17 November 2009

Continued disappointment in Gungahlin

| T1G3R
Join the conversation
32

So I recently moved to Gungahlin with my family. Lovely place, lots of people I know in the area and a decent enough town centre. I then decided to arrange to connect the internet, I got my line transpositioned with Beagle. I did expect it to be slow but everynight between 9pm and 11pm the line drops, cannot establish ppp server connection. I’ve been told many times it’s my router which i think is untrue, unfortunately i’m yet to test it as now I have to buy another $200 router just to “test” this one. Even if it’s faulty the ISP that sold it to me won’t give me a refund which again another pain in the butt. Anyway I’ve moved on and i’ll try figure it out and fix it later, i might even have to change it to an ADSL1 line which is just as expensive.

I used to live in Melbourne and I love the herald sun as it has news that was relevant to me and that I can enjoy. I called the Canberra times since I had no idea where to start to try get a subscription. They then told me call my local news agency. I called and they then told me “No we do not deliver because of the odd times the paper gets delivered”, fair enough. I then proceeded to call another news agency close by to the Gungahlin area. Turns out they are happy to deliver but it’ll just be a day late but they only service their area, such as Watson, Dickson and Lyneham. I then called the local news agency in Gungahlin to be told “no, no we just can’t do it”. Not really an acceptable answer to me. Unfortunately for me I’m still suffering from severe anxiety with other mental illnesses and I cannot leave the house without supervision, so picking up the newspaper is out of the question, even though that’s what I used to do almost every day.

At first I was excited to be moving out to Gungahlin with but now I see it as one big headache. I also heard Dunlop has similar connectivity issues. When will life start getting a bit easier? I already know that Telstra is just going to sit on their hands and not fix any infrastructure in the new suburbs but instead place FTTH (fibre to the home). which again is a very EXPENSIVE service to have. In my eyes our capital is missing a fair bit that the big cities have. What I see is neglected nature strip, poor infrastructure and no light rail for an ever expanding city. I know this sounds more like a rant than an article but I just wish our capital was an easier place to live. I believe we just need to speak up and someone will listen.

Join the conversation

32
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest
VYBerlinaV8_is_back9:39 am 31 Jul 12

You should try Dunlop. Both of the people there with Internet access reckon it’s great.

Comment #20 by Chop71 has it 100% correct.
Also, Newsagents are restricted to deliver only to suburbs that they are contracted to deliver to and cannot deliver outside these areas. You can only SUBSCRIBE to the Herald Sun if you are a Victorian resident. Having a HS or AGE home delivered would only be possible the following day. But this isn’t an ideal situation for the customer, nor viable for the Newsagent. It is unfortunate, but that is just the way it is. The paper can be picked up in store on the day of press, but this could be anywhere between open of business and midday depending on arrival times. One must also take into account, hold-ups related to bad weather and truck break-downs, traffic etc. What might seem like quite an easy task to us is actually a more involved process behind the scenes.
FYI – Gungahlin Centre News is currently contracted to deliver to Gungahlin, Harrison and Franklin. Other suburbs in the area are delivered by Evatt and Hawker Newsagencys.
For those interested in the Canberra Times… You can subscribe through them directly, which also means that they also deliver it themselves. Or you can bypass them and get the Newsagent to deliver it and have a bill sent to you.
And yes, Canberra misses out on a lot. As a capital city, THE capital city, we are way behind and left out.

Gungahlin Al9:37 am 20 Nov 09

bd84 said :

Telstra are too lazy to do anything about fixing anything, best of luck there.

Not lazy – anticompetitive. If they upgrade it, then they have to share it. So they let us all rot.

Hatter64 said :

Some Locals objected to Govt agencies moving into the area so we lost millions of dollars in revenue. Many shops suffered.

Who and when, may I ask? (Your other points are well made.)

Ari said :

The Canberra Times does deliver.

Ring (02) 6280 2222 and ask for subscriptions or email ctd@canberratimes.com.au

Or is your illness so bad you can’t walk out to your front yard to pick it up?

Sorry but i’m not after “The Canberra Times”, I rather “The Herald Sun”. My illness does give me a hard time as I get breathless as soon as I jump in the car, I can only manage a very short drive at the moment, such as picking up my niece from the local school. If I could go out and get the paper than I wouldn’t have this issue.

