Residents join push for faster broadband

Rockingham residents got involved with a nationwide campaign last week in a bid to encourage the Federal Government to rethink its plans for a national broadband network.

An online petition containing 270,000 signatures was presented to 145 Federal parliamentarians across the country on Tuesday by Australians who wanted the Abbott Government to invest in fibre-to-the-premises — FTTP — broadband, rather than the slower fibre-to-the-node.

Campaigner Shane Kavanagh, who dropped a boxed petition at the Rockingham office of Brand MHR Gary Gray, said he often experienced connection drop-offs when participating in online study sessions as part of his distance learning degree.

He said he had the quickest internet speeds available in Perth but still faced constant disruptions to his studies.

“From a business point of view, and with a background in management, the ability for businesses to employ a person that can work from home and have a reliable, uninterrupted, virtual private network — VPN — with video on demand whenever needed, will be crucial going forward in the next five to 10 years,” he said.

“With FTTP NBN this will be a reality — calls can be transferred as if they were via VPN at no extra cost, files can be printed remotely, video conferencing with multiple people and no lag will be possible.”

Federal Minister for Communications Malcolm Turnbull said it was the Government’s goal to ensure all Australians had access to minimum speeds of 25 mbps by 2016.

He said NBN Co was conducting important reviews to assess the true costs of the project — in time and dollars — on the specifications set by Labor.

An NBN Co spokesman said it was conducting a comprehensive review of the nationwide roll-out.