AN extra 61,100 Wyndham households – including those stuck on 3G or dial-up speeds in Point Cook’s internet “black hole” – will be plugged into the National Broadband Network by 2016.
Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy released an updated fibre-to-the-home rollout plan on Sunday. It includes an extra 14,200 households in Point Cook, Seabrook and Werribee South; 22,700 in Hoppers Crossing and Tarneit; and 24,200 in Werribee, Wyndham Vale and Little River.
Construction will be “completed or commenced” by mid-2016. The announcement adds to the 30,000 homes in Werribee, Werribee South, Hoppers Crossing and Tarneit that NBN Co plans to connect by 2015.
Mr Conroy warned Victorians would be forced to pay $5000 to hook up to fibre if the Coalition wins September’s federal election.
“We are connecting all households to the NBN for free because we believe all Australian households deserve access to the NBN’s fast, reliable and affordable broadband.”
The Coalition will cut costs by running fibre-optic cable to boxes on street corners, rather than all the way to premises as Labor is doing.
Labor’s NBN plan promises broadband speeds of 100 megabits per second by 2021.
The Coalition’s network would be in place by 2019, but with slower minimum download speeds of 25Mbps. It has dismissed the government’s rollout plan as a “sick joke”, given the government had failed to meet previous targets
Point Cook computer specialist Daniel Dortmans told the Weekly the suburb was a “complete and utter internet black hole”. He said most of his clients were using 3G or dial-up connections because ADSL ports had fallen short of the demand of massive population growth.
