Lack of communication undermining NBN community support

NBN Co must step up its engagement with relevant government departments and the Australian community if the rollout of the National Broadband Network or face an increasingly ambivalent public.

The Standing Committee on Infrastructure

Speaking at the Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications in Adelaide, the City of Tea Tree Gully's manager of business and economic development, Bob Carmichael, said the rollout of the NBN in the suburb of Modbury had been characterised by a lack of communication between NBN Co and the council.

"We're keen to optimise connections and uptake by the [NBN] trial group of 3000 users and we see the urgent need for a local engagement strategy to explain the infrastructure to the local community," Carmichael said. "We're keen to be an early adopter of high speed broadbandwe welcome discussion with NBN Co and the federal government.

The lines of communication

As then as needing to open the lines of communication, Carmichael said community awareness about the infrastructure project needed to be raised.

"We need to have a system where we're promoting a connection, where we understand how the infrastructure works," he said. "We're keen to establish a demonstration site of the National broadband Network."

The lack of communication reported in South Australia follows claims from action group Digital Tasmania last year that more information needed to be made available to the Australian public about the NBN and its impact on the Tasmanian community.

The lack of communication

Despite the lack of communication, the Modbury community was eager to signing up to the NBN, with local businesses in particular saddled with poor internet connections, Carmichael said.

"Some people have copper [internet connections] and it's not just enough for what they want to do with their business and others have usually poor service," he said. "I saw a map of the black spots in our city and they are all over the placeit surprised me just how many places in the city had them."