottleneck
is not going to be
what's going into the home
it is all about
the in home setup
and you know
making sure that
not only is your modem
up for the challenge
but then actually
thinking about
how you've set up
your home network
and that's where
things like
new Wi-Fi mesh systems
really kick in
and that means that
you can then get
that great signal
all around your home
what do you recommend
to people in terms of
diagnosing that
so let's talk about it
from a customer service perspective
I'm assuming
you've even had to
kind of pivot in that sense
you know it's gone from being
oh well
it's a likely case
that we need to do some work
you know the NBN needs
to do some work
on the actual line
coming in to now
it is most likely
to be in the home
what are the steps
that you recommend
people take
to check on
the Wi-Fi speeds
look
absolutely the best test
is to run a speed test
they're very very easy to do
but it's very important
when you're running that speed test
to make sure that
you're pretty close
to where you're using it
but close to the modem
and the challenge
that people have got
is that their modem
may not be in the best location
in the home
especially
if they've gone through
a recent fibre upgrade
from an old copper base line
to a new full fibre line
sometimes their actual
network termination device
may be in a really weird location
like in the garage
now
personally
I don't really use the internet
in my garage
I use it in and around the home
and the challenge
is getting the signal
out of your garage
which may be double bricks
and back into the home
and that's where
making sure that you've got
a really good setup
in and around the home
is pretty key
look
I think that
some people
don't see that as a problem
they think
oh no, it should just be
the internet works
and it comes in the home
but it's a complete change
isn't it in the
as you mentioned
a bottleneck
it's a change in
the infrastructure
of Wi-Fi in your home
because
you used to have these
kind of two lanes
of the super highway
coming in
and now you've
potentially got
5, 10 or 20 lanes
of this highway
at your front door
but you know
you've got toll booths
and things
it's a bottleneck
and you're expecting
people do this speed test
and they expect
that mega speed
on the balcony
or in the backyard
or in the games room
or the sun room
out the back
and that's where
you get this kind of
scratching point
for people's
scratching the head going
why is it not working
and Wi-Fi is the bottleneck
but it doesn't need to be
because there are
mesh solutions out there
that I've been talking about
for a long time
but even you guys
are now looking at those
solutions for the home
aren't you
100%
and look
mesh solutions
if you go to
a normal
sort of retail store
they can be quite expensive
and also quite complicated
you know
and that's why
different RSTs
they're looking at different
solutions
now
Vodafone for example
we've just released
a super Wi-Fi proposition
that means that
when you sign up
for a new
NBM plan today
you will not only
get a best in class
modem
so Wi-Fi 7 modem
but you'll also get
a paired mesh device
with it
which means that
then you can put
that mesh device
further around your home
and then means
you get that signal
that really really strong
good coverage signal
in those
further reaching parts
of the house
and you call it a paired mesh device
which means out of the box
it's paired with
your router already
it's super easy to set up
you're literally pressing
maybe one maybe two buttons
just to get it all set up
but there's very
very easy guides
on how to do it
when you get it out
in the box
there is an app
that you just
download onto your mobile
and it just guides you
through very very simple steps
just to set it up
and that's pretty key
because setting up these things
can be quite complicated
if you're just going to a
like a Harvey Norman
or a place like that
and like you don't know
what to do
who's eligible for that
for that mesh extend
is it people that sign up again
or to a new plan
how to
how do you determine
who gets those
yep so
at the moment
is directly available
for anybody who's
up to a brand new plan
and what brand
do you have to say
what brand you're
you're working with there
in terms of the modems
so that's Vodafone
oh sorry
oh okay so yeah
an ASUS
in terms of the modem
we've
we've actually
gone and developed
our own solution with
Arcadian
right
I'm looking at it now
it's like a
cylindrical unit
and I assume the smaller
cylinder
is the
satellite unit yeah
yeah correct
that's the mesh unit
yeah right
wow are you not
and you're not selling it separately
it's all about just
providing this to
individuals who sign up
to these plans
that's right
that's right
you know and
we've worked with
existing customers
if they're
if their in-home setup
isn't great today
then we will
offer them options
to upgrade
okay cool so
because some people
don't want to go shopping
for this stuff
they don't want the drama
they also want one point
of contact where they can
just call your call centre
