Internet users are unhappy the NBN wireless has been rolled out in unpopulated regional areas while they wait for years on slower connections.
A small business owner shared a coverage map of his neighbourhood in Nambucca Heads, NSW, on social media on Wednesday.
The map showed wireless was available across the whole town except for areas that actually contained houses.
A small business owner shared a coverage map of his neighbourhood in Nambucca Heads, NSW, showing the town surrounded by NBN wireless coverage but none for its houses
Those houses will be stuck on slower internet connections until fibre cables are laid in their areas next year
They would remain on ADSL connections until NBN fire cables were laid through the area between April and July 2018, according to the map.
‘So yes, if you live in a tree or in a river then the NBN is available. Meanwhile here I am trying to run a business with 200kb/s down and about 10kb/s up,’ he wrote.
‘This is the official NBN rollout map and it’s been like this for years, this is about 40km from where the very first trial rollout occurred in Coffs Harbour god knows how long ago.’
The man speculated the wireless coverage was put in place so the NBN could inflate its coverage figures.
A coverage map of Port Macquarie, NSW, and surrounding areas showing some urban areas are connected to fibre but others surrounded by wireless and having none
Small areas of Lismore, NSW, are currently being connected but the rest of the town has no NBN connection at all
Suburbs in southern Perth with no NBN surrounded by sparsely populated areas with wireless coverage
NBN Co confirmed the coverage gaps were deliberate said the setup was a design feature aimed at making the rollout faster and cheaper.
‘It is not uncommon for towers to be in the centre of regional towns but all the premises in that town may not be able to connect to wireless because they are tailored for fixed line,’ it told Daily Mail Australia.
‘The NBN planning approach determines which technologies are utilised on an area-by-area basis so as to minimise peak funding and maximise the speed of the rollout.
‘The multi-technology mix model enables flexibility for NBN to select the most cost-effective and efficient technology for each area. This leads to a faster rollout, which brings forward revenue and minimises funding requirements.’
Some areas of Sydney are connected to fibre NBN nodes but otherwise still using ADSL technology
Melbourne is a similar story of very little NBN connection, but huge rural areas have wireless
However, other users argued he wasn’t missing out on much by not being able to access the NBN wireless, and would be better off waiting.
‘I signed up for the Wireless NBN and got worse speeds than ADSL most of the day. From 11am to 11pm the lines were congested and I lived on a hill near a local primary school surrounded by some houses,’ they said.
‘Overall was not an upgrade, and nothing that I had expected.’
Another user agreed, saying their download speed dropped by half when they switched to the NBN wireless network.
However, other users argued he wasn’t missing out on much by not being able to access the NBN wireless, and would be better off waiting for fibre to be laid