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An Orange family has been fighting for an NBN internet connection for five months after being told their address “doesn’t exist.” Mitchell Davis and Felicity Cantrill said their house, in a new estate in North Orange, had “fallen through the cracks” when internet service applications for their housing estate were lodged by the property developer. They said the NBN did not recognise their address and therefore could not provide a fixed-line connection. The NBN’s official rollout map displays the fixed-line connection areas in purple. However their house appears on the NBN map outside the purple area in a thin strip along with trees and roads. “According to the rollout map we’re the only house in Orange the NBN has missed,” Ms Cantrill said. She said when she identified her house on the NBN map to an NBN case manager by email he told her to move her address inside the purple area. “But my house isn’t in the purple area, it’s not where I live, it was odd,” she said. Ms Cantrill said the NBN case manager then told them to fill out an application form normally completed by the developer to add their address to the rollout area. However, she said the form was so complicated they were unable to complete and submit it. “The gave me a form as if I was the developer, but I’m not a developer,” she said. “[The questions included] have you worked with NBN before? Well, no.” And when the couple asked the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman for help they were told their complaint was outside its terms of reference and it could not help them. She said they became aware of the problem after moving in on Boxing Day. “We just thought it would be pretty simple,” she said. “I’m not sure who’s made the mistake exactly. “They [NBN] told us our address doesn’t exist. “They didn’t know what the problem was.” Ms Cantrill said they had been contacted by NBN this week suggesting they could get a wireless connection which she was happy to take. An NBN spokeswoman told the Central Western Daily it was working to resolve the problem. “NBN was made aware of this issue in March and have been working closely with the end user to rectify the siutation,” she said. “We apologise for any inconvenience caused.” The developer of the estate, Dave Fenton of the Fenlor Group, said it appeared “an administrative error” had occurred. He said the couple’s address was on the boundary between two stages of the estate his company developed. Mr Fenton said the block was fully serviced for internet connection as part of stage one of the estate when connections were controlled by Telstra. However, the block was released for sale as part of stage two of the estate. He said by then the NBN had taken over looking after internet connections. “It’s all there, but it just wasn’t on any record,” Mr Fenton said.

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