NBN woes seem to becoming more and more like common health ailments – if you don’t have one yourself, you know someone who does.
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Weeks of waiting to hear if it’s available in your street; multiple connection appointments cancelled and rescheduled; case management by overseas call centre staff; and a month gone by with no connection. And that’s just one of our staff member’s own troubles.
In the 1990s then United States Senator and vice-president Al Gore dubbed the internet “the information superhighway”, if the National Broadband Network was a road though it needs a road work sign reading “expect delays”.
For around a decade now the much hyped NBN, which was supposed to be “nation building”, has been a problem child for many.
Telcos blame the NBN for the woes, NBN blames telcos, everybody blames the Government of the day, and the Government of the day blame their predecessors.
Meanwhile residents who share their street with the network complain of disrupted phone service (this is a common problem in Mudgee, including businesses in the CBD), customers experience dropouts, trouble during severe weather, and people are disappointed when speeds don’t live up to expectations.
Frustrated constituents seek out their local members of parliament in hopes of having their NBN related issues resolved.
And just last week NBN Co unveiled plans to fix it’s troubled Sky Muster satellite service after earlier this year chief customer officer John Simon admitted to an "exorbitant" amount of network failures.
All seems a long way from the dream of high speed internet connections that were to carry the nation into the future.
And regional centres such as Mudgee were singled out in the sales pitch; with promises that more people will be able to live, work and play outside of metropolitan areas because the technology would allow it.
But where does that all sit now, when places in the centre of town can’t have a reliable internet and phone connection?
Because as it currently stands, rural and regional Australians are just not being served well enough by the NBN rollout or the service once it arrives.
Have you had any problems with the National Broadband Network? Let us know at the Mudgee Guardian Facebook page.
