23 November 2006

Gungahlin internet still sucks?

| johnboy
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Senator Kate Lundy’s weird little podcasts have sprung back into life with claims that broadband in Gungahlin is still not where it should be:

Of the 182 respondents, 28 percent of residents have tried to get broadband but were unsuccessful, and 21 percent are on waiting lists.

Many residents reported that they have been waiting for more than six months”

I’m a bit suspicious of the survey, for a start who’s going to bother responding if they’re happy? Also language like this sounds artifical:

“A staggering 57 percent of respondents said that they would not purchase a new residence in the area without a guarantee of a future-proof broadband connection.”

Methinks this smacks of push polling.

How are our gungahlinistas finding their net connections?

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SNS: so are you saying that they are going to start distributing internet across the power lines? Like the in-home power line distribution but on a bigger scale? Hadn’t heard of that.
Got to admit it would be a crack up seeing the ones with the monopoly on phone infrastructure (Telstra) having to turn around and pay another monopolist for use of their infrastructure!
KaneO: that’s good news – I hope some of it’s for upgrading the existing areas, not all just for equipping all the new stuff.
Maelinar: you are spot on. The satellite cities of self-government era are certainly not being built the way they were in the eras of Woden and Belconnen. ACTPLA are quick to blame LDA, but who sets the agenda and constraints for the LDA? Stanhope and Co. So while much of Gungahlin predates them, they’ve done little or nought to realign the LDA to more sustainable designs. Instead they are happily bulldozing along creating the row-house slums of the (pretty near) future, in my opinion.
But back to JB’s original question – was it a push-poll. I wasn’t involved in it, but can say for sure that it was not.

My agenda behind my election campaign would be to legislate and correct existing infrastructure for merge lanes at lights to at least 100 metres after/before the intersection.

That’s right, JB. Kate C handed Gunghalin over to the developers, expecting that they would do all the right things.

Which they did – narrow streets, small blocks, max house size, minimum possible green areas and no infrastructure.

Exactly what one would expect and I don’t blame the developers one bit – they are there to maximise profits and cost-shift every possible thing onto the taxpayer. That’s their raison d’etre (I can’t even do a hyperlink, let alone the squiggly bits above letters).

To be fair the Gungahlin debacle pre-dates the Stanhope Government.

The point I don’t get, and that constantly seems to be coming up, is that the local gumnuts obviously knew that they wanted to develop gungahlin from (highly exploited to the point of unsustainable) sheep paddock into a bustling metropolis sometime in the recent past. Lo and behold, along came Gungahlin, and now they are doing without some major infrastructure such as a direct road and internet and insert next topic here (a marina perhaps ?).

Where was S7S during all of this ? As the minister for planning (although he still hasn’t answered my simple question regarding his governance of Length, Width but not Height regarding the Dickson Development), there seems to have been an exceptional lack of planning gone into this development. So much lack of planning I would ordinarily consider it very hard to find a labour voter in Gungahlin come election time.

Of course, there is no viable opposition alternative but that’s another thread.

sexynotsmart10:14 pm 23 Nov 06

Had a look around at the “Next-G” travelling roadshow in Fyshwick earlier this week. After recovering from the disappointment that it only involved a trailer (where is the rockstar or presidential candidate-esque bus?), the demo itself was pretty good. I’m mentally filtering out the “cable rollout” discussions now. Wireless or power cable internet will level the market. That may be cold comfort to the northsiders, so just head to the Lighthouse. I’ll buy you a beer.

Telstra have invested and installed a lot of equipment in Gung recently. They can’t do the whole area at once unfortunately. No I don;t work for telstra, just bump into their overworked techs quite often.

Mr Evil: from my experience people general got better things to do than complain about stuff unless there is something to complain about. And when it comes to planning and infrastructure in Gungahlin – there’s plenty that the govmint ain’t doing.
Ralph: I’ve got ADSL that works fine too, but I’d prefer to ditch my landline and save the $30 pm, but I can’t, cause there ain’t no cable. But then there are plenty of people trying to work from home in other parts can’t even get ADSL.
And that is the point of the issue.

I am currently on 1xEVDO but will be upgraded to a 3G card in January. They are pushing for 40 MBps over the next few years.

Growling Ferret1:49 pm 23 Nov 06

Using mobile spectrum such as Next G, or 1xEVDO, or something non-mobile such as satellite? I have previously run a sat solution to Nicholls, but it cost a small fortune…

Gee, people in Gungahlin complaining about something – that’s new!

Kate Lundy = Fat Useless Cow.

Tel$tra. I have it and works fine in Gungahlin.

Growling Ferret1:26 pm 23 Nov 06

Ralph

Wireless broadband is flaky at the best of times – which carrier do you suggest can cover all of Gungahlin?

Not an issue. There is wireless broadband available in Gungahlin.

ASDL is the problem of Telstra not Govmint

JB the poll was done by the Gungahlin Community Council and has been mentioned in their newsletter.
The problem is pretty annoying for many people who live there, with varying impacts depending on suburb.
ADSL is generally OK in some places, but it forces you to also have/pay for a landline, whether you want it or not (we don’t).
There are new suburbs being built by the LDA/Govmint with no cable infratsructure, and I think that is base stupidity.
Apparently the wireless coverage is patchy too, but that’s too expensive for the likes of me.

I have 1.5 256 TPG – never had a problem – 2913 Postcode.

My friend who lives in Nicholls can’t get ADSL because there’s no free ports left – so he’s had to go with the (very expensive) iburst, which is also only marginally covering the area.

Growling Ferret11:24 am 23 Nov 06

JB

I’m in Nicholls and have ADSL, but know of others who are unable to get it due to lack of capacity.

This lack of capacity also effects Dunlop (I have clients unable to access via ADSL) and reportedly some parts of Jerra (although this may now be sorted out…)

Maybe they can’t get online to post….. 😛

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