I had the opportunity at the NBN Senate Select Committee hearing today to ask the NBN co’s Chairman Mr Mike Quigley regarding Gungahlin’s ongoing broadband frustrations as a result of the large pair gain systems (RIM’s) deployed in that area. I was pleased to see that Mr Quigley was fully aware of the broadband blockages and constraints RIMs and other pair gains create and that NBN Co was in the process of finding out more detail of the location of RIMs in order to build that into their considerations.
I will continue to advocate for NBN Co to respond to places like Gungahlin as soon as possible! Mr Quigley made the point today that everyone is clamouring for NBN Co’s attention, with the hope of getting their fibre to the premises sooner rather than later!
The implementation study for the NBN is currently underway by McKinsey/KPMG and I understand it is expected to be finished in about February next year. This study is expected to shed some light on the NBN Co’s roll out plans. The broad details of the Government’s National Broadband Network Policy can be found on the Department’s web page.
We know that the number of ADSL services is limited in Gungahlin and that many people are on a ‘waiting list’. These people are currently encouraged by Telstra to purchase the NextG mobile data service, which is more expensive.
It was good to see the issue of Gungahlin’s continuing broadband frustrations given another airing on local ABC radio 666 the other day. Thanks to Gungahlin Community Council for posting the transcript. Congrats to Russell and his new website, which has some good technical information about the problem. I did note that his comments are not enabled at the moment so I thought it might be useful to do this post if people wanted to comment on the issue. In addition, RiotAct is taking comments on a guest blog by Russell.
By way of background, I thought it may be useful to understand how long this problem has been around and the pressure that has been brought to bear on Telstra to fix it. I have made at least 23 web posts over many years on the issue (use can search on this web site for Broadband + Gungahlin to get these results, and please also look through my posts on pair gain, and broadband more generally). I’ve also advocated for Gungahlin several times in Parliament, including on this specific issue.
Here are a few links to stories the local ABC has posted from time to time of the issue of Gungahlin broadband over the years too: 2003, 2004, 2006.
I have to say it is terrific to be turning our attention to a real solution, Liberal party opposition to NBN notwithstanding, that will see these problems resolved in the future!
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Thank you Senator for looking out for the broadband problems in our area and keeping the NBN people on target to fix them. I’m recently moved to Watson, which shares Gungahlin’s problems (Crace exchange), and am pretty unimpressed with the RIM situation I now have to put up with.
Kate , please keep up your good work!
couple of points though …
there are no waiting lists for ports on RIM based DSLAMs , its basically first in best dressed – although it would be nice if such waiting lists were available as it would give an idea of how many thousands are waiting for such a port all around Australia.
i’m currently regularly applying and reapplying for 6 of my neighbours for those elusive RIM based ports
as for NextG there are many cheaper alternatives especially with ISPs on the Optus 3G network which has good coverage in Gungahlin
cheers
so what exactly are all Telstra’s competitors doing about the problem in Gungahlin? Absolutely nothing, as always. They could be installing adjunct housings near a pillar, as they have access to the copper due to the sub loop bundling
Gunghalin is just one area of Canberra that needs attention…surely in the Nations Capital should have something better than a ‘regional centre’?
Looking forward to hearing your views on a comprehensive plan to bring Canberra into the 21st Century and provide internet access of some reasonable standard, to all parts of Canberra.
Cheers
Steve U
May I also mention that the suburb I live in – Woodcroft NSW 2767 with approximately 18,000 residents – also faces exactly the same issues that Gungahlin in the ACT is suffering.
Our suburb is extensively serviced by RIM’s owned by Telstra Wholesale. We also formed an action group and sought action via our respective ISP’s but at every stage Telstra Wholesale stalled our ISP’s attempts to solve the congestion issues Woodcroft has been suffering since January 2007.
A new housing development within Woodcroft called Edgewood Estate is also being serviced by RIM’s and in many cases there are no ports left to even provide ADSL.
Dear Gunghalin,
Join the large club in Australia – and it could be VERY LARGE – the RIM/Pair Gain victims in what is essentially the fringe areas of cities and – yes – swinging, marginal electorates!
Just have a look at the RIM/Pair gain situation elsewhere in Australia and the dreadful legacy of Telecom/Telstra from the mid to late 1990s! Well, even into the 21st century!
BUT – for the new NBN company this is a real mess! as Kate has indicated. NBN Company must, by regulation if needed, address the RIM/pair gain areas FIRST… over to Kate and Senator Conroy and our Prime Minister.
What we need in the meantime, as dial up users, is for Kate to support us and help us get her fellow Senator, Senator Conroy, to mandate that ALL Federal Government websites have “TEXT ONLY” facilities. No Flash Video, etc.!
For Senator Conroy and Kate – will NBN be able to take over the many, many (possible thousands!) RIM/Remote MUX sub-systems installed in Australia and “rework” them or will the NBN just – well – offer that “Fibre to the Premises (FTTP)” directly, in competition to Telstra. You see – the problem is actually quite simple – many RIMs/MUXes may already be fibre connected to the major/minor exchanges – BUT – they represent a major capital asset and investment of Telstra!
NOTE: There seems to have been some help for those RIM/pair Gain victims in Adelaide with – wait for it – a resurrection of the former Government’s WIMAX/Wifi solution – at least for the time being! Remember Gov 2 just emphasizes the “digital divide” in Australia as Barry Jones has long talked about!
Hi Bill, thanks very much for your comments. I agree with you that Gov/political websites should be accessible, and creating a view for low bandwidth users is not always taken into account. I’ll do a little more work with our website to make it better in this regard. There has been so much to do in a short time, the website is only a few months old
I have a temporary solution which will also help you and anyone else on slow Internet connectivity with all sites that aren’t brilliant over a slow connection. If you install Firefox as your main web browser, you’ll have an option under the View menu called “Page Style” where you can specify “No Style”. This will turn off the style information of every website you look at which also removes all images/flash and other bandwidth hoggers
Hope that helps.
In terms of the infrastructure, I believe the plan is for NBN to buy as much existing infrastructure as possible, however there isn’t much you can do with a Pair Gains connection to improve it, even if you have ADSL2+ capability in the exchange. Senator Conroy gave an interesting interview on this last month http://www.itwire.com/content/view/27755/1231/ (see page 2 for the comments on RIMs and Pair Gains). It will be the case that some parts of Australia will require wireless broadband to replace existing infrastructure that doesn’t deliver quality connectivity, but remember, they’ve committed to a minimum 12Mbps for all Australians, so however they provision areas currently suffering with RIMs and Pair Gains connectivity, you’ll still be a lot better off
Hope that helps you and we’ll keep working as hard as we can on these issues.
Cheers,
Pia Waugh
Office of Senator Kate Lundy