29 January 2014

Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor has welcomed news that faster broadband access is coming to villages and rural communities around Goulburn.

Mr Taylor said NBN Co had announced it would be working with council and community groups to identify village locations in the Goulburn district where towers could be built.

“Our government has always said we will prioritise areas of greater need - and rural areas around Goulburn have come up as big on need. So the message has got through,” he said.

“Until we get information on the specific tower locations, we will not be able to say exactly which rural communities around Goulburn will benefit, but it’s exciting news.

“Access to the fixed wireless network means a whole leap forward in speed and services. An entire family can jump on line at once, which has huge potential, particularly for small businesses, and I include farmers in that category.

“Through the fixed wireless network, towers have a reach of up to 10km to maximise signal and guarantee download speeds of around 25 megabits per second and upload speeds of around 5 megabits per second.

“I understand community consultation will start soon and the building of towers will take about 12 months, meaning access to the faster broadband will be available mid-2015,” Mr Taylor said.

“This is part of the Australia wide rollout of the National Broadband Network, to be completed by 2019. The rollout of the fixed wireless network will be followed by announcements on the rollout of the fixed line network. So there will be more good news coming on fixed line services for the Goulburn region and for Hume.”