Call to Tesltra to Invest in Gungahlin.

Availability of Non-Telstra broadband has been the #1 consideration in every rental place I have moved to since 2003!

In 2003 I moved to Brunswick after confirming that Alphalink Wireless was an option. Once iiNet put their DSLAM in the Brunswick exchange, I moved back to their service.

In 2005 I moved to St Kilda Junction after confirming that there was a cable run of about 1.2km from the Windsor Exchange, with an iiDSLAM

In 2007 I moved to Moonee Ponds when an affordable flat became available that was about 200 metres from the Ascot Exchange (iiDSLAM) and about 300 metres away from my then employer.

In 2008 I moved to Sydney for family reasons. The share house I moved to already had ADSL2+ connected through TPG

In 2009 I moved three times for various reasons, when I moved to Canberra in two share houses then when I moved to Queanbeyan. I did my research and stayed well clear of Gunghalin, and I continue to advise the same of others.

Queanbeyan’s Broadband is substantially better, and the rent is affordable too. What more do I really need?

Nick Sundance said :

In short; the reason why Gungahlin residents have bad internet is not Telstra’s fault, its because when residents elected to purchase their houses they did not consider their requirement for high-speed internet an important enough factor. Even in todays financial climate, the only thing holding Gungahlin residents from higher speed internet is their reluctance to move to an area that already has it.

I just checked the ACT government websites. I can’t seem to find the zoning category “Residential – Low Telecommunications services area”

Shall I send you the real estate agents fees, stamp duty and other costs of moving house to an area that meets your approval?

Thanks Nick for bumping this post back into the realms of public discussion again.

I will have to say that if you were so into research you might have taken time to look at my site and the full context.

Part of what I am doing is adding to the ease at which that research can be done. People contact me everyday about it. A guy from Nowra asked me about moving to Gungahlin based on the details on the site. The average Joe would ask their ISP or even Telstra if Broadband is available. They of course would tell you “of course sir, it works great sir.” My site gives a perspective not influenced by profits.

ADSL is available….you can get a service but it doesn’t work. They don’t tell you that when you sign up. Everyone is happy to take our money.

If you had continued your research into the issue you will find any number of examples of Telstra promising to fix the issue and never doing anything about it.

Thursday, 31st August 1995 Radio National Interview with Anthony Goonan – “Telstra is spending between $20-30 million in Gungahlin” it never happened.

“Gungahlin residents are still frustrated by poor access to broadband Internet services, despite the opening of a new telephone exchange three months ago.”
“Gungahlin locals frustrated over broadband” Posted ABC News Sun Aug 15, 2004

Telstra promised that the new exchange would fix all Gungahlin’s problems.

How does this all this affect the business community in Gungahlin?

Canberra Times article ‘ACTTAB Promise Broken: Liberals’ (15th February 2002), Gary Humphries stated:
“…it was almost impossible for ACTTAB to be moved to Gungahlin due to costs, particularly the installation of new communications lines/systems.”

Telstra has had a number of half-baked attempts to silence the area with promises which have never delivered. I am happy for all the Telstra shareholders to comment on why their investment needs to fix the problems. This is only as long as they’re fine investing in a company that can not deliver working products.

Feel free to invest in a company that has wasted thousands of dollars on many failed attempts of delivering Broadband for residents and businesses. If it was done right the first time…well everyone would have been happy, including your dividends.

Nick Sundance, your misunderstanding of the problem is breathtaking. And your suggested remedy – move house – even more so.

When I moved to Canberra just over 4 years ago, I did a little thing called research. A rapid scan of allhomes found me regions of Canberra that were in my price bracket, namely Gungahlin, Dunlop, Charnwood and Kambah southwards to the border.

Quickly I decided I didn’t want to live southside, so I then researched the areas that were available to me – and in short order Gungahlin was discounted due to its poor internet connectivity, and latter Charnwood for the stigma attached to the suburb name*.

I note this because what I am trying to imply is that what you want in a household should never be confined to 4 walls and north facing windows, and that a gamut of factors are involved, but by using this knowledge to my advantage, I selected a house that is fit-for-purpose for myself and my family.

I consider this issue as strikingly similar to people who move in next to airports, and then complain about aircraft noise.

It was not until I reached this tertiary layer of examination, that I was in a position to select a house – and what I consider stable albeit basic advice for any person seeking to purchase a property.

In short; the reason why Gungahlin residents have bad internet is not Telstra’s fault, its because when residents elected to purchase their houses they did not consider their requirement for high-speed internet an important enough factor. Even in todays financial climate, the only thing holding Gungahlin residents from higher speed internet is their reluctance to move to an area that already has it.

