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HORSHAM’S outskirts face a new digital divide because of the National Broadband Network company’s rollout policy. NBN has confirmed that areas of Horsham that have already been designated as receiving ‘fixed wireless’ internet connections are unlikely to receive wired internet. Fixed wireless NBN connections will be slower than the wired version and in some cases have proven to be less reliable than the connections they have replaced. Fixed wireless connections supply internet connections from towers similar to those in the mobile phone network, and need line-of-sight with rooftop antennas. Horsham Rural City Council was informed last month that NBN plans to install about 40 metal cabinets in Horsham’s streets to provide faster internet to households. The metal cabinets, about the size of two postboxes, will connect a main line fibre optic cable with copper phone lines to each house. One Dooen Road resident was excited to see NBN contractors measuring up his nature strip this month for a new cabinet but was told his property would not get a wired connection. “I work in information technology so it would be extremely helpful for me to have a fast and reliable connection, let alone for my clients who are trying to do more and more on the internet,” the resident, who did not want to be named, said. “Throw in the shift to cloud computing and consequently fast internet is going to be essential.” However, the resident said he was told by the contractors that his part of the road would not get the fastest NBN option through fibre-to-the-node. “I rang NBN and they said there was no way I could get connected to the node and it wasn’t their policy, even though the node will be on my nature strip and the current copper line will literally go underneath where the node will sit,” the resident said. The resident’s house is 200 metres away from areas that will receive wired NBN connections. An NBN Victoria spokesman said it was the company’s policy to roll out one version of the NBN per area. “We are constructing the network area-by-area, with only one technology generally assigned per area,” he said. The spokesman said it would not be unusual for streets on the outskirts of regional towns to have metal cabinets built on their nature strips but not be able to connect to wired NBN. Fibre-to-the-node NBN promises to be four to 10 times faster than the best home connections currently available in Horsham. Wireless is designed to be 25 to 50 per cent as fast as a node but can be slowed or stopped by trees and other signal-blocking objects. NBN is due to start constructing the cabinets and rolling out fibre-to-the-node connections to 7800 premises in Horsham by February next year.

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