Transcript
Despite protestations from Telstra, I have still been receiving complaints from Gungahlin residents about their difficulty accessing a broadband service.
Some residents have been on waiting lists for over 6 months.
That is why I am pleased to launch a new online survey for residents and small business, as it will provide an up-to-date insight into broadband demand and use in Gungahlins’ growing suburbs.
It is disgraceful that the Howard Government continue to allow Telstra to build inferior networks that prevent affordable broadband services being delivered by anyone. The people of Gungahlin are paying for this shortsightedness.
The bottom line is Telstra under-invested in their network technology to help fatten their profits leading up to privatisation under the Howard Government. This led to a network that is not capable of delivering broadband at all in some areas and can only support a limited number of services in others, such as the older suburbs of Gungahlin.
The Howard Government continues to ignore the real policy challenge facilitating competitive, truly high bandwidth networks that are needed for making the most of the interactive nature of the internet in the 21st century.
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hows the weather there in Gungahlin?
It’s not just Gungahlin that is problematic but Tuggeranong as well. I don’t see why communication companies keep relying on cables. I suggest WiFi be put in both areas. With a reduction in the current price and some advertising I’m sure it could be a success (just like in Paris).
Unless there is a radical change true broadband as enjoyed by such countries as Korea is not going to happen for most Australians and not just Gungahlin.
Gungahlin just happens to be an area that was supposed to be on the forefront of the new world of communications. Telstra has failed miserably in this well publicised area in the national capital so what hope is there for the rest of Australia? The sad part is that Telstra could “fix” the Gungahlin problem almost overnight by cooperating with the local TransACT company.
I agree with the earlier comment that it would be good to see that this argument broadened to the issue of high speed internet connection regardless of location. Gungahlin being the newest part of Canberra is always the focus of this argument while vast parts of Tuggeranong’s South live in a broadband/WiFi blackhole. It would be appreciated any arguments about the non-availability of broadband services include the Southern suburbs as well.
There are so many problems in Telstra network that can prevent ADSL access: You could be on a RIM that only has a limited number of ADSL ports, (like most of Gungahlin still) smaller pair gains systems or live too far (albeit this distance seems to be arbitrary!!) from the exchange. Bje is spot on about other ‘black holes too. I found out a while ago that a number of customers in the Lanyon valley were told they couldn’t get ADSL, only to discover Telstra had errors on their database… so the people at Telstra’s front desk were dishing out wrong advice – presumably to customers and competitors alike.