The National Broadband Network (nbn) rollout is more than 85 per cent complete in the New England with about 73,500 premises now ready for service.
Member for New England, Barnaby Joyce, said thousands more new nbn services will be established in the coming months.
“Right now more than 3000 fibre-to-the-node and fibre-to-the-curb connections are coming online in Inverell and Walcha and will be ready for service by June 30,” Mr Joyce said.
“A further 2000 nbn connections currently under construction in Tenterfield and Bingara will also be ready for service by the end of August and more services are planned in Westdale and Werris Creek.
“We will continue to deliver modern telecommunications to the New England with NBN fibre, skymuster and 37 new and upgraded mobile base stations being rolled out in the electorate.
“And our NBN plan is faster in its delivery and cheaper than the plan proposed by Labor.”
An independent review in 2013 found that the NBN would have cost around $73 billion to complete under Labor’s original plan. That’s $24 billion more than the Coalition’s nbn plan.
The Coalition has also endorsed new consumer protections, greater transparency and lower wholesale prices for the nbn to stop the handballing of complaints between telcos and nbn. These rules will give the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman better tools to help resolve complaints. The ACMA will also issue new requirements for retailers to publicly release complaints statistics to help consumers differentiate between retailers based on the quality of their customer service.
It follows the announcement of a new nbn monthly customer experience progress report. The first report showed 89 percent of nbn installs are done ‘right first time’, 92 percent of installations are completed on time, and 85 percent of faults are repaired on time.
nbn representatives will visit New England communities later this month to discuss the infrastructure rollout and provide information about what residents and businesses should consider before they order an nbn powered plan from a phone or internet provider.
(ENDS)