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Minister for Communications Senator Mitch Fifield has little to say about the possibility that the North-West Coast may lose about 70 per cent of its cardiology services due to slow internet speeds. In early June, specialist Dr Geoff Evans wrote to Mr Fifield outlining his concerns about internet speed at his Burnie clinic. Dr Evans, the head of Charles Clinic Heart Care in Launceston, switched to NBN some weeks ago, only to find his internet speeds had not picked up. He needs a guaranteed minimum speed to send large image files from Burnie to Launceston, and is reported as saying he may have to shut his Burnie clinic if he cannot get adequate internet service. However to date, Dr Evans has had no reply from Mr Fifield about internet speeds in Burnie. The Advocate twice submitted questions to the minister’s office, but they failed to rouse a response. Then late last week, Senator Anne Urquhart asked the minister a series of questions in parliament. “Minister Fifield … feigned ignorance of this serious matter,” she said. Ms Urquhart asked Mr Fifield why he had kept rolling out fibre to the node when it could not guarantee even basic upload speeds, and she described Dr Evans’ case. “I can’t commit in relation to a particular business or premise,” said Mr Fifield. “Premises have a range of options.” When Ms Urquhart pressed the minister on why NBN Co had not moved the node right to Dr Evans’ premises at the North West Regional Hospital, Mr Fifield did not know. “I don’t have total knowledge of each premise in Australia or of the tens of thousands of individual nodes,” he said. Ms Urquhart then asked if Mr Fifield would fix the digital divide by providing fibre to the premises in regional areas like Burnie. “I don’t think it is a digital divide to see the NBN rolled out to every premise within 6-8 years,” said Mr Fifield. Ms Urquhart said the NBN Co’s actions were ‘bizarre’ in that they were installing a new node for Dr Evans, but it was still 500 metres from his clinic and the company was refusing to guarantee a basic upload speed. “The Minister needs to take more of an interest in the quality of broadband over his failing fibre to the node NBN,” she said. In some areas NBN serves premises, but in others it runs to ‘nodes’, and is then relayed to premises.

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