Grrrr said :

Yes, the ADSL situation in Gunghalin is dire. To see what you can do about it, check out http://www.actbroadband.net/

Thanks for that too, i was having a hard time finding it, google isn’t my friend haha. Ah well I persoanlly believe Telstra screwed it all up on purpose so we spend more than $100 just for a lousy quota. 3G doesn’t have good pings and is unreliable unless it’s with Telstra as they have more towers and closer together, then again its going to be very expensive. I hear some people do ok on ADSL until its peak time, but ADSL1 (8000k) is way too expensive and it seemed better off to get ADSL2 for the same price.

I have had some wonderful experiences with internet in Gungahlin – moved from Darwin where my 54 kb/s dial up modem used to regularly hit 48 kb/s or whatever the number used to be. Got 33 at Hawker, then 28 on a good day in Gungahlin, which used to be hailed as the connected centre of the ACT – now with ADSL, the download speed is way inferior to anywhere else.

The Evatt newsagency delivers to Ngunnawal and presumably to the rest of Gungahlin. However they won’t be able to help you with the Herald Sun on the day because they just don’t arrive in time.

(By the way, interesting to note that the LDA continues to stuff the community around – see the Crimes story about the meeting at Gold Creek School on the proposal to develop a ridiculously small patch of dirt between the school and the shops – the people there were angry, about the rubbishy way the ‘consultation’ has been conducted and the traffic study prepared by consultants who ignore the congestion and potential risks for school kids on the pitifully narrow Kellaway Avenue. Talk about a fit-up!)

@vg I’m only new here but can I ask that you refrain from making jokes about mental health in general and the sufferers. I only hope you never go through the trauma. I thought Canberrans were reasonably intelligent and welcoming.

@OP Welcome to Canberra and the Gungahlin area. Like the weather (have you noticed we get 3 weather reports for the ACT?) Canberra has a huge variation in services and support.

The Gungahlin area is a good place to live but a poor place to receive services. The good, the bad and the ugly:

Restaurants – Some of the best around. Unfortunately some of the best don’t deliver.

Shops – OK for groceries and minor items. Some Locals objected to Govt agencies moving into the area so we lost millions of dollars in revenue. Many shops suffered. Belconnen or Civic, even Woden are easy distances (outside peak times). Which segues nicely into —-

Roads – Road rage will get steadily worse as the roads infrastructure gets stretched even further than it is now. I look forward to retirement when I don’t have to travel in and out of the area on the 3 congested routes 0740 to 0915 and 1630 to 1745. The only consolation is that road congestion and the driver actions are bad everywhere during those periods

Information – I will try not to rant. Too late!

Newspapers – As stated, subscribe to the papers you want and let them sort out delivery. I get mine delivered from Evatt!! I feel sorry for the newsagent getting paid a pitance for the long drive.

Internet – Telstra screwed us over big time in the early 2000s. Federal and Local Govt then hung us out to dry. We’re continuing to suffer today. I lived in an older suburb of Canberra until 2001. At that time I had full 56K dialup and was being offered ADSL and Transact cable. The first 2 years here I had 23K dialup. It’s better now but has a long way to go. If you just consider yourself part of a Rural community in the middle of the GAFA you’ll feel better.

Join the rebellion at http://www.actbroadband.net/ (Thanks to all involved)

Mobile – Better now than even as late as 12 months ago. Expect your mobile to cut out at any time. (the enlightened locals of the day fought against having ugly mobile phone towers in the area, can’t blame Telstra for shrugging their shoulders and moving onto other areas).

Cheers

Up The Duffy11:39 pm 17 Nov 09

I am glad that I moved to the older suburbs.

Don,t allow woman a say in the house buying process and you will end up living 15 to 10 min from the CBD.

Then slowly over time you add all the new features of a modern house.

Sexism works in some cases. She is happy now, and is happy to dish it on the poor souls living in the outer suburbs.

Why are there Horse paddocks all around Curtin?????? Shouldn,t that be City??????????

Telstra are too lazy to do anything about fixing anything, best of luck there.

The CT deliver pretty much anywhere, the subscription number abuve is a good place to start. I’m surprised they told you to call the newsagents, they’ve been trying to muscle the local newsagents out of the delivery trade for the past 15 odd years.

