New NBN Progress in Colac Otway: Joint Release with Member for Corangamite Sarah Henderson MP

Residents across the Colac Otway region are a step closer to entering the superfast broadband era, with community consultation now underway for the construction of 11 new fixed wireless facilities.

Sarah Henderson, Federal Member for Corangamite, and Paul Fletcher MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications, visited Cororooke today to make the announcement.

“Today’s announcement signals important progress towards delivering new fixed wireless NBN facilities which will really benefit the residents of Colac Otway,” Ms Henderson said.

“This is the next step towards the delivery of fast broadband in Alvie, Beeac, Beech Forest, Cororooke, Cressy East, Forrest, Gellibrand, Swan Marsh, Warncoort and Barongarook.”

Following the community consultation process, it is expected the new facilities (which each have a reach of up to 14km) will help service over 2,800 more premises. This is in addition to the 11 fixed wireless facilities currently live across Golden Plains, providing over 3,700 premises with access to the NBN.

The fixed wireless network is one of the most advanced in the world.  It will utilise advanced 4G technology to deliver speeds of up to 25 megabits per second, which is faster than speeds achieved over the ADSL network in major cities.

Once completed, the new fixed wireless network will enable multiple high definition videos to be streamed at one time and give more equitable access to eHealth and distance education services.

“The progress of the fixed wireless facilities is one of the many ways in which the Federal Government is working to deliver on its pledge to get the NBN rollout back on track”, Mr Fletcher said.

Ms Henderson said that the frustration with the NBN was that, having promised so much, Labor delivered so little.

Since last September’s election, the reach of the fixed wireless network has increased threefold nationally, with 129,801 premises now able to access services.

In the electorate of Corangamite around 2,100 premises are now able to order a service and approximately 689 users are already connected.

“This announcement in Cororooke shows that we are strongly committed to getting the job done sooner and more affordably for local residents,” Ms Henderson said.

Please note: fixed wireless facilities in Golden Plains in Corangamite are in Dereel, Linton, Rokewood, Smythesdale, Cape Clear and Ross Creek.