NBN in Gladstone - A while yet

The NBN is coming to town! The NBN is coming to town! Well don’t hold your breath ….

Whilst I am a supporter of the NBN, a few people in Gladstone believe that the NBN will be built in the next year or so and solve all our problems. Not so.

The sheer logistics of the NBN build is staggering. Imagine all the houses that need to be connected to the fibre network in Australia. Imagine the labour and skills required to do this. Imagine that your old system has to be disconnected and then you have to have either overhead fibre or underground fibre cable run to your house with specialised equipment installed, tested, and connected. Just in Gladstone alone you are talking years.

So it concerns me when Gladstone at the moment is in an ever increasing boom where many new developments are occurring with little regards to how broadband will be supplied to them. Already in existing areas there is ADSL port issues with no ports available and waiting lists for them to get on. Sure they get a 3G connection – but how good is that? Not very, from the discussions I have I had with people in town. And do you think large Internet and Phone companies are going to jump to the rescue and install expensive equipment in this area knowing it will be replaced by the NBN in future years – hardly. Maybe in a capital city where they can get a return on investment – but for the people here in Gladstone – abandon all ye hope.

So what is Gladstone doing about the situation – should we petition the Government to get the NBN here first. Yes, yes you cry – well….. – being first is not always good either. At the moment the NBN is still very much undergoing development. There are a lot of kinks to work out – as with any project of this scale – so being the first to have all other forms of communication ripped out for fibre is not always best.

Then there is the competition factor. There has been a lot stated that the NBN will bring sooo much competition and let regional providers – like Dreamtilt – compete on equal ground. Sounds fabulous. Just one problem. Connecting to the fibre network is costly – especially for a regional provider only covering one particular area – for us the connection point will be in Rockhampton. Yes, we need to connect in Rockhampton to service Gladstone. Not only do we need to factor in connection to the NBN – but backhaul of data from Brisbane, up the coast, and connection into Rockhampton also needs to be considered. Then there are a host of other issues and requirements to have us connect.

But there is a solution. Apparently. We will be able to buy wholesale from a much larger provider like Optus and Telstra. Wow – what a change from where we are now – just re-selling another providers service. Oh – and another point – no wholesaler is actually doing this - yet.

So if we are the first to have NBN put in – there is a limit of service providers who actually sell on the NBN – and that’s not to say they will actually sell in the area anyway as they also need to connect to the Rockhampton connection as well – and it is likely only the top four would do this. Not exactly competition now is it ….

Whilst we support the NBN – we will continue to grow and improve our wireless network for now. Wireless is not the only and ultimate answer (that some government officials would have you believe) – but should be considered to work in conjunction with the NBN. We are continuing to look for ways to increase the coverage area in Gladstone and provide a damn decent Internet connection – without the need for a phone line or phone line rental.

We also are looking at ways we could introduce fibre into the region before the NBN. Gladstone already has a lot of fibre networks in the town owned by industries and the Council. What we need is ‘Open Networks’ and ‘Open Infrastructure’ where redundant capacity in the fibre could be utilised to backhaul data around town and into new developments and infrastructure (such as water towers, large buildings, etc) could be utilised to provide increased wireless coverage in the area.

Broadband today is as much a necessity as electricity. People will start to make decisions on where they will live based on how ‘connected’ they are. If other areas are becoming ‘connected’ to high speed broadband and an Industrial and Tourist hub like us where we need development and families to live to survive and grow – what are we going to do to make it attractive for them to live here.

We already have many great reasons for people to stay – lets work on the whole package now and not wait for the NBN. To sit back and state NBN is the solution means a long wait before we get to that point.