PRIME Minister Julia Gillard says engineering constraints are holding up the rollout of the National Broadband Network in Point Cook.
After Point Cook properties were not named among the 30,000 Wyndham houses to be plugged in to the high-speed internet infrastructure by 2015, Ms Gillard, who is also the Lalor MP, said a start date for the suburb was some time away.
“NBN Co is getting about the work as quickly as it can, there are just some engineering constraints about the way in which the construct happens, and the proximity to the exchange is one of those constraints,” Ms Gillard said.
Earlier this year, NBN Co announced residents of Tarneit, Wyndham Vale, Werribee, Werribee South and Hoppers Crossing would be connected to the NBN by June 30, 2015.
By 2021, it’s expected fibre-optic broadband will be delivered to 93 per cent of Australian homes, schools and businesses.
NBN Co spokeswoman Rhonda Griffin said Point Cook was not in the three-year rollout plan because the suburb would eventually be connected to a “point of interconnect” in Werribee.
“Construction will be starting on the point of interconnect in Werribee very soon,” she said.
The NBN will have 121 interconnection points across Australia, where retail service providers will connect to the network.
“What we’re doing is building the points of interconnect, then building the transit data lines that connect these points, which will allow us to continue fibre rollout through the streets.”
Point Cook computer specialist Daniel Dortmans said most of his clients used 3G internet or dial-up connections because the suburb’s available ADSL ports had fallen short of demand.
“The area is a complete and utter internet black hole and will remain so until they throw some money at it,” he said.
