Page 3374 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 23 September 2015
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to the home that delivered speeds of up to one gigabit per second, or a 100 megabits per second download speed. Federal Labor understood that the NBN is the new essential utility that people, homes, businesses and government need.
Instead, under the former communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, the coalition chose to run a fibre to the node scheme that promises speeds of just 25 megabits per second. Fibre to the node sees fibre-optic cables run along the street and terminate at a big box. The old copper network is then used to deliver service on what is known as the “last mile” to the house.
Unfortunately, even this second-rate NBN is rolling out slower than Mr Turnbull originally promised, and it is more expensive than he originally promised. The cost of the coalition’s NBN started out at $29.5 billion in April 2013, it blew out to $41 billion in December 2013, it increased again to $42 billion in August 2014 and recently it was announced that it will now cost up to $56 billion.
Earlier this month, as I have noted in the chamber before, I hosted a better broadband forum with the member for Fraser, Andrew Leigh, and shadow minster for communications, Jason Clare, at the Uniting Church auditorium in Gungahlin. It was a well-attended event with around 40 people coming out to talk about NBN rollout and connectivity issues at their homes, and in many cases their home businesses. What became very clear at our forum was that Gungahlin, on the whole, does have a great advantage over the majority of Canberra. But even within Gungahlin there are streets and parts of suburbs that have been left behind. They are islands of non-connectivity.
Within the suburb of Casey approximately two-thirds of the suburb has an NBN connection, and the remainder are still waiting for any confirmation of when they will be connected. Nicholls residents, although knowing they are on the map, are getting mixed messages about what their eventual NBN will look like. Will it be fibre to the home or the slower, less effective fibre to the node?
Then there is the broader digital divide across Canberra. After the 2013 federal election the entire Canberra electorate was taken off the NBN map. There is particular frustration in parts of the Tuggeranong valley where existing services are extremely poor. Some still rely on ADSL1 technology. Telstra will not guarantee any minimum speed for some suburbs. And there is no fixed broadband available at all in Theodore, with most of this suburb relying on wireless 3G services.
The inconsistency of service, particularly throughout Canberra, means that those preferring or requiring fast and reliable broadband will gravitate to those areas where it can be accessed. Could this be one of the reasons we are seeing more people move into Canberra’s northern suburbs?
The really important point is: what does this digital divide mean? What it means is that those suburbs and regions without access or the means to move to an area with coverage can be at a real disadvantage—whether they be students researching for assessments, small businesses requiring large and fast downloads, or those incapacitated by age or disability hoping to access online consultations with health specialists from afar.
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