Submission to the Regional Telecommunications Review 2015
Submission by Denis Tinkler of Grantham, Jerilderie NSW
This is a private submission on behalf of my family. In it I hope to show some
of the telecommunication problems facing an ordinary Australian farming
family operating in a reasonably closely settled farming area in south east
Australia.
Our farm business is conducted by myself, my wife Mary and son Robert. We
operate two farms, the first is 25 kms south west of Jerilderie and the other is
50 kms north of Jerilderie.
I will outline our issues under three headings; Landline services, Mobile
services (including internet connection) and NBN. I hope to answer the
questions posed in the Issues Paper that relate directly to our business and
personal telecommunication needs.
1 Landline Services
For most of the last 2 decades we have had 2 landline services at the home
farm (one for the fax) and another at the other farm. Lack of use has meant we
have disconnected 2 of these services. The remaining landline is important to
us and we believe we will need the copper connection for the foreseeable
future. A satellite NBN connection is not a desirable alternative as our landline
service has proven reliable when mobile service is disrupted or overloaded.
Please note that our copper wire service has been extremely reliable in recent
years.
2 Mobile Services
In our case, mobile services mean not only phone service but also our
only form of internet connection.
Although only around 10 kms from the Jerilderie Telstra tower, we need
a Yagi antenna and Smart Antenna to give phone service inside our
house. This is also our internet connection, but this is now almost
useless. For example, last Sunday morning (a “good” time for a stronger
internet connection) a download of a software update was timed at less
than 40Kb/s.
I have pursued Telstra and Telstra Countrywide in recent months over
this appalling service. They have acknowledged my complaint is correct
and in the case of Telstra Countrywide have assured me that 4G is
coming to Jerilderie but the timing is “commercial in confidence” and I
cannot be told when; absolute rubbish! I am now concerned that this
4G service may be a localised service and not resolve my problem.
The Jerilderie tower does have another problem; it was originally built to
service Newell Highway traffic and has its antennae set north/south with
limited service east/west. For 4G to be effective, this tower must be
upgraded with new antennae that give full circle coverage. This may be
planned, but locals have no way of knowing what will eventuate and no
apparent way of influencing management decisions.
Mobile phone service between our farms is patchy and the latest
blackspot works are not in this area. The Newell Highway north of
Jerilderie is where our phones drop out and there appears to be a simple
solution. There are Optus and Vodaphone towers which cover these
blackspots. I suggest that legislation may be needed to make carriers
accept rival carrier calls in these blackspot areas.
I note the issues paper mentions 5G in 5 years. My observation is that
every improvement in internet speeds has quickly been overtaken by
usage, reducing service to unacceptable levels again. This suggests that
the cry that providing services to rural areas is not commercial is totally
false. Any service that is running at these loads must be viable and
therefore the accountancy needs to be looked at closely.
Mobile service at our northern farm is marginal. The Sandside tower on
the Newell Highway provides a weakish signal for voice calls and data is
very marginal.
At both farms we are relatively well off with those to the west of both
places having very poor service.
3 NBN
I am now unsure if NBN will provide any benefit for us. The southern
farm is situated between Finley and Jerilderie. A fixed wireless service
has commenced from Finley but the coverage map shows we are about
8kms too far north for that. A tower has been erected in Jerilderie and
the proposed coverage will fall about 3 kms short of us. The minimum
service obligation for these services is, I understand, 25Mb/s. My
present service is at best around 200 Kb/s and for most of the daylight
and early evening well below that. We would be happy to have a service
that provided 5Mb/s; around 25 times the speed of our present service.
The only alternative for NBN will then be the satellite with all its
problems. Latency and cloud cover are the ongoing issues. Discussions
with a provider today suggest that our proximity to mobile networks
may mean we are not eligible for satellite connection. This appears
logical as satellite services will need to be restricted to the more remote
areas to prevent overload.
There may be plans for much greater fixed wireless coverage but who
would know?
Conclusion
In our case, telecommunications have not kept pace with demand. Our
landline service is more reliable than it has ever been but its use is
limited to voice and fax. Our mobile service for voice calls is no better
than it was 20 years ago. Our internet service today via 3G is only
marginally better than the 56k dial up service of 15 years ago; relatively
this is a huge step backwards. Our farm business is suffering a huge
restriction by this lack of service.
We will need a copper wire connection for the foreseeable future; there
appears little chance that NBN can offer anything for us. Mobile
networks, 4G and 5G, must be fast-tracked to those in our situation to
give us the chance to move into the 21st century.
I believe there are many worse than we are, but I think our position is
fairly typical of farm businesses throughout the settled areas of
Australia.
Denis Tinkler