Federal communication minster Michelle Rowland and Hasluck member Tania Lawrence have announced that 8500 homes and businesses within the Hasluck electorate are now eligible to upgrade their NBN from fibre to the node (FTTN) to fibre to the premises (FTTP).
The announcement is part of the federal government’s $2.4 billion upgrade to the NBN, and residents within Kalamunda, Maida Vale, Lesmurdie, Swan View, Middle Swan, Midvale and The Vines will be able to upgrade their service through their internet service provider, once initial construction has been completed by the NBN Co.
Mrs Rowland and Mrs Lawrence travelled to Barberry Square Shopping Centre in Kalamunda to make the announcement, a suburb with businesses and residents they said have been plagued by bad internet for years now.
Owner of Hawleys Shoes and Menswear Rachel Rudez, one of the shops located in the centre, said her current landline internet connection is so poor, herself and her staff opt to walk across the road to get a wireless internet signal on their phones instead.
She said the old copper wiring in her premises interferes with her internet connection and is overdue an upgrade.
“If we ever want to go into online shopping, we need a better internet system for us to go forward,” she said.
Federal communications minister Mrs Rowland said Mrs Lawrence has been advocating strongly for the small businesses of Hasluck to get them access to higher quality internet.
“We know that this suburb is very copper rich, and that copper is the main source of complaints about the NBN in terms of speed, quality and reliability,” she said.
Mrs Rowland said that the current NBN upgrades will provide more choice to consumers, with satellite internet also becoming available through the NBN Co.
“We will now be providing uncapped and unmetered services on the Sky Muster Plus product, and that’s the first time we’ve had a NBN satellite consumer product.
Mrs Rowland said as well as NBN offering satellite services, fibre and fixed wireless services will also be upgraded around the country.
She said those interested in the upgrade should register their interest online at the NBN co website.
Owner of Hawleys Shoes and Menswear Rachel Rudez hoped that the planned NBN upgrade would help with her business’s internet woes.
