Connection concerns
MARK Sinkinson is sick of waiting for the NBN to roll out across the Geelong region, which he fears is destined for a substandard connection anyway.
The St Albans Park resident was an attendee at a public forum discussing the NBN at Belmont Library yesterday, hosted by Australia’s shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowlands.
Mr Sinkinson said he and many others were tired of waiting for the service to be delivered and held concerns they would be stuck with a sluggish fibre-to-the-node connection, which he said wouldn’t be much better than his current ADSL 2 connection.
“It’s terrible; I get the spinning wheel of death every time I try to do something. I can’t even watch anything on Netflix, my kids are ready to kill me,” he said of his current ADSL connection.
“This has been a well and truly drawn-out process. I’m just hoping that this delay actually comes in our favour when it’s all said and done, so I can get fibre-to-the-kurb.
“If they’re delaying it and I’m still getting the same substandard fibre to the node — I could be 300m to 400m from a node where it’s running through old copper wires and I won’t be getting the speed that I should be getting.”
Federal Oppositon Communications Spokeswoman Michelle Rowlands and Corio federal Labor MP Richard Marles slammed the Government’s NBN rollout yesterday.
“Unfortunately, Malcolm Turnbull’s multi-technology NBN mess is failing to bridge the digital divide,” Ms Rowlands said. “Turnbull’s poor judgment will leave Geelong residents with inferior broadband service that costs more and does less.”
Australian Communications Minister Mitch Fifield hit back at Ms Rowlands’ comments, declaring all technologies used for the NBN were “fit for purpose”.
The former Labor Government could only provide access ‘It’s terrible. I can’t even watch anything on Netflix, my kids are ready to kill me.’
MARK SINKINSON TELLS THE FORUM ABOUT HIS ADSL CONNECTION I N ST ALBANS PARK
to 370 premises in the electorate of Corio. Today, under a Turnbull Government, almost 25,000 premises have access to the NBN. “Similarly in Corangamite, three years of Labor could only deliver NBN services to 2100 premises. Whereas the Turnbull Government has made the NBN available to over 83,000 premises,” he said.
Mr Fifield said the current Government would complete the NBN project for $30 billion less than Labor would have.
Corangamite federal Labor candidate Libby Coker also hit out at the NBN.
“Malcolm Turnbull’s second-rate NBN has left almost 70 per cent of local residents from the electorates of Corangamite and Corio on copper-based Fibre to the Node technology,” she said. “This is not good enough for residents or small businesses who need fast and reliable internet.”