Lived in Gungahlin for 13 years. Love it. No problems with any of the above. Had local and national papers delivered without issue

If you can’t leave the house without supervision how are you going to collect your paper off the front lawn?

far_northact7:37 pm 17 Nov 09

I have found that subscribing directly with the newspaper that you wish to buy (then let them sort out who will deliver it and when) works well.

eyeLikeCarrots said :

IMHO s boradband internet connection should now be considered a basic essential service like water, sewerage or a phone.

It STUMPS me that a modern suburb like Gungahlin is having these problems when older suburbs are happily enjoying thier 20 Mbit connections.

Its nothing but retarded.

if it makes you feel any better my 20 mbit connection in aranda is actually a 3 mbit connection

As for the Herald Sun, I can fill you in on the story.

The Herald Sun and the Age used to be flown to Canberra as of 9 months ago fairfax made the decision that air freight was too expensive. (strange they made the decision when we were already being charged an extra 50 cents per paper to cover it). So now the papers are trucked to Yass where a courier then deliveres them to Mitchell. They are then split between couriers to various outlets in Canberra. I can inform you Gungahlin is the last area in Canberra to recieve the Melbourne papers and most newsagents have already done their delivery run by the time the papers even get there.

Of note, the papers are delivered to Manuka and the inner circle first so the pubes on the hill can read about themselves before fronting the morning electronic media.

oh yes, and we are still being charged the extra freight money to read yesterdays news.

Chop

I think the OP was lookin to have the Herald Sun delivered, not the CT.

Just look at it online!!

what’s that? Oh!

Steve_Pedestrian4:29 pm 17 Nov 09

At my work we have the need to get the Herald Sun, and the reason for it not turning up at a reasonable time is because the freight is brought up from Melbourne by road overnight when it was previously flown up on the first plane out of Melbourne.

eyeLikeCarrots4:08 pm 17 Nov 09

IMHO s boradband internet connection should now be considered a basic essential service like water, sewerage or a phone.

It STUMPS me that a modern suburb like Gungahlin is having these problems when older suburbs are happily enjoying thier 20 Mbit connections.

Its nothing but retarded.

Gungahlin Al3:58 pm 17 Nov 09

Holden Caulfield said :

fnaah said :

Why not go for a 3G wireless connection?

3G. Gungahlin. Amusing.

My thoughts also.

Bosworth said :

I live in Ngunnawal, and have no internet problems. I have ADSL1.

I also have ADSL1 – although they should be done for false advertising spruiking it as a 1500Kb service. I am lucky to get 780Kb at the very best times, and lately it has become woefully slow (like 300Kb) at most times.

I’ve applied for an upgrade to ADSL2+ and was told they “have no available ports” “So what you’re saying is that Telstra’s hardware in wioefully inadequate?” “No – we have no ports available.” “Yes – meaning Telstra’s hardware is woefully inadequate.” “No – we have…” infinite loop.

But low and behold I can have the 8Mb service, which doesn’t need one of these ports. “OK – so how much cheaper is that for 8Mb instead of 20Mb?” “It’s the same price sir.” “Well given I have no choice, I’ll have to cop that rip-off then won’t I?”

Still waiting for the speed upgrade two weeks later, despite an additional follow-up to them after one week. Telstra sux.

Broadband aside, the area is nice, a lot of the homes are nice, and we have a fairly low proportion of scuzzy people in the area. But we are the butt of a social experiment joke by the ALP government regarding ever shrinking block sizes. I had family here recently from Perth and while sitting outside on the deck for some hours they marvelled about how quiet it was.

ACT_Broadband3:03 pm 17 Nov 09

Thanks Grrr and El for linking my site.

Welcome to Gungahlin T1G3R.

We are all frustrated with the level of service in Canberra’s North. I have a campaign going to try and fix it. Feel free to go to http://www.actbroadband.net and drop me a line. I will help where I can.

To all out there thinking of moving to Gungahlin or to any place new there are a two tools you can use to find out what Broadband coverage is like.

http://www.adsl2exchanges.com.au can show you what ADSL sync speeds are like in your area. They have a heat map which plots ADSL sync speeds.

