Mystery Bay residents feel like they are in communications black hole after nbn co this month announced it had abandoned plans to build a fixed wireless tower to service them with national broadband network internet service.
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Instead residents have been designated broadband satellite service, which they believe will be much more expensive and restrictive for uses such as live streaming. The NBN tower was also seen as a chance to co-locate mobile telephone service, as much of Mystery Bay is in a mobile phone black spot.
Whether that would happen is now in question with Telstra saying it might not have co-located.
Mystery Bay resident Richard Nipperess has gone door-to-door finding the residents exclusively disappointed with the decision by nbn co and more than 40 people gathered last week to discuss a plan of action. Appeals are being made to Federal candidates with a possible petition to follow.
Andrew Duggan, manager of Oakleigh Farm Cottages, said businesses such as his relied on fast, reliable internet service and the satellite service was not going to deliver sufficient data for guests. The tower was to have been built on the edge of Oakleigh property.
State corporate affairs manager for nbn co Kelly Stevens said the Mystery Bay site was not going ahead because of the terrain and the topography of the area. “A combination of both obstructs the fixed wireless signal to some parts of the township. nbn combed the landscape to see if another location would work, there was only one other site that may have been suitable and we were unable to get agreement from the landowner to locate it there.”
Residents such as Mr Duggan and Mr Nipperess are however at a loss to why this has changed since the initial plan, noting that some of the newly built towers were servicing far fewer households.
Ms Stevens also said the new Sky Muster service was nothing like the old broadband satellite service and that “all of our technologies will result in fast and reliable broadband, including our Sky Muster Satellite service.”
While she promoted the new Sky Muster broadband satellite service, Mr Duggan said his understanding was that it was very expensive and restricted on data and live streaming.
The Mystery Bay fixed wireless tower was going to be part of a series of interconnected towers extending north from the Bermagui master tower. Now nbn co has confirmed the Tilba tower at Brushgrove Lane is going ahead and will be the last in the chain and that the newly built tower at South Narooma would now tie into NBN system to the north.
Federal Member and Liberal candidate Peter Hendy defended nbn co’s fixed wireless engineers, as “it was determined that despite their exhaustive efforts, there wasn’t a site (at Mystery Bay) that was able to provide a high enough quality of service for people to connect.”
Dr Hendy said fixed wireless technology requires a near line of sight, and Mystery Bay’s topography and tree covered terrain made it not an option. So nbn co has formally decided not to proceed with the planned tower at Mystery Bay; the community will instead be serviced by the Sky Muster satellite.
“This is good news for locals as the first satellite is open for orders, and the following providers are accepting customers: Skymesh, Harbour ISP, Activ8me, ANT, Bordernet, Clear Networks, IPSTAR, and Reachnet,” Dr Hendy said. “As the fixed wireless tower earmarked for Mystery Bay would not have been able to provide people with the quality of service that nbnco requires, the technology that will service them has now been changed to satellite.
“As a Member of Parliament representing rural and regional Australia, I’m intimately familiar with the telecommunications challenges facing our region. After six years of inaction under Mike Kelly and Labor, I’m very proud to be connecting Eurobodalla residents with mobile phone black spot towers secured for Bodalla and Central Tilba; and to be delivering the rollout of the nbn to homes and businesses across Eurobodalla with fixed line nbn works to commence in Narooma, Dalmeny, and Kianga in 2017.
Former member and Labor candidate Mike Kelly however attacked the current nbn strategy both in outlying areas and in towns, saying the current government’s “fibre to the node” solution of connecting fibre to copper was problematic. “This will hurt our region badly,” Mr Kelly said. “The mix of technologies was simpler and more efficient under Labor.”
Mr Kelly said he had also been in discussions with Telstra to co-locate mobile service on fixed wireless NBN towers.
But Telstra spokesperson said while Telstra was not able to comment on nbn co’s network deployment choices, a co-located mobile service would have been unlikely.
“Whilst all options including co-location are considered when determining new mobile base station deployments, due to the differing requirements of the Telstra Mobile Network and the nbn fixed wireless service, it is unlikely that we would have co-located with nbn co.” the Telstra spokesman said.
The good news for some was however that as part of the Federal Government’s Mobile Black Spot Program, Telstra will be constructing a new mobile base station in Central Tilba which will introduce coverage to Central Tilba and surrounding areas.
Whether this service will extend to the Mystery Bay black spot is unclear.
The Telstra spokesman also addressed the issue of the existing ADSL service and said Telstra had no current plans to discontinue ADSL services in Central Tilba and Mystery Bay.
“The availability of ADSL ports on our network changes over time with both demand and with upgrades to the network,” he said. “ADSL services are provided to the Mystery Bay area, however we are unable to take new ADSL connections currently.
“We continually assess demand to help determine where upgrades need to occur and as a result have completed numerous exchange and cabinet upgrades. As such, there are plans to increase the availability of ADSL connections in the Mystery Bay area in August 2016.”
And he said landline telephony services remain available, despite some reports that new residents at Mystery Bay were not able to get landline phone service.
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Stan Gorton
Walkley-nominated journalist based at The Islander on Kangaroo Island with an interest in the local community and the environment.
Walkley-nominated journalist based at The Islander on Kangaroo Island with an interest in the local community and the environment.
