Telstra pushes back Canberra broadband meeting

By Ry Crozier on Jun 1, 2010 6:00 AM
Filed under Telco/ISP

Not to allow it time to upgrade troubled exchange.

Telstra has postponed a planned appearance at a community meeting of aggrieved internet users in North Canberra until mid-July.

Residents of Gungahlin and surrounds say their broadband speeds degrade during "peak" times of day, in some cases down to dial-up rates.

Telstra's area general manager based in Canberra, Chris Taylor, had been due to meet with residents to discuss the long-running problems on June 9.

But a statement posted to the Gungahlin Community Council website indicated Taylor would now meet with residents on July 14.

Taylor told iTnews he had to postpone attendance due to his involvement in a Telstra Countrywide 10th anniversary dinner function the same night.

He denied speculation by Gungahlin Community Council president Alan Kerlin that the date was pushed back to allow Telstra to upgrade the network before Taylor fronted residents about it.

"I'm not trying to delay the meeting until we get some stuff fixed," Taylor said.

"I'd be happy to do [the meeting] tomorrow if I got the call."

Kerlin told iTnews that an email from Taylor postponing the meeting included "some information about upgrades to the Crace exchange, including the [remote integrated multiplexers] I'm connected to for my own service."

"I wondered whether they were trying to upgrade some of the problems before he [Taylor] had to front up."

The concerns were shared by activist Russ Gillon on his ACT Broadband blog.

"I hope his appearance is not being timed with these upgrades to give the impression he is some sort of White Knight to our problems," Gillon wrote.

Gillon is spearheading a campaign to have North Canberra prioritised in the rollout of the national broadband network (NBN) to alleviate the slow internet speed issues.

No rock star welcome

Taylor conceded he wasn't expecting "the red carpet to roll out" when the July meeting comes around.

"I can understand that people are going to have their opinions," Taylor said.

"All I can do is give them the facts."

Taylor - himself a Gungahlin resident - said he would use the meeting to share details of some cost-effective "fixes" that he said would help alleviate broadband speed issues for affected residents.

The backstory

The meeting came about after Taylor purportedly took issue with comments made by long-time campaigner Russ Gillon to Gungahlin News over "sub-standard internet" in the area.

"I must admit it was a surprise to me when [Taylor] accepted our invitation," Gungahlin Community Council president Alan Kerlin said.

"It was disappointing he [since] deferred because I think quite a few people heard about it and were looking forward to coming and giving [Telstra] a piece of their mind."

Kerlin said the postponement meant the meeting could be moved to a larger room at the Palmerston Community Centre.

Telstra pushes back Canberra broadband meeting

5 comments in this discussion

"@ITnovice "Bring on NBN so i can hopefully bypass their rubbish old infrastructure." I agree with you there ITnovice, however Labour have to get in at the next Federal election if we want any ..."

By singo79

Tags

telstra, chris, taylor, gungahlin, community, broadband, internet, rim, mux, pair, gain

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Comments: 5

btone Jun 1, 2010 11:47 AM	"Taylor told iTnews he had to postpone attendance due to his involvement in a Telstra Countrywide 10th anniversary dinner function the same night". Outstanding, I can sure sympathise with this chap's customer communications dilemma. I trust Sol and the yank who ate all the pies, ah yes, Burgess, will be flying in to give him some tips over tacos and hot dogs at the big bash. Can't have the customers getting fed any old tripe from their local Telstra rep!
anonymous Jun 1, 2010 1:07 PM	There doesn't seem to be any hurry, btone. Like many areas in cities and elsewhere around Australia, the people affected have been on RIMs for many years. Telstra left 'em that way - because they could. The Yankee Doodle "transformation" didn't seem to extend to installing half-modern technology.
Mordd Jun 1, 2010 6:02 PM	Having lived in Gungahlin a number of years ago, I can well empathise with the issues there. Back then we didn't even have ADSL integrated multiplexers and I used to share in a house that had 2x ISDN connections coming in to a linux server in order to try and get even half decent speeds. When telstra upgraded the RIMs, of course every man and his dog signed up, but they did nothing to upgrade the main pipe back to the exchange, so ppl currently connected on ADSL1 in Gungahlin are literally at dialup speeds or worse during peak times, the whole thing has been a joke for years, it was after living in Gungahlin i swore I would never again rent somewhere that didn't have proper ADSL exchange access. So on one hand you can say its been so bad for so long, whats another month, but as btone points out, the reason for why he had to postpone is literally a gigantic slap in the face to all the Gungahlin residents. I highly doubt any of them will see a 10th Anniversary Dinner for TCW as being more important than fixing the long standing issues in Gungahlin. We shouldn't be surprised though I guess, if you needed a clearer indication of how screwed up Telstra's priorities are these days as a fully private (publicly listed) company, then this is it. The only thing I got to say to Chris Taylor is "not good enough by a long way!". Even though I no longer live in the area I am only half an hour away where I am currently and am very tempted to turn up to the July meeting to see Chris get ripped a new one.
ITnovice Jun 1, 2010 6:43 PM	"their broadband speeds degrade during "peak" times of day, in some cases down to dial-up rates." I have the same problem where i live too and Telstra doesn't come visit or fix and infrastructure. Bring on NBN so i can hopefully bypass their rubbish old infrastructure.
singo79 Jun 3, 2010 5:56 PM	@ITnovice "Bring on NBN so i can hopefully bypass their rubbish old infrastructure." I agree with you there ITnovice, however Labour have to get in at the next Federal election if we want any chance of seeing the NBN. If Telstra are left to their own devices in terms of broadband investment and advancement, then Australia will be a backwater of IT services for years to come as well as being a laughing stock with the of the international community. It is pretty disappointing to see countries like Turkey, New Zealand, Hungry etc with faster average speeds then Australia. We can thank the previous Australian Governments (Labour and Liberal alike) for the lack of investment in the IC&T sector. But of course the main offender is definitely Telstra. The NBN is the only way to advance our country and to ensure that 90%+ of Australians have access to speeds of 25Mbps and above. The NBN is the only serious competitor to Telstra. No one has ever come close and will not come close as no one is interested in taking on such a large monopoly as Telstra. Realistically speaking, if Howard and his cronies had not sold Telstra then we probably wouldn't be in this position. Rudd/Conroy could have just rolled on up to Telstra, told them what they are going to do and Telstra would just have had to do it. Anyway, fingers crossed that at least the NBN gets of the ground and becomes the minimum standard in Australia.