NBN FIASCO FRUSTRATION
A WAURN PONDS resident has been left without an internet connection after a twomonth NBN delay.
Bourbon Way resident and mother Eileen said she is no closer to knowing when her property will be connected to the National Broadband Network after her ADSL service was turned off on June 17.
Eileen, who did not want her family name published, said she was burning through about $100 of mobile data each week since losing a fixed internet connection to her property.
“Everything is online these days; work, banking et cetera. We are paying truckloads for our mobile data at the moment. It’s a great big stuff-up.”
Eileen said that a NBN technician sent to assess the problem at her home recently told her the connection from the nearest node to her property had not been completed ANTHONY Tantaro will be barracking for the opposing footy team to his cousins, Jakob and Lukas, today. But the trio will share the thrill of being on the ground before an AFL match.
The boys all have Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare genetic disorder that degenerates their muscles.
The affliction will, in time, confine each of the boys to a wheelchair before rendering them quadriplegics.
Their grandmother, Sue before her ADSL service was switched off.
“They still can’t give us a day or time when we will be connected to the NBN … it could be three days or four weeks.”
Eileen said the NBN customer service centre had told her the company was aware of the problems in Geelong.
“NBN are aware of all the shortfalls in Geelong. They are very slow at addressing the problems,” Eileen said.
“There seems to be a lot of people in the middle not doing their job to fix these problems.”
Eileen estimated NBN woes were affecting up to 100 people in the Waurn Ponds area, and called on others to go public with their problems.
“It seems to me that the Federal Government aren’t keeping up with their end of the deal to deliver this.”
An NBN spokeswoman said additional work is needed at some properties in NBN-conTantaro, understands people with DMD, on average, only live to their mid-20s. But Mrs Tantaro is determined to give her grandsons the best opportunities in life and raise awareness and funds for research into the disorder.
Today the three boys will be part of the guard of honour to greet the players as they run onto the ground for the Geelong versus Carlton AFL match. Anthony is a keen Cats supporter, while his cousins barrack for the Blues.
“I think they’re excited about it,” Ms Tantaro said. nected areas before they can be connected to the network.
“As each premises is unique, a small number of premises may require additional works before they will be ready to connect to the new network,” the spokeswoman said.
“It is not unusual for the majority of an area to become NBN-ready, whilst works are being carried out to those remaining premises.
“This means access is not held back for those areas where construction is complete.”
Across the Geelong region more than 90,900 homes and businesses are able to connect to the NBN network, and work is under way to connect the remaining 25,400 premises.
It’s expected these premises will be able to connect to the NBN between September and January next year.
“They all like watching footy, but they can’t play it because of their condition, so it’s harder for them to be really excited about it.”
There was no evidence of muscular dystrophy in the Tantaro family until Anthony, now aged 10, was diagnosed five years ago. Cousins Jakob and Lukas Cullen, aged 8 and 5, also have the disorder.
The family’s Her Cousins Crusade campaign aims to raise awareness about the disorder, including that it can be detected early with a simple blood test.