MORLEY MLA Amber-Jade Sanderson says Telstra’s release of 800 new ADSL ports in Noranda will provide “congestion relief” to improve slow internet speeds, but the NBN still needs to be fast-tracked before its planned roll-out in 2019.
About 35 residents from Nollamara, Noranda, Dianella and Morley, including Morley Internet Action Group (MIAG) members, attended a community meeting on July 19 headed by Ms Sanderson, WA Senator Dean Smith and NBN Co representatives.
Senator Smith announced that the construction of FTTC – a hybrid of fibre-optic cabling and existing copper wire technology – would start in limited areas of Morley and Noranda in 2018.
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READ NOWMs Sanderson said she would continue to campaign for more suburbs to receive FTTC, as opposed to Fibre-to-the-Node (FTTN) over the next few months.
“I recently met with Telstra who have told me around November this year, they intend to release another 800 ports in Noranda, so that is actually really good news,” she said.
“About 500 ports will be upgraded from ADSL1 to ADSL2 and there will be another 300 ADSL1 ports.
“I am really pleased that is happening in an interim measure.
“It won’t fix the problem and we need a better roll-out of the NBN to do that, but this is certainly a relief in the meantime.”
Ms Sanderson said Telstra was willing to upgrade ADSL ports in Dianella and Nollamara and she would help them in identifying areas of need.
Dianella resident and MIAG representative Wayne Carter said he could not download large files at home for work purposes due to the poor connection.
Senator Smith said NBN had started construction work for FTTC in Bayswater, Bedford and Embleton.
“The roll-out of the NBN is a work in progress and we are always exploring ways to optimise the implementation of the project,” he said.
Meanwhile, WA Senator and Morley resident Peter Georgiou called on Federal Communications Minister Mitch Fifield to fast-track the 2019 NBN roll-out to Morley, Nollamara, Noranda and Dianella after evidence the MIAG submitted to the Joint Standing Committee, which showed average internet speeds of 2.4 Mbps that could drop to 0.3 Mbps.
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