It’s been four months since our last post on the fibre broadband network project for the Wamboin, Bywong and Sutton Communities, so it’s time for a quick update on our community fibre network project.
Firstly, I hope this note finds you and your family well and coping with the Covid-19 restrictions and its consequences. In that context, the poor state of our telecommunications infrastructure has been brought into sharp focus. Most residents have been spending much more time trying to work from home lately and the lack of high speed and/or reliable broadband (or any internet at all), has prevented us from doing so. This experience has starkly demonstrated the limitations of the internet service, such as it is, on which residents increasingly depend. Many of you have reached out to us to point out just how impossible it has been to participate in teleconferences, connect to the office, allow your children to participate in online learning needs (especially when the schools were closed), or simply do your email. These needs were a part of what drove the WCAG to lobby the NSW Government for our Fibre network some years ago. Community safety was another aspect and, if the fires last summer taught us anything, it is that communications are critical in both defence and recovery and, as the residents of the south coast learnt, you can’t rely on wireless internet or 4G.
So where are we at with our network? For those not familiar with the project, the NSW Government is supporting the construction of a fibre network to connect residences and businesses in the Wamboin, Bywong and Sutton Communities. An ‘Expression of Interest” was released on 22 April to the market – asking for telecommunications providers to put forward proposals that encompassed the technical, costing and operational elements of establishing our network. Those proposals are now being considered. The WCAG committee met (virtually) with the Government Project team last month and, based on the advice we were provided, it seems that there has been a very positive range of proposals put forward. Due to the nature of government procurement processes we are unable to say more at this point.
The next stage of the process is to select the organisation to build and operate our new fibre network. We understand that they expect to be in a position to make this decision by the end of the year and to have contracts in place by early 2021 – hopefully with construction commencing shortly afterwards.
The key aspects of our fibre network include:
- The termination point to be within the residence
- Minimum speed of 100/40 Mbps
- Service levels equivalent to metropolitan NSW
- A viable and sustainable pricing and product mix (that should align and provide equivalence) with metropolitan Sydney CBD
Over the last 18 months, WCAG has repeatedly stated its concern to government representatives, the project team, and to our local member, John Barilaro, in regard to the importance and urgency of having this network in place. The combination of Covid-19 and the Christmas/New Year bush fires have certainly demonstrated how our communities are exposed and residents compromised in their capacity to continue to work and support their families and local businesses. With the fire season fast approaching again, and Covid related restriction likely to continue into the new year, we are still no better placed. Many of you have contacted us to express these sorts of concerns and we have certainly passed these on.
In closing, the project is making progress but certainly not at the speed we believe is necessary to meet the urgent needs of residents and businesses in Wamboin, Bywong and Sutton. The WCAG will continue to meet with the project team over the remainder of the year to represent the community's interests and, in particular, push for an acceleration of the projects schedule.
We will keep you posted on significant developments as they happen.
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Breaking News Addendum -
On 23 September 2020, the Federal Government made a number of announcements about upgrades to the NBN. This included that NBN would establish a dedicated $300 million fund for regional co-investment alongside state/territory governments and local councils to improve broadband services for rural and regional communities. This announcement stated that this decision represented “a dedicated source of funding to partner with [state] governments, enabling NBN Co to generate a threshold commercial return on its contributed capital through the application of co-investment funding.”
The WCAG has spoken to our Project team in the NSW Government about the implications of this announcement for us. They confirmed that the commitment to deliver a fibre solution to our communities remains unchanged and that they are now investigating how (if at all) the NBN announcement might affect our fibre network project.
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Regards on behalf of the WCAG team,
Olaf