and go
well you know
what's wrong
can you tell me this thing
how do I get it working
et cetera
like that's
that's a simplicity thing
for people
is it
are you doing other things
within the TPG group as well
yes
so we will be rolling this
out to
other brands
yeah nice
we've started
first of all
with
with Vodafone
and
you know
we're looking to
to really get
customers engaged with it
do you
find people
have awareness
of what
do you think that
like I've been talking about
Mesh for so long
maybe I'm in the bubble
but
and I think that's a problem
for me
that I'm stuck in the bubble
I just accept it
and I think that's the thing
but
do you find that people
need to be
taken on the journey
slowly
because they want this
fast speed
but they don't realise
they need to do
something else
different in the home
exactly
look we are
it's a constant
challenge
I think that
there are some great
advantages
but the
it's just setting up things
and
now there's
two
two units to set up
that's why
having a
an app to guide you through
step by step
makes it super easy
super simple
and just demystifies
the entire thing
and the app itself
will actually then guide you
to the best location
for that new Mesh device
as well
so practical tips
for people
whether you're a TPG
Vodafone customer
or not
when you're at a dinner party
Andrew
and people find out what you do
there's got to be
like I get the tech questions
you must get the
well my MBNs rubbish
and this be
you must get those
so
what is your advice to people
when they're talking about
wanting or being on these
higher plans
what are the steps
you take this weekend
as you're
cleaning up the house
for people to come round
for the AFL Grand Final
or the NRL
or whatever you might be
watching and doing
but you've got people coming around
and you want good internet
what are we doing
what are your steps
well
the first bit is just
actually trying to find out
which MBN technology
they're on
now the great thing
about this speed upgrade
that's happened
is that
it's available
on around about
50% of the
MBN network
so FTTP
HFC lines
now about half the rest
so are actually
eligible for a full
fiber upgrade
so firstly
get upgraded
to the full fiber line
it's available
it's free
where it's available
man not
and then
and then that means
that customers can get online
and have the option
to upgrade to the
the full faster lines
now 500Mbps
just means
that it's peace of mind
doesn't matter how many people
you've got round in your home
enjoying the AFL Final
they'll all be able to get online
and do what they need to do
and look the thing is
the difference in costs
from going from
a very slow plan to
essentially you're asking
because you have to commit
don't you too
to get the fiber upgrade
you have to
if you're on the 50Mbps
to get the fiber upgrade
you need to commit to
being on a higher plan
but I'm on the
Vodafone website right now
for example
and the 50Mbps
appears to be
$84 a month
the 500MB plan
is $89 a month
and that's not the discount
the discount up front
but if just on the normal
cost plan
it's like $5 different
to go 10 times
faster
I mean that's remarkable
Yeah, it is amazing
and even from Sunday onwards
we've been seeing that
the line share of customers
signing up to that
new 500Mbps plan
it's a fantastic plan
it's a fantastic deal
and it just takes
as I said
it takes the worries
about speed
out of the customers mind
and that's what you want
because I'm assuming this creates
a reduction in the load
on the call centre network
around people complaining
about speed issues or anything
because it's just
everyone's got a faster speed
and it really just becomes
now about servicing people
who have those needs
for they want the upgrade
they want to do those things
so we can legitimately
talk to people
about taking advantage
of the faster speeds
you know and I think
that's what people
get excited about
maybe in six months from now
when it all comes down
and everyone's got
the speeds they want
that becomes the conversation
getting 4K in multiple rooms
instead of being on the HD plan
on your Netflix
or whatever it might be
have you seen
speaking of the fibre upgrade
has this been the biggest
period for the fibre upgrade
request that you've seen to date
because of this speed upgrade?
In the four weeks leading up
to this speed upgrade
we saw a huge uptake
of people going through
a fibre connect process
of going from those older
copper based lines
to the full fibre
we are then expecting that
to further accelerate
over the next month or so
just as people
you know see those new
adverts out there
for 500 million per second
that say
I actually want that speed
it's a great price
I want to upgrade
And I'm not looking for
statistics and hardcore data
but do you know
anecdotally
the broad turnaround time
on the upgrade for people
because obviously for some
people it's more difficult
than others and whatnot
and it's an NBN thing
like is it a month?
Is it two months?
What's the broad
turnaround time
for people getting that upgrade?
