NBN and Fiber to the Curb or Node?

NBN stands for National Broadband Network and is an Australian national wholesale open-access data network project. What this means is that as an Australian company, NBN Co Ltd is rolling out a project across Australia that offers a wholesale service to phone companies and internet service providers who offer NBN plans - which is known to increase internet speeds and quality of wireless services.

Essentially there are 3 choices of NBN:

1. Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) – a direct connection of the NBN to the home and using no existing copper phone line wires hence offering the fastest service.

2. Fibre-To-The-Curb (FTTC) – a connection of the NBN to the curbside and using minimal existing copper phone line wires hence offering a faster service than FTTN but inferior to FTTH.

3. Fibre-To-The-Node (FTTN)- a connection to a main port away from the curb and homes and requiring the use of existing (and often deteriorating) copper phone line wires hence offering an inferior service compared to FTTC or FTTH.

Note that the use of any copper phone line infrastructure will lead to slower communications services as the existing copper lines are deteriorating and can also be subject to wet weather influence when services can slow down further.

In the last 12-24 months, NBN has already been rolled out to all the newly developed areas in Cumbalum that have opted in for it, and the older areas are also in the process of getting their internet service upgraded. However there is more to the story than just getting access to NBN, as there are different standards of this service. Read on to find out what Cumbalum was promised and what we are actually getting.

Existing areas of the Ballina Heights and Summerhill Crescent suburbs were to receive NBN Fibre-To-The-Curb (FTTC) technology. This was advertised on the NBN website and also confirmed to the CRA in personal communications.

However, without notification to homeowners, the roll-out of the NBN to existing residents was changed to Fibre-To-The-Node (FTTN) which is the inferior technology compared to FTTC as it uses large portions of existing deteriorating copper phone line infrastructure. This rollout occurred around May to June 2019.

Newer home sites in the estate have been able to opt for having FTTC or even FTTH.

Upon hearing about this unsolicited change to inferior technology rolling out for the existing residents, the CRA executives through local Federal parliamentary members wrote letters to the Federal Government Minister for Communication and the Federal Labour Shadow Minister for Communications demanding an explanation for this significant downgrade and also requesting that all residents receive FTTC as promised. Some people in the area have bought property under the premise that they would get the best technology to start up home businesses in Cumbalum, which thus far has not been supported by the internet speeds.

The response from both Political sides of government was that they had done a deal to ensure the NBN roll-out in Australia was done in a timely and cost-effective manner. As a result, all older areas of the Estate will receive inferior FTTN technology as a cost cutting exercise by Federal government. Both sides of government totally ignored the question of compensation to homeowners who have re-located to start business requiring high-speed internet.

This issue is an ongoing and blatant disregard to residents in the area who have had to deal with inferior telecommunication services since the founding of the estate. When the original ADSL exchange ports were created, Telstra had not planned for the rapid growth of the estate and failed to install adequate numbers of exchange ports in the area. As a result, many residents today still continue to have no access to internet or extremely slow internet service due to the only available service being ADSL with limited numbers of ports and bandwidth. This is compounded by the fact that many areas of Cumbalum also have mobile black spots where they lack mobile reception.

Residents are all urged to write or e-mail to the Local Federal Member on this issue and question real estate agents and developers as this is part of a larger pattern of cost cutting and failure to provide adequate infrastructure in the Cumbalum region.