By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
THE Narre Warren South community is being called upon to justify why their suburb should be prioritised for the next NBN rollout.
NBN Co has asked Narre Warren South residents to prove why their area should be included in the next priority rollout announcement, after the organisation met with Liberal MP Jason Wood and Casey Council representatives late last year. Individual case studies to justify a priority announcemnent have been requested.
The meeting follows an extensive campaign run by Narre Warren South resident and IT worker Steve Barnes, whose family has been battling with sub-standard internet for more than a decade. He has been advocating for a better service over the past 11 years.
The meeting came after NBN Co announced its latest rollout plan, for which Narre Warren South was overlooked.
Additional NBN construction plans were confirmed for 80 other cities, suburbs and towns across Victoria up to June 2016.
An NBN Co spokesperson would not indicate whether Narre Warren South would be listed in the next rollout announcement after mid-2016, but said the company would continue to “work with the City of Casey”.
“While we would like to connect everyone at the same time, we are constrained by both economic and physical resource limitations,” the spokesperson said.
“As a result, we must build the network in stages and in an efficient, systematic manner.
“We are working hard to do this as quickly as possible and at least cost to Australians.
“Ultimately, Narre Warren South will not miss out.”
Mr Barnes was able to have ADSL installed to his home roughly seven years ago when Telstra temporarily lowered its service threshold but it still operates at an incredibly slow speed compared to other suburbs.
If his children want to use the internet at the same time as he was using it, Mr Barnes, who operates from home, finds it almost impossible to use the web for work.
A spokesperson for La Trobe MP Jason Wood has urged each Narre Warren South household with internet issues to submit their individual case studies, calling especially on those people who run a business from their home.
In September last year, Federal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull fielded questions from disgruntled Narre Warren South residents at a special NBN forum convened by Mr Wood.
When asked by Mr Barnes at the time about the suburb’s sluggish broadband, Mr Turnbull said the previous Labor Government had entered into NBN contracts for areas that were already well served with broadband.
“Unfortunately, as you can imagine, these construction contracts have been set out a long time ago and so there is still work going on,” Mr Turnbull had said.
“We had to keep, for contractual and other reasons, the project moving along. And there are no doubt some areas which are contracted a long time ago, where fibre is being rolled out which would never have been part of our plan.”
For more information and to submit a case study, visit Mr Barnes’ website at www.nbn4nws.asn.au.