Generally
generally it's about
you can get it upgraded
within about 20 days
but the thing I'll say
is getting quick
because as demand surges
it takes a technician to go out
It's going to be a backlog
Yeah
So get in now
and then you can
get your line upgraded
then you never have to
worry about it
Yeah
It's really quite simple
It's a free upgrade
There is a cost
because you need to be on a higher plan
but as I've just pointed out
it's
for some telcos it's $2
for some telcos it's $5
it's not a lot of extra money
for the vast difference
that you're now getting
it used to be that extra money
for double the speed
but now it's that little extra money
for 10 times the speed
so it's really the most compelling time
to get the upgrade
and I think Andrew
has advised us to
get on it now
before the backlog exists
and also from that point on
you've got that technology
in your home
I think it makes the home
more desirable
at a sales point of view
because you're saying
it's got 5 bit of the premise
it's ready to go
if you happen to do some
to have a change of job
and you're now
at work from home
and sharing data
you can get 2,000 megabits
a second
I mean it's quite remarkable
what you can now do on the NBN
and I'm excited about this period of time
as it sounds like you are as well Andrew
well mate great stuff
really exciting
the products you brought to market there
the, what do you call it
Super Wifi?
Super Wifi
It's a great name for it
I really like that
Wifi 7 by the way
we didn't mention it
but Wifi 7
so it's literally future proofing you
for whatever you buy
in the future tech wise
Exactly
Good stuff
alright mate good to chat
Okay thanks very much Trevor
The EFTM podcast
Thanks to SWAN
Home Security to Connect
Detect and Protect
Great to have you company
and would welcome
your questions or calls
on anything you like
in the world of tech
brag about something you bought
or ask questions about
what you want to buy
I don't mind
Aaron's on the line
Good to have you Aaron
Hi I'm Trevor
Yeah really good mate
what can I do for you
Just a question about
upgrading the rail
for this recent
upgrade with the NBN
from this month
Yeah absolutely
which telco are you with
Telstra
And the speeds come through
to you straight away
Correct
Yeah so basically it's upgraded
from the fiber to the house
and it's upgraded
to double the speed
or triple the speed you know
What were you on
were you on the 100
and now you're on the 500
I was on just the
20 kilobytes a second now
I'm up to 100 now
Hang on slow down
There was no upgrade
on the lower planes
No no from the
previous upgrade
that went through
with the fiber to the house
Yes
So the fiber to the house
What plan did you sign up to though
It was the 100 kilobytes
100 megabits
Megabots
And now you're getting 500
Correct
Yeah excellent
How good is that
That's awesome mate
The question is
Are you getting 500
everywhere in the house or not
Not yet no
because I've got the old
Telstra mode
Ah yes okay
Well there's your problem
Yeah correct
What's the plan
I want to get
hopefully upgrade the router
at least because it's got
fiber to the house
and I'm going to need
two ethernet ports
because I've got
security cameras
and I'm direct to a PC
Yeah right
I mean at this point
are you worried about
the speed of the Wi-Fi as well
or just the
just the router
and the cable connection
This is the ethernet
cables basically
Yeah right okay
I mean you know
Nick you have a little
I was I had it the other day
on the today show
because we were talking
about the fiber upgrade
and it was
it was quite shocking to me
it was a $200 product
but it's got Wi-Fi 7
it definitely has ethernet
ports on the back
I'm just going to
quickly now try
and find my segment details
and the product name
but like it's pretty much
like it's a tiny little thing
but it would
your Wi-Fi would be better
it might not be
further
if you know what I mean
it won't spread further
because you've still got
a single box
but it will be better
and then you've got the benefit
of the faster ethernet as well
so yeah that would be
my recommendation
it's $190
it's a Netgear
Nighthawk
Wi-Fi 7
it's a JB Hi-Fi
well my apologies
it's $259 now
it was obviously on special
that week because of the
upgrade
so it's
they call it a
BE 3600
BE 3600
but it's a Netgear
Nighthawk Wi-Fi 7
it'll be the cheapest one
there basically
$259
it's quite
I was quite shocked
at how small it was
but mate it's got
a two and a half gig
internet port
so you could upgrade
to the 2,000 meg
speed if you wanted to
oh beautiful
no worries
and then
one gig ethernet ports
so
and that's comes with
two ethernet cables
on the back too
we've got four ethernet
ports in the back
yeah
so four one gig ethernet
ports
now you've
did you say
you've upgraded the
cabling
the ethernet cable
yeah perfect
because you've got to have
the right cabling
to get the gig a bit
mate
you'll be flying
