By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
ROD Macdonald wants to know what broadband connections are like around City of Greater Geelong.
The councillor is adamant that Geelong’s level of internet availability and quality is holding the region back and wants a better service.
He has started a B4G campaign, seeking feedback from broadband users about the quality of their internet experience.
The campaign follows the release of federal Department of Communications mapping, revealing 75 per cent of Geelong has “poor” or “very poor” broadband quality.
Large areas of suburban Geelong have download speeds of eight megabits (Mbps) or less, with many between zero and four megabits.
Only small pockets close to exchanges can achieve download speeds up to 24Mbps, according to a Broadband Availability and Quality Report.
Federal Government’s proposed National Broadband Network (NBN) will deliver speeds of 25Mbps.
Cr Macdonald said he knew of several office building projects that were on hold awaiting the provision of fibre cable.
“The developers know that their projects are not viable without fibre but no one knows what’s happening. Everyone’s waiting and it’s all come to a stop.
“With the loss of manufacturing jobs the politicians tell us we need to turn to smart solutions but we need fibre to compete with the rest of the world.
“We have companies wanting to come to Geelong and others wanting to expand but investment decisions are on hold because we don’t know if we’ll get fibre.”
Cr Macdonald said feedback from broadband users across Geelong would help ICT Geelong push the case for a high-priority on the next NBN roll-out.
State Technology Minister Gordon Rich-Phillips said the Broadband Availability and Quality Report showed a need to prioritise areas requiring high-speed broadband.
“Demand for broadband is high in Victoria’s large regional centres, with over 2000 businesses in Geelong demanding a fibre service.
“Smaller regional towns also have considerable business demand, with Torquay having over 200 businesses needing a fibre service.
“The report shows that many Victorian businesses have inadequate access to current generation broadband due to exchange capacity issues or their distance from an exchange.”
