Brett Blanchard with son Lewis Blanchard, Lana Nelligan and Eden Blanchard.
Camera IconBrett Blanchard with son Lewis Blanchard, Lana Nelligan and Eden Blanchard. Credit: Supplied/Andrew Ritchie         d445948

Slow going as family awaits NBN rollout in Bedford

Julian WrightEastern Reporter

Already plagued with snail’s pace connection to the internet, Mr Blanchard said videos on Facebook did not load and online streaming entertainment was out of the question.

He said his biggest concern was the impact it would have on his children when they get to school.

“It is frustrating,” he said.

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“Sometimes it works OK but if we have heavy rains, the degradation on the lines is so bad that it is almost impossible to use.

“When we scroll through Facebook, the videos don’t even load and there is no point in us signing up to Netflix or anything because streaming would not work.”

He said it would be hard for his children to do research on the internet when it came to school assignments if Bedford was not put on the rollout plan soon.

Mr Blanchard said it did not make sense to roll out the NBN in suburbs that had an older demographic rather than one with young families.

A NBN spokeswoman said the roll-out had to happen in stages.

“Every community is important but due to the nature and size of our country the NBN network is being rolled out in stages using a mix of technologies,” she said.

“Understandably some people will be disappointed they are not included in the latest schedule.”

She said the roll-out was constrained by economic and physical resources.

“Ultimately no one misses out as the NBN network is scheduled to be available across Australia by 2020, including in Bedford,” she said.

She said no complaints had been received from Bedford in relation to the recently released construction plan.

Perth MHR Alannah MacTiernan said that she would continue to lobby for better internet speeds in the area.