Many residents, families, businesses and institutions on the Sapphire Coast do not receive fast, reliable internet and contiguous mobile telephony.
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True ADSL2+ speeds are seldom achieved. Mobile wireless internet is patchy, overloaded with congestion during tourist influxes, and often unworkable. Mobile telephony black spots remain commonplace.
Telstra suffers national, systemic outages. Acceptable technical support and prompt fixes are lacking.
Ageing Telstra copper networks do not cut the mustard, crippled when heavy rainfall causes pits/nodes to fill with water. Every end-user who suffers outages and funereal speeds faces this constant nemesis.
National infrastructure projects should not succumb to wayward work schedules, cancellations, or arbitrary funding shortfalls. What about our regional National Broadband Network (NBN) Fixed Wireless Network, announced, publicised, planned, approved, documented and funded?
The NBN-documented provisioning schedule is slipping for Mystery Bay, Brushgrove Lane, South-West Narooma (Nangudga) and Umbarra fixed wireless towers. What about keen potential NBN clients in these areas?
Eurobodalla Shire Council confirmed objections to the Mystery Bay tower did not warrant cessation. NBN documents also state all construction approvals have been granted.
Alleged reasons for cancellation of the Mystery Bay tower do not pass scrutiny and common sense. If trees are an issue, add height to the tower, or manage trees.
NBN engineers do not normally commit engineering or planning errors to this extent. Solutions are available unless funding or political will are suddenly withdrawn.
Similar inexplicable NBN stoppages have occurred in southern NSW, including at Tumut and Delegate.
To suggest satellite services are equivalent to terrestrial or fixed wireless technologies is an insult to internet consumers' intelligence. Latency, poor weather, expense, meagre download quotas and basic networking hardware limit satellite service delivery.
Access to fast, reliable, affordable internet is an essential service. The EU, UK, Scandinavia and other developed nations have legislated thusly, establishing clear standards and timeframes. Australia should follow suit.
Rob Slazenger, Bermagui