December 3, 2 014
“NEV” – the NBN Experience Van – has been visiting South Burnett towns this week to help spread the word about the new fixed wireless broadband services available in the area via the National Broadband Network.
“NEV” visited Blackbutt and Yarraman yesterday, and today was in Maidenwell and Kingaroy.
The van is operated by Telstra so that telco’s products were being promoted but there was also a lot of useful information available about the rollout of the NBN throughout the area.
NBN fixed wireless broadband (see below) is already available in areas around Blackbutt, Yarraman, Ellesmere, Taabinga, Kumbia, Ushers Hill, Maidenwell and Booie East.
NBN Co expects the service to be extended to Cooyar in the first quarter of 2015; and Cherbourg, Murgon North, Proston North, Nanango and Nanango South by the second quarter of next year.
Scott Mullaly, from Telstra Country Wide, said the NBN rollout was a 10-year plan.
The company was now two years into the rollout, and recently released the list of towns which should be connected by June 2016.
Mr Mullaly said this had created some confusion, as some of the towns listed were actually already connected.
Towers that are “live” are shown as purple on a constantly updated map on the NBN Co website. The ones coloured brown are either still under construction or waiting to be switched on.
He said fixed wireless broadband would offer data speeds of 25/5 Mbps ie a theoretical maximum download speed of 25 Megabits per second, and a theoretical upload speed of 5 Megabits per second.
Mr Mullaly said that, in comparison, ADSL 2+ was capped at 20Mbps but the average speed in Australia was just 8-12Mbps.
He said the initial rollout in the South Burnett was all fixed wireless broadband but fibre services were also eventually planned for Blackbutt, Yarraman, Nanango, Kingaroy, Wondai and Murgon.
“At the moment, this is scheduled to start rolling out before June 2016, but it could then take another 12 to 18 months,” Scott said.
* * *
Fixed Wireless Broadband
Fixed wireless broadband is similar to a fixed-line broadband service except the data is delivered via radio signals instead of via an optic fibre cable.
Fixed wireless broadband provides a connection from a radio base station on a tower to an antenna, which is attached to the outside of a home or business.
NBN Co says fixed wireless networks — unlike mobile phone networks — have been engineered to meet the speed and service requirements for a specific number of users in the coverage area. This means the bandwidth available for each fixed wireless customer should be more consistent and stable than for mobile phone network customers, even during peak times.
Originally, NBN Co had expected to complete the rollout of the fixed wireless network across Australia by the end of 2015.
Fibre
When the fibre network is eventually installed in local towns, the old copper phone line network will be switched off. This means residents will have to shift their fixed line home phone and internet to the NBN – and this won’t be an automatic process.
The following services will be disconnected:
- Telstra home/landline phone services (except some Telstra Velocity lines)
- Home/landline phone services from all other phone companies, where the service is provided over Telstra’s copper phone lines
- All ADSL, ADSL2 and ADSL2+ internet services from all providers
- Telstra BigPond cable internet services
- Optus cable internet and cable phone services
Related articles:
- NBN Co Updates Local Rollout
- New Satellite Option For Broadband
- Wireless Broadband Ready To Go
- 12 Towers Under Construction
- More NBN Towers Start To Take Shape
- NBN To Roll Out In Yarraman
- Three More NBN Towers Approved
- NBN On The Way
- Council Processing NBN Applications
- NBN ‘Five Years Too Late’
- NBN Coming To Gympie Shire and Blackbutt
- High-Speed Broadband On The Way
- Fixed Wireless Broadband In 2013
- Future Plans For Fibre-Optic Broadband
- South Burnett ‘To Miss Out On NBN’
