A FAMILY of four who recently moved to a property near Millthorpe for a tree change is considering returning to the city after spending months trying to get connected to the National Broadband Network (NBN).
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Brent Poll, his wife Nicole, their 16-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter, moved to the region to trial living in the country but now, in their fourth month of trying to get the NBN connected, they want to return to the city.
Mr Poll said home internet was fundamental for his work, his children needed it for school and his wife to undertake regular online training to maintain her medical registration.
They were initially told their house did not qualify for an NBN wireless service so they paid a private technician to test their location and confirm a wireless NBN signal was available and in July they selected TPG as an internet service provider.
“Although we were advised that the connection could take up to six weeks, both verbally and via email, the earliest our service could be booked in for was seven weeks from the initiation date,” Mr Poll said.
He said someone from the family had to stay home on the installation day to ensure the technician could gain access and despite receiving and replying to daily confirmation texts they received a phone call at 4.05pm on the day of installation saying the installer could not attend and they would have to reschedule.
He said the next available date was two weeks out but two days from the second installation date it was cancelled again. An installer did arrive on Monday, but could not get a signal due to heavy fog.
“This has been construed by NBN as outright failure and NBN is not available at this address. That has gone to TPG who have cancelled our order now,” Mr Poll said on Thursday.
AN NBN spokeswoman says the organisation has escalated the Polls’ case and is working directly with Mr Poll to ensure the service can be installed as soon as possible.
“NBN would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused to Mr Poll and his family and we are investigating the missed appointments as a matter of priority,” she said.
“In this particular case, the technology change from satellite to fixed wireless has played a part in the installation time frame, however, it is unacceptable that Mr Poll’s appointments have been missed on a number of occasions.”
Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
