Cranbrook connects to the fast broadband revolution
The National Broadband Network has officially rolled into Cranbrook, connecting residents to a faster fixed wireless network.
The long-awaited connection was launched by the parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Communications, Paul Fletcher, and Member for O'Connor Rick Wilson, who visited Cranbrook on Wednesday last week.
Cranbrook's fixed wireless tower joins the nine others that have been activated since November - including Tenterden, Kendenup, Kojonup, Williams, Narrogin and Manjimup - providing about 2700 premises with 25 megabits per second download speeds, faster than some ADSL connections in cities.
Liana Eddon was the first Cranbrook resident to connect to the network and said she noticed the increase in speed immediately.
"I have a party planning business that I started up and I needed the internet and I needed it fast; the moment I was on it I noticed the speed," she said.
"They came out 10 days after we requested it, took 30 minutes to install and it has been great."
Ms Eddon said on the fixed wireless network she was paying $90 a month and receiving 25 megabits a second of fast download, but previously on the ADSL line she was paying $150 a month for downloads that were slow and some items took almost 20 minutes to upload.
"For Cranbrook being a small town, this connection is a priority," she said. "My partner is always online gaming and I needed it for work, so now I can now expand my business and progress and it's really good."
Mr Fletcher said every business used the internet - be it tourism, agriculture, consultancy - and that connectivity was important.
"One of the great benefits of this is that it now means that people have many more choices about where they live, knowing they will have the connectivity for their business," he said.
Mr Wilson said the Government had focused on the areas that had the highest need because ADSL was previously not available.
Some 200,000 homes and businesses in rural Australia are covered by the network, and the Government will invest up to $1.2 billion in the satellite and fixed wireless networks to make sure they are able to cope with the demand.