on the other end
of those ethernet ports
for just $250
mate get into it
that's a bit of a bargain
isn't it
look
so the thing about it
is obviously
it's not
the biggest unit
so it's the Wi-Fi
delivering to your home
but you've got ethernet
to other parts of the home
so you can
you can be happy with that
if you were someone
that was relying entirely
on Wi-Fi
this is not going to be
good enough for a
four bedroom home
no no
it's going to give Wi-Fi
to everywhere
but it'll get slower
as you get further away
but you know
what I'd love to know
from you
if you don't mind
I'd love you to do
draw a map of your home
and do a speed test
at the
right now
on your Telstra modem
on Wi-Fi
on your mobile phone
and you know
at four or five points
throughout the home
so you kind of get a map
of the home
and if you could imagine
faster speeds of green
and slower speeds of red
you can kind of imagine
a heat map
and then do the same
test after you get
this little netgear
and actually
I'd be interested
whether
firstly the Wi-Fi 7
provides better speeds
on Wi-Fi overall
and whether it gives you
any extra reach
as well
oh yep yep
worth a look
I'll give it a crack
might want to get
out for work yeah
yeah alright
yeah that's right
I know the question for
as well I was sending you
an email
was regarding a
dash camera
that you
for the Uni-Denz
I've brought one
off your
one of your recommendations
and after a
portable one
that's
go from
vehicle to vehicle
vehicle to vehicle
is tough
because in the end
yeah
I mean
we were doing
I was doing the review
cars for a while
but I kind of got sick
of the cable
being visible
right now look
your Uni-Denz
you'll probably find
that it'll keep going
for a little while
but you really do want to
go cigarette lighter
you know 12 volt
to
dashboard
pretty quickly
in the end
it's going to move
from truck to truck
more or less
yeah like
literally day to day
it's a different truck
you're in is that what
you mean
correct yes
so it becomes part
of your setup
then I would
just simply go
with the simplest
one you feel
offers
value
because it's really
you could
you could spend $900
on a dash cam
or $200 on a dash cam
the portability of them
is actually
exactly the same
actually now
thinking about it
a lot of them these days
have that little
sticky double sided tape
don't they
instead of a suction mount
correct yes
that's the issue
and that's the issue
so we want one
with a suction mount
alright
I'm going to take that on
notice
and I am going to ask
Brad at Uni-Denz
and I will text you
back and I'll tell
you on the show
I'll text you back
what model to get
okay suction mount
yep beautiful
good man
alright we'll find out for you
thank you very much
for your time
no buddy
any time mate
good to hear from you
thanks to him
have a good day
cheers
no worries
thanks very much
yeah I'll text
Brad Hales
I was talking to him
bloody 20 minutes ago
in fact
so I will
I'll text him
and we'll get
an idea there
because yeah
when you buy dash cam
these days
it's not as easy to move
car to car
so
yeah
I will text Brad
we'll get a model
for him
and we'll work it out
so there you go
if you've got a question
get in touch folks
join the conversation
head to eftm.com
and click Ask Trev
love to have you on the show
get in touch anytime
Greg's on the line
good day Greg
good day Trev
mate
yeah mate
and good to talk to you
what can I do for you
we've been on the Central Coast
New South Wales
and
for the past five years
since we moved from Sydney
we've managed to get
the nine now
Sydney feet
no problem at all
yep
until last weekend
when suddenly we got
redirected to NBN
in Hunter Valley
now
that's a
fine TV station
but
it's very parochial
Hunter Valley
yes
and we
really would like to
broaden our horizon a bit
and it is
specifically your
local station
I mean I think from a
broadcast perspective
sure
that is your local station
have you got an antenna
or are you just using
the nine now
always
just nine now
I mean I think
if you had an antenna
you would primarily
just get
NBN
but a lot of people
on the Central Coast
depending on how far up
the Central Coast you are
but certainly
when I lived on the
peninsula
you would point your
antenna towards Sydney
because
that's
that's why you would
get the Sydney
coverage
and the day
you couldn't watch the
cricket if the
SCG wasn't a sell-out
and so
on the Central Coast
in Wollongong
you'd point your antennas
to Wollongong
and Newcastle
so that you could
get the cricket
so it could work
both ways
in reality
so what
have you done
anything to try
and problem solve
or get it back
yes I
wondered the settings
on the
LG Smart TV
and
hit location
and
it asked me
for a postcode
but I put
2000 in there
that didn't work
because it knows
where we are
interesting
so here's the thing
I had
an interesting problem
I can say a month ago
maybe three weeks ago
where I
because I religiously
watched the
