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"...[Telstra] will move its customers to the new fibre-based wholesale access network, and progressively retire its copper.


"Within an NBN rollout region, Telstra has agreed that its copper network will be disconnected within 18 months of the completion of the fibre network.

"...Telstra will progressively disconnect broadband users (typically ADSL) from its copper access network as the NBN becomes available, and will also shift broadband customers from its hybrid fibre-coax (HFC) network to the NBN. The HFC network will remain in place to deliver pay-TV services (a point routinely misunderstood in Australia)."
From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/22/telstra_nbn_deal/

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Interview

ABC Radio - 14 February 2011

Media Release

TAMAR VALLEY RESIDENTS DENIED NBN

East Tamar residents are shocked to learn they will miss out on high-speed NBN. The NBN plan denies many Tamar Valley communities access to the 'fibre optic' network. In an area where mobile phones are already unreliable, residents and businesses will also lose landline telephone and internet services after 2014.

When he raised the issue in Parliament on 19 October 2010, Greens Member for Bass, Kim Booth MP, said: “The Premier says the NBN is an innovative solution to overcome the isolation of island Tasmania, but by leaving the Tamar Valley off the list he is relegating residents and businesses to a technological backwater in which they are condemned to life in the slow lane, which will translate as slower growth and lower investment.”

Only 5kms from Launceston, Dilston residents must make do with patchy 'line-of-sight' wireless service – one tenth the speed of fibre optic broadband.

Windermere resident Trixie Gillard said: "The mobile phone signal is notoriously bad in this area, so everyone is dreading the proposed wireless internet option. We've got drop-out problems and power outages. When the power goes off so does the system. What do we do then?"

Community concerns raised

At a packed community meeting held recently at Dilston Hall, also attended by Launceston City Councillors Jeremy Ball and Rosemary Armitage, residents resolved to convince local politicians and councillors to call on the State Government to overturn the NBN Co’s current plan for Tasmania (TNBN Co).

Subsequent networking in this tight-knit community has confirmed growing dissatisfaction at being marginalised. East Tamar residents refuse to accept their NBN alternative is an unspecified wireless or satellite service with inferior speeds, quality and scalability to meet the demands of the digital future.

"As taxpayers we have every right to demand equal opportunity regarding the NBN – don't forget, along with everyone else, we're paying for it. As the rest of the country is ‘moving forward’ why should we end up worse off than we are now?" said Ms Gillard.

GET CONNECTED — on behalf of residents in the Tamar Valley

More information: Trixie Gillard 6328 1381 or m: 0400997497 (8-10 Nov only & Nov 19 on)
Technical Analysis: Dr Marcus Bowles m: 0412439009


http://www.theage.com.au/business/a-network-going-nowhere-20101012-16hrn.html

Conroy on the NBN (Press Conference, Tasmania):

Conroy: If you look at what’s happening here in Tasmania with the prices . . . This has been the slowest broadband and the most expensive broadband in the country. Bar none. Lots of people around Australia think they’ve got it worse. This state has had it the worst.

the country needs the best possible infrastructure, the best possible platform, to take advantage of the sorts of services you saw in health, the sort of services that I talked about . . . connectivity. It can’t be done on a wireless network, with all of the applications together you need a fixed fibre line

every single Australian that has a fixed line – in the 93 per cent – will receive the National Broadband Network. ... The deal is they are closing down the copper network. They are taking it away and the only way to get a fixed line service will be on the National Broadband Network. So we will have 100 per cent coverage. A lot of the debate about, oh the take up – the Telstra deal resolves all of that. Will be 100 per cent of people in the 93 per cent fibre footprint that want to be on the network, will be on the network.

Gillard on the NBN:

[Without the NBN] We will not be able to compete with countries like Singapore and Korea and Japan that have the benefits of this technology.

The future is here. And the future is this National Broadband investment. Rolling out the National Broadband, ensuring that we have the benefits of National Broadband around the nation is a key part of my economic plan for the future. It’s about jobs. . . But, importantly it’s about the jobs of the future and how our nation can compete with countries around the world. Without this technology we will fall behind. . . And without this technology our school children will fall behind. We’ve heard today of examples of using the National Broadband Network to put together a class in Australia with a class in Korea so that children can be as if they were in the one classroom. We’ve heard today too about the health applications. I had the opportunity to talk to Peggy, who is using the National Broadband Network to help her manage her health complaints, and she said to me it was like having a friend in your home, it was a security blanket to know that through the National Broadband Network she could contact the health professionals she needs. . . . I am completely determined that we will build the National Broadband Network. Every time you get a piece of information about what this technology can achieve, it says to you how vital it is that we roll this technology out for the future. I will build the National Broadband Network.
http://www.alp.org.au/federal-government/news/transcript--julia-gillard,-press-conference,-tasma/