*This didn’t necessarily stop me from continuing to look in these suburbs, however the suitability of the home was immediately in question before I even inspected the property – as the case may have been, I may have found a property that was suitable for other reasons that would have outweighed its respective concern.

caf said :

Gungahlin Al: You can certainly disagree with whether Telstra should have been sold, but the fact remains that it was sold, and with that sale vanished the moral authority to treat it as a public service. It is a bit like the mouse in the trap, who now decides he doesn’t want the cheese anymore.

Of course (except that your analogy falls over because this mouse didn’t wnat the cheese in the first place 🙂 ).

But there are national problems that are resulting from Telstra havign the control it does over the network, while profiting from those decisions s a provider to boot. That’s where national interest anti-competition issues come in and why the move to force a split will correct this. Although were I despot, the network would be re-nationalised. So would energy generation to decouple it from the profit making imperative, but that’s another story…

Quoting Anna Key:
‘ How is the community hurting? Because your broadband is a bit slow? If it was profitable, someone would do it. Why do the rest of us need to subsidise it?’

1. Would you not agree with me when I say broadband (and a working broadband service, might I add) is quickly being a necessary utility (if it isn’t alreadt) in today’s world? Tell a business that they cannot have broadband and their operation and hence profits would be severely impeded. Tell a prospective homeowner that they cannot have broadband in a house they are looking at buying, and chances are they will probably look elsewhere. It is quite clear to me you do either 1) Do not appreciate just how vital a broadband service is, or 2) have never experienced a crippled broadband service w

2. If you bothered reading Russel’s post, you would appreciate that it is not “a bit slow” (by any definition), but rather, “unusable”. Any individual with a degree of technical proficiency will realise the results as posted on Russel’s website is indicative of an unusable internet service.

3. You seem to suggest that any entity can just dig a hole into the ground to install their own cables, or go repairing another entity’s existing infrastructure. As an example, let’s say there were (God forbid) problems with the town’s water supply. Do you think Jim’s Water Supply can just dig a trench in the ground and install their own pipes and hook it up to ACTEW’s Water network? Simple logic would suggest, “no”. The same can be said for the broadband infrastructure. There is only one entity that can fix this and this is Telstra. So no, it’s not a matter of “if it’s profitable”. Nothing can be further from the truth.

Gungahlin Al: You can certainly disagree with whether Telstra should have been sold, but the fact remains that it was sold, and with that sale vanished the moral authority to treat it as a public service. It is a bit like the mouse in the trap, who now decides he doesn’t want the cheese anymore.

Gungahlin Al said :

Because big chunks of our wonderful Nation’s Capital can’t even get broadband.

Last time I checked, Gungahlin is pretty much covered by wireless broadband and longreach broadband services. Also, have you tried looking into the broadband guarantee? The federal government will subsidise the cost of installing a high speed connection, whether it has to be by satellite or other means, if you live in an area that has no broadband coverage.

It’s easy to sit back espousing the wonders of the free market and the mythical ‘invisible hand’ when you are fortunate enough to have BB where you are.

I have had wireless broadband for the last 4 years, so yes I have broadband where I am, whether thats in Tuggeranong, Gungahlin or even down the South Coast.

And Caf: we may have got a small one-off income from the sale, but clearly we’ve been paying for that ever since. The loss of annual revenue from the dividend. The $40+ billion that now has to go into the NBN.

The money that came from the sale would have had to come from somewhere. Would you have rathered tax increases or something? Also, if the government still owned Telstra, would the cost of the NBN be any different? Would they have bothered putting it up for tender, or would they have just coughed up whatever monetary amount was asked for from Telstra?

Anna Key said :

How is the community hurting? Because your broadband is a bit slow? If it was profitable, someone would do it. Why do the rest of us need to subsidise it?

Because big chunks of our wonderful Nation’s Capital can’t even get broadband.

It’s easy to sit back espousing the wonders of the free market and the mythical ‘invisible hand’ when you are fortunate enough to have BB where you are.

But my comment on hurting communities was about more than BB.

Community groups and the general volunteer movement, plus community events all over the nation, were massively damaged after insurance costs went through the roof. Would not have happened had the various governments maintained their interests in insurance companies.

The challenges of addressing greenhouse would have been far simpler if all the energy supply networks were public. Now it is near impossible to decouple energy firms from the need to actually sell more power rather than less. So now we have the stupidity of ACTEWAGL newsletters full of A/C sales deals, and one lousy page down the back about how to reduce consumption.

CBA was sold, and the moderating influence on the rest of the banking sector was lost. Fees skyrocketed, cards rates followed, staying up even though we have record low rates on the cash market.

You can’t say all these things are not hurting Australians. And none could have happened the way they have, if the government assets hadn’t been sold off.

And Caf: we may have got a small one-off income from the sale, but clearly we’ve been paying for that ever since. The loss of annual revenue from the dividend. The $40+ billion that now has to go into the NBN.