Tower Ban for NBN
Tower Ban for NBN – Regional councils which do not approve NBN Co’s fixed wireless towers will have to rely on slower satellite internet services, the head of the government-owned company says.
The comment comes following reports that several groups of residents near Ballarat oppose some of NBN Co’s applications to install 20 towers for its fixed wireless internet service.
”We really do not have another option other than providing a satellite service,” Mr Quigley said when asked what would happen if councils reject NBN Co’s development applications.
”The local council has got to weigh up the impact [of] 30 and 40 metre towers, they are big monopole towers, but most local councils we speak to are very very keen to have much improved broadband services.”
”It is very important that we do not set a precedent where if people object in local councils to a fixed wireless service that they think [that] … it will be fibre, because it won’t,” Mr Quigley added.
The fixed wireless network is being rolled out to about 4 per cent of dwellings and businesses at the fringes of regional towns. Each premise receives a dedicated wireless signal at 12 megabits per second, equivalent to what is currently available over the copper network to premises close to telephone exchanges.
Cities and town centres will be fitted with fibre optic cable which will offer up to 100 megabits per second and even faster speeds in coming years.
The alternative satellite service operates at about 6 megabits per second and is already available across the country. Consumers will be charged the same price across all three technologies.
”We have been asked by the government to accelerate the fixed wireless [network] because many of the people in the [areas to get] fixed wireless are getting very poor service today,” Mr Quigley said.
Tags: Nbn, tower
Posted in Internet, Technology
No Comments