The Senator has been helping push this cause for 15 years, and continues to do so All ISPs still have a minimum service they must deliver, so for some of your issues there are ways to escalate your concerns. The NBN has already started rollout and there are several areas that have poor Internet connectivity that were target in early rollouts, so I would suggest you approach NBN Co about your area and make the case that your area should be prioritised. Gungahlin, as the original blog post states, is an area riddled with Pair Gain tech and RIMs, and I’ve personally seen residents’ Internet speeds plunge to 3Kbits/s in peak traffic. Gungahlin is one of the second stage release sites.

Cheers,
Pia Waugh
Office of Senator Kate Lundy

What infuriates me the most is that in a society where an increasing number of opportunities and resources are exclusively available online, they are still building houses that are incompatible. In 2006, while the houses in my neighborhood were being built without internet capability, I was at Uni, less than 5km away, and even then ALL my course materials required either downloding or online portal access. The inconsistency is appalling.

Action must be taken now!

A National Broadband Network “promise” in 10 years is simply unacceptable!

C’mon Australia, it’s about time to catch up with rest of the modern world!

Kate, can you help push this cause now?

Hundreds of thousands of Australians are dealing with this massive headache — unnecessarily, if you ask me. There seems to be ZERO pressure on Telstra to act now, unfortunately (I hope someone can tell my I am wrong regarding this point).

Before moving here from the States, I read numerous articles about the excellence of Australian’s internet connectivity; what a crock.

I too got the same response from Telstra regarding the NBN. I would be shocked if some form of this NBN is completed in 20 years!

There needs to be accountability and action, now.

its just ridiculous that nothing can be done. I have been looking at these complaints for over a year now and despite all the complaints nothing changes. I know NBN is coming but why is it taking so long.

Come on Kate when will we see some action?

I have been chasing this issue for the 8 months. The best offer I’ve got is from Telstra who will put in another phoneline for a non-refundable $299, but that may or may not support ADSL. They can’t tell me why though – apparently front-of-house and back-of-house at Telstra aren’t allowed to talk about these things to each other.

It’s a joke, it really is.

Don’t bother with an ombudsman – as long as you have a working phone line, Telstra’s job is done and an ombudsman can’t help.

As far as I can tell, no one is accountable for this. There is no one responsible, and no one does anything to change it. If you find out something different, by all means do post it up here.

Otherwise, to quote the Telstra call centre sales reps, “don’t worry, the NBN is coming over the next 10 years!”

High speed internet access is not available to all homes that comprise
of Caroline Springs. In my opinion, this is totally unacceptable and
there must be accountability.

As I have painfully learned over the past week, Caroline Springs is
surely not built for 2011. The agencies involved in the estate
planning and construction of Caroline Springs, lacked some serious
foresight when it came to providing high speed internet services, to
an area that is now home to a demographic with the average age of
about 35 (not 95).

I, a future resident of Caroline Springs, may or may not have high
speed internet access when I move in to my new home. To me, and most
30-somethings, this is a massive failure. How can a suburb, marketed
to young families and professionals, not offer high speed internet to
it’s residents? This is like saying, some Caroline Springs residents
get a clear phone line, while other’s have to wait in a massive queue
to be able to make a call (which by the way, may or may not be full of
static).

After speaking with multiple ISPs, it is clear that there is simply no
infrastructure in place to support high speed internet for every
household in Caroline Springs at any one time. More specifically,
there are not enough ‘ports’ available. A house needs a port to attain
high speed internet service. One may ask, what if there is no port
available for my home? Well, if that’s the case, then you must put
your account on a waiting list, where wait times could potentially
exceed one year, for high speed internet access! What gives?!

It truly baffles me a how a metropolitan suburb like Caroline Springs,
just 25km from Melbourne’s (second most populous city in Australia)
CBD, cannot provide high speed internet access to all it’s population
at any given time.

I work from home. I earn my living working online. I will be paying my
mortgage from the money earned from working via the internet (that is,
if I can connect). I cannot work from a wireless (3G) connection. I
will not be able to make a living by moving to Caroline Springs. This
is a serious problem, and one, that I feel, needed to be resolved
before a shovel was lunged into the earth to commence the development
of Caroline Springs.

I have asked multiple ISPs, when can all of Caroline Springs expect
equal acces to high speed internet. Most individuals answer, “maybe in
10 years.” That’s not very comforting, to say the least.

For now, if I do get internet access, then I can expect, at most,
ADSL1 speeds (if that). That is, while other areas of Caroline Springs have
ADSL2+ access and no one has cable access. Why? Because the
technological infrastructure of Caroline Springs cannot
support it OR does not want to invest funds into supporting it.
However, this is another issue altogether.

In writing this email, I am highly concerned that I will lose my home,
because I cannot have access to high speed internet from day 1.
Everyday I do not have internet access, I cannot earn a living.

Cheers,
Pia Waugh
IT Policy Advisor
Office of Senator Kate Lundy