They also show a heat map of ADSL port availabity on CMUX/RIMS. You will quickly be able to determine if where you are moving to is covered by RIMS.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/ is another great tool for broadband issues. If someone has had an issue it will be posted there. You can view posts by provider if you are looking to switch or use the search function to locate details on certain exchanges or areas.

I have mapped the RIM deployment to streets in Gungahlin the diagram can be found at http://www.actbroadband.net/topology/

Anyone in Gungahlin having Broadband issues should contact me russell “at” actbroadband.net

anonymous gungahlian2:51 pm 17 Nov 09

We live in Harrison, and our broardband is ok, but slow for broardband. Our neighbours who moved in at the beggining of the year have got it tough though- aparently there are not enough “slots” in the area so they have to use a really slow dial-up. The thing is that we were one of the first few families to move to our street so we got in early.

With the newspaper problem, we had a subscription with the Canberra Times and the Newsagency (at Gungahlin Marketplace) where it gets delivered daily; but since my dad brings the paper home from work every day, he decided to cancel our subscription months ago, thing is that they still deliver it daily even though we’re not paying anymore, my Dad phoned up to let them know but apparently the Canberra Times is delivering it for the rest of the year as some sort of promotion.

It would be helpful if we knew where in Gungahlin you lived because different areas have different explanations of why the internet may not work. Also The Newsagencies will only deliver the Newspapers to certain suburbs and certain distances from the store.

T1G3R, I hope that you get this issue sorted out soon and enjoy living in Gungahlin.

gunghalin is hell

fnaah said :

Why not go for a 3G wireless connection?

Telstra? Is that you?

Holden Caulfield12:09 pm 17 Nov 09

fnaah said :

Why not go for a 3G wireless connection?

3G. Gungahlin. Amusing.

Internet issues in Gunghalin have previously been covered here and here.

3G wireless is slow, expensive, unreliable and has the same issues with congestion when used in ‘peak’ periods as the OP has written about above.

I’m sorry to hear about your anxiety issues, BTW.

The Canberra Times does deliver.

Ring (02) 6280 2222 and ask for subscriptions or email ctd@canberratimes.com.au

Or is your illness so bad you can’t walk out to your front yard to pick it up?

I don’t have any problems with drop outs using ADSL. It’s slow but doesn’t drop out.

I get the canberra times delivered 7 days. ring their subscription department.

Why not go for a 3G wireless connection?

Yes, the ADSL situation in Gunghalin is dire. To see what you can do about it, check out http://www.actbroadband.net/

If you want half decent broadband you are going to have to pay more for it than other regions. At least you have options, inc FTTH from TransACT (assuming you’re in one of those suburbs), and wireless such as 3G (from the usual suspects; telstra, optus etc) and Netspeed Longreach perhaps.

Hopefully TransACT realise how poor value their service is and lower prices across the board – inc FTTH – but given their behaviour the previous 8 years, I wouldn’t count on it happening before the NBN rolls past your door.

I live in Ngunnawal, and have no internet problems. I have ADSL1.

icantbelieveitsnotbutter9:37 am 17 Nov 09

We’re not missing a fair bit in Canberra, i mean yes we don’t have huge sporting events/ concerts etc like Melbourne and Sydney… but we have it pretty damn good here. I would go so far as to say we have the best living conditions in the country. If your biggest issues at the moment (despite your anxiety and other mental illnesses, of which i am deeply sympathetic) are your internet connection and your newspaper delivery, then you’re not doing too bad.

I lived in Wanganeen Ave and I couldn’t get ADSL because of transmission loss. Telstra simply said “too bad”. I found it amusing when Telstra would knock on my door and try to sell me broadband. I’d say “sure! give it a go, it won’t work” and sure enough, it would fail. Luckily I moved into my own house a few blocks away and can now get a good 512k connection through TPG.

I love living in Gungahlin though. The positives far outweigh the negatives.

Don’t forget to add poor customer service and ridiculously light court sentencing

I’m sorry you’ve had such a bad time moving – however these challenges seem to be more associated with moving generally, rather than moving to Gungahlin specifically. I’ve never had a problem with Internet connection or with getting newspapers delivered – although I’m quite centrally located. Anyway, I encourage you to stick with it! Gungahlin’s quite a nice place to live once you get used to it. Welcome!

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.