Have and have-not neighbours baffled by NBN

Coulson Street in the Sydney suburb of Erskineville marks a vast technological divide.

NBN

Coulson Street in the inner-­Sydney suburb of Erskineville marks a vast technological divide.

On one side, Loretta Tolnay Bolton and her sons, seven-year-old Miguel and five-year-old Valentino, experience frustration when they log on to surf the web.

“Most of the time, all three of us are on our respective devices and it’s all really slow,” she says.

And when they attempted to connect to the National Broadband Network, its website informed them the “NBN network rollout has not started in your area”.

Not strictly true. Two hundred metres down and across the road, Jeff Lock has just been told he can connect to what has long been touted as Australia’s information super highway. “I use the internet a lot, so to have the best speed will be great,” he said.

“It’ll make life easier, especially watching movies or downloading ­material, documentaries and things.”

The difference between super-fast broadband and ADSL can be infuriating. Miguel and Valentino are both regular YouTube viewers, as well as regular users of iPad gaming apps.

“When you have a look, it says it’s not in your area,” Ms Tolnay Bolton says. “To hear there are people right across the road that have it, well, how is that ‘not in your area’? It’s just frustrating. To me, internet service with two young kids is almost as essential as water and electricity.”

Mr Lock, 66, was equally surprised. “It’s the luck of the draw, I suppose. I was surprised when I found out I had been connected before others.”

Mr Lock has an 800-title DVD collection, but concedes his viewing habits will now change.

“Obviously having a fast speed is the future. I know hard-copy movies are not,” he says. “While I don’t use it in any professional way, fast speeds are important for social media, communication and for just getting information and archival stuff.”

It’s a situation that could be played out in suburbs across the nation as the complex project is rolled out.

A spokesman for the NBN says that areas are divided into modules “and these are built out at different times”. That is, buildings across the same road can be constructed as separate modules, as is the case in Coulson Street. “We have whole teams dedicated to working out the best sequence that will prove fastest, decrease the cost to taxpayers, maximise revenues and prioritise underserved areas where possible,” the spokesman says.

“The calculation is, by necessity, incredibly complex. It takes into account existing infrastructure in a particular area, location of construction resources, distance from exchanges, cost to build, potential revenue, the list goes on.” Further highlighting how the NBN Pandora’s box has been opened in Coulson Street, the NBN is going into two apartment complexes that already have high-speed broadband built by private operator OPENetworks.

OPENetworks chief executive Michael Sparksman says NBN is duplicating his network. “They don’t have to compete with us with real dollars, they are competing with taxpayer dollars,” he says.

However, NBN says existing network owners were able to apply for “adequately served” status if they were worried about unnecessary duplications, but the Coulson Street blocks do not have that status.

“NBN’s decision to rollout to those apartment blocks is ultimately good for consumers in there being more wholesale competition,” the spokesman says.