six o'clock news
with Peter Overton
and I do it
through the night now
on my
high-sense TV
sitting in the dining
room
kind of while we're
chatting as a family
I just put the news on
my wife hates it
because she just does
but good luck to her
and Alicia Loxley
in Melbourne
I'm like what's going on here
and it happened again
and it happened again
and then
I was at work
here in the office
which is just down the road
from my home
and
I noticed the same thing
I was getting
the Melbourne news
on what's going on here
and I
because I
do have some contacts
at night
I said
what's the hell's going on
and all they said
was update your postcode
and if
that's a problem
contact the help desk
but it was interesting
I know you've done this
on the TV
on a computer
go to 9NOW
and click on
your profile
and
so you click on your name
and then you go my profile
and it says your name
your date of birth
and your postcode
and I changed that
because weirdly it was
set to 3000
now
I know why I did that
a couple of years ago
when they launched Hubble
I was testing
which news
you would get
and how and where
and all this kind of stuff
so I think I changed it there
so I changed it
to my actual postcode
and
it didn't instantly work
I needed to essentially
shut the TVs off
so
let's just say
the app was still loaded
but once I
reloaded the apps
it picked up the postcode
and it worked perfectly
so I'm wondering
if the LG TV
when you say
you went into settings
was it on the 9NOW app
or in the LG TV
LG TV
so I think
that is giving you
things like
targeted advertising
and stuff
from LG
for your postcode
but it's not telling 9NOW
where you are
so
try
logging on to a browser
go to 9NOW
go to your profile
change the postcode
and what I was told was
look
if you have any problems
because
mine was a legitimate problem
try the help desk
and there's
on the
I think the profile page
or somewhere like that
there's
an FAQ
and you'll probably find
at some point
they won't make it
very obvious
but there'll be
an e-mail address somewhere
for help
and if you e-mail them
and mate
here's what you can do
just don't tell them
the full truth
just say you live on the
northern beaches
you live on the northern
beaches
and you've set your postcode
correctly
and maybe they can
force your account
to be
in Sydney
what do you think
okay sounds good
the only confusing part
was that
we were getting here
for the last five years
from Sydney
and then suddenly on the weekend
I wonder whether or not
they actually did
a bit of an update
because it was the same
for me right
I think
your issue happened
at the same time
mine did
I think
it was using a different metric
and it might have been
the TV data
that I gave it
because when you
when you launch a TV
these days
I think LG
I did one the other day
you type in a postcode
and I think that's
so that it has
that information
for the streamers
but I don't know
that they were
sharing that information
correctly
so maybe they started
sharing that information
and that's where we all got
booted off
but hey let me know
how you go
alright
well thanks Trevor
good on you mate
no worries at all
thanks for getting in touch
thanks mate
cheers
good to hear from you
yeah it was
it was a funny one for me
because I was getting them
I know I like Tom Steinfeld
he's a good bloke
I did my first ever
television
story with Tom Steinfeld
when he was doing a
current affair
now he's the host
of the 6pm news in
in Melbourne
awesome
he's been to 60 minutes
he's been to today
so he's done everything
but yeah I didn't want to
watch Melbourne news
I was pretty keen to watch
it was around
it must be
3-4 weeks
because it was around
the Desi Freeman thing
I was getting that coverage
and I thought
that's not bad
I might actually watch this
it was about a week
after that happened
that I started getting
the change
so I wonder
if that's happened to
more people
and we'll find out
whether that
fixes Greg's problem
The EFTM podcast
thanks to Swan
Home Security to Connect
Detect and Protect
Alright thanks for listening
we'll do it all again
next week
next week I want to
try and talk to
Chris Lau from Laser
he's the boss of
Laser
the Aussie tech company
and he
published a piece
on LinkedIn
which I
pulled some quotes
from an EFTM
a week or so ago
about their commitment
to
safer
batteries
and for a very
small company
to make that commitment
I think is
quite remarkable
we might try and catch up
with Chris
next week
I'll actually be in Italy
but we'll get a show out
don't you worry
and then we'll be back
in town on the 14th
for yet another show
so lots to get through
of course
and if you want to be
part of the show
I'd love to hear from you
as always
so never hesitate
to get in touch
you know how to do it
EFTM.com
download the EFTM app
or just text me
0-4-7-6-5-7-6-5-7
This is the EFTM podcast
www.eftm.com
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