Internet frustration

Some Kwinana residents are unable to get the internet connection they want because more modern equipment that does not support ADSL connections is being installed in Telstra exchanges.

A Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy spokesman said the Federal Government was aware that access to ADSL services was limited or unavailable from certain telephone exchanges including the Medina exchange for a range of technical factors including line-sharing technologies such as pair gain, the (lack of available) spare ports in that exchange, or because remote integrated multiplexers were installed at the exchange.

After the Sound Telegraph reported on February 16 about the confusion surrounding the availability of internet connections in Kwinana, Francis Dahl of Bertram raised his concerns.

Mr Dahl said he had high-speed internet when he lived in Medina, but when he shifted to Bertram he found ADSL2 was not available — ‘‘not because ports were not available at the exchange, but because new areas are connected to the exchange through a remote integrated multiplexer’’.

The remote integrated multiplexers (similar to digital loop carriers) are used by Telstra to service new estates with fibre-optic cable to remote integrated multiplexers, which then feed copper wires shorter distances to homes.

But these remote integrated multiplexers do not support ADSL, which requires copper all the way.

The spokesman said the multiplexers would eventually allow the newer estates in Kwinana and Rockingham to be among the first to benefit from the National Broadband Network when it finally reached the area, because half the infrastructure was already in place.