THE National Broadband Network (NBN) has gone live in Moriac, Bellbrae and Mount Duneed, with three fixed wireless towers being switched on last week.<\/p>\n
The towers will service about 1,300 homes and businesses in and around the three towns.<\/p>\n
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield and Corangamite federal member Sarah Henderson visited the Moriac tower on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The NBN is expected to be fully complete by 2020, but Mr Fifield said the NBN rollout had been prioritised in regional areas and was 92 per cent complete in the Surf Coast Shire and 95 per cent complete in Corangamite.<\/p>\n
Ms Henderson said she had received \u201cwonderful feedback\u201d from people who were now connected to the NBN.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was speaking to a farming family in Ceres\u2026 they say it\u2019s been transformational for them and for their business.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, local feedback about the NBN has not been universally good, particularly in Bellbrae, which saw a long-running dispute between some residents and NBN Co about the location of the town\u2019s fixed wireless tower.<\/p>\n
Ms Henderson said NBN Co \u201coverwhelmingly\u201d located its towers where they would reach the most people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been working very closely with a number of people in West Bellbrae on an individual basis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labor has frequently criticised the Coalition\u2019s multi-technology mix model for the NBN and its heavy reliance on the existing copper infrastructure, and has committed to putting more fibre-optic cable into the network.<\/p>\n
In response to a question about whether the NBN was good enough, Mr Fifield said \u201cthe NBN rollout today is on track, it\u2019s on time, and it will be fit for purpose for the needs Australians have\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur approach has been to give NBN Co a mandate to use the technology that makes sense in a given area that will see it rolled out fastest and at lowest cost, which means people are going to get the NBN six to eight years sooner and at $30 billion less cost (than Labor).\u201d<\/p>\n
He was also dismissive of a highly critical report from ratings agency S&P about the NBN, which predicted the network would not reach its take-up targets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever misgiving they have about the NBN as it is today would only be worse if we had persisted with Labor\u2019s approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
The MPs also visited Torquay for a tour of coworking space Workers Hut.<\/p>\n
* Thanks to Kevin from Torquay Towing, who rescued the cars of both this reporter and Ms Henderson when they became bogged at Moriac.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE National Broadband Network (NBN) has gone live in Moriac, Bellbrae and Mount Duneed, with three fixed wireless towers being switched on last week. The towers will service about 1,300 homes and businesses in and around the three towns. Communications Minister Mitch Fifield and Corangamite federal member Sarah Henderson visited the Moriac tower on Thursday. […]<\/p>\n