iiNet keen for regional NBN rollout
WA internet service provider iiNet has urged the Federal Government to get on with rolling out the national broadband network to regional centres such as Albany.
Speaking at a Senate inquiry hearing in Perth last week, iiNet chief regulatory officer Steve Dalby criticised the slow delivery of the NBN and said regional centres needed to be made a priority.
“The regional centres ought to be the focus, get on with it, get out to those places. Give them broadband,” he said.
“Getting Geraldton, Albany, Esperance, Kalgoorlie, those sort of regional areas and their subsidiary towns like Katanning (and) Busselton, getting them fibred up will aid in stopping the drift of young people into the cities.
“And maybe they will say, hey, I’m going to live in Bunbury, I’m going to live in Albany, because I can still get the same level of access to a global network as if I was in St George’s Terrace.”
The Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network was hearing evidence on the rollout of the NBN in WA.
It will release its final report by June 10.
Current figures from the NBN Co — the government-owned company in charge of the national broadband network — show fewer than 10,000 WA customers are connected to the network, with Geraldton the only regional area connected.
In 2012, the Labor Federal Government announced plans for the nationwide rollout of the NBN over three years, with 15,000 premises in Albany to be connected to a high-speed fibre-optic network.
Work on the Albany rollout was scheduled to start in December this year and be completed in phases by June next year.
Work in Katanning was to have started in June last year, with the NBN to have reached Kojonup, Gnowangerup and Wagin in December 2013.
Mt Barker and Narrogin were scheduled to come onto the NBN in June this year and Denmark in December.
Albany MLA Peter Watson said getting the NBN was vital to keeping and attracting business. “If businesses don’t have proper services and (have) internet dropouts, they’ll go back to the city,” he said.
A spokesman for NBN Co said the goal remained to bring better broadband to everyone, and online maps painted an accurate picture of the nation-wide rollout as it stands today, rather than a forecast of when communities might receive it.
“NBN Co will submit its corporate plan by mid 2014 and the plan will have an update on the rollout timeframe across Australia,” he said.
The spokesman urged people in regional WA to keep visiting the website – www.nbnco.com.au – to check for updates as further areas enter the building stage.
