Tuesday 9 May 2017

Broadband compromise for Medowie

BY JESSICA ROUSE

The National Broadband Network is still some time away from being available to Medowie residents, but a compromise from Telstra could solve some short term problems.

Paterson MP Meryl Swanson is celebrating what she believes is a massive win for residents with Telstra agreeing to construct a "top-hat" in the Pacific Dunes Estate, which will allow 250 homes to connect to the ADSL. The work will also "backhaul relief work" across Medowie - in short, it relieve congestion and increase capacity across the internet network.

The work will be completed sometime around mid-year.

The NBN has and still is, causing headaches throughout the Hunter with people having problems connecting and even more problems once they've connected.

"At this point it's going to be around 2018 but as with everything with the NBN, its been a case of we'll believe it when we're connected and rolling and things are going well because even people that are on it haven't had the speeds that they've hoped for, so there's still a lot of work to be done," said Meryl Swanson.

Meryl Swanson says she'll continue to lobby for areas in and around her electorate continuing the fight for better internet.

"Thornton is an area that springs to mind straight away, there's still a lot of issues in and around there and in and around areas where there are just problems with the NBN."