CUDGEE residents have some of the fastest internet speeds in Australia on their doorstep, but will be relegated to the lowest tier of the NBN.
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Despite being only 10 minutes from Warrnambool and having VicTrack’s fibre optic cable running through the town with speeds capable of up to 10 gigabits per second, many Cudgee residents will have to make do with maximum internet speeds of 25 megabits per second – 400 times slower than the VicTrack cable – coming via satellite.
The satellite option is the lowest tier of NBN and reserved for places where a faster fixed wireless will not work. Fixed wireless uses line-of-sight technology, usually affixed to a Telstra mobile phone tower, but much of Cudgee sits in valley, creating a fixed wireless blackhole.
Cudgee Progress Association president Timshel Knoll-Miller said the satellite option made certain tasks impossible due to the latency or lag.
“It affects anything interactive,” Mr Knoll-Miller said.
“Using a remote desktop is a problem I’ve found already – it makes it totally unusable. It took an hour to do something that would normally take 15 minutes to do.”
“The VicTrack fibre optic cable runs along the railway ...right past our door. But it’s not owned by NBN.
“I always thought it be fibre-to-the-node for the major centres, fixed wireless would cover pretty much anywhere else and I thought satellite would be for if you’re stuck in the Simpson Desert.”
Victorian NBN spokesperson Michael Moore said the VicTrack fibre optic cable was “not owned by NBN and is not part of the plans for our network”.
However VicTrack said it would be more than happy to work with NBN.
“VicTrack has an extensive network of fibre optic cabling across the state, and is keen to collaborate with telecommunications providers wishing to use the network to provide their services,” a VicTrack spokesperson said.
“We already have agreements in place with carriers TPG, Aussie Broadband and Nextgen to utilise our network, and would be happy to discuss with NBN how our cabling could be used to support the rollout of the National Broadband Network.”
A technology expert told The Standard using the VicTrack fibre optic cable would create additional costs for NBN. According to reports in the ABC and Sydney Morning Herald, the NBN is already well over budget.
NBN representatives attended a public meeting in Cudgee last week, and Mr Moore said it was unfortunate the geography of Cudgee meant it was not suitable for fixed wireless, despite being labelled as such on the NBN rollout map.
“Sometimes we find that specific properties within a fixed wireless footprint are unable to pick up an adequate signal from the fixed wireless tower and therefore we need to look at other options, such as a satellite service,” Mr Moore said.
“Ultimately everybody will have the opportunity to connect to the NBN network and we will work with affected residents in Cudgee to ensure they too can get a service.”
Moyne Shire’s small town community planning officer Craig Midgley said there was “a heightened level of community dissatisfaction in Cudgee with the level of service being provided by NBN”.
“We’re liaising with NBN but our reading of it is NBN is not providing the strength or clarity of (fixed wireless) signal service providers need,” Mr Midgley said.
“It’s an infrastructure issue. People are extremely frustrated.”