Minutes of meeting of Gleneagles Estate FTTH/P project Murrumbidgee Golf Club, 1/12/2014

Steve Ulrich opened the meeting at 18:35, thanking Murrumbidgee Golf Club for the use of the venue.

The support of the residents was very positive, and Steve publicly thanked those who had registered and voted in the polls. These people have obviously been doing a tremendous job of speaking to their neighbours about the project given the level of interest in such a short period of time.

Steve gave a presentation, which outlined briefly:

• The history of the project so far;
• Project achievements;
• The project phases;
• TransACT and Gleneagles Estate (and rest of Kambah); and
• VDSL2 – why it is not a sensible long term option for Gleneagles Estate

Engagement of Elected representatives:

A brief on the meeting with the Hon. Gai Brodtmann MP, Member for Canberra was given; Gai was very supportive, providing helpful guidance, and was particularly impressed with the support the community had given the campaign, and the professionalism in its delivery.

Steve has a meeting with Senator for Canberra, Zed Seselja, on December 15 2014 who has given his support to the project as well.

Community co-funded Fibre To The Home proposal:

Steve gave an explanation of the community based co-funding model. The committee is lobbying both side of Federal Government and NBNCo to extend the fibre that is currently running to the Gleneagles Estate to the street level, where residents would have an option to have fibre connected to their home from the street, by contributing to the cost of the installation.

Part of the lobbying process will be for consideration for the estate to be a trial site for this concept. We would be asking for this to be commenced sooner rather than later, given that residents would be funding part of the installation costs themselves.

NBNCo developments:

NBN CEO Bill Morrow announced on 13 November that NBNCo will “…work with small communities that choose to co-fund FTTP if they are in an alternative technology area…”

On 1 December 2014, NBNCo announced VDSL2 (Fibre To The Node) to be deployed to Kambah and surrounding areas, with work commencing by June 2016.

TransACT:

TransACT VDSL2 network was discussed – they were approached in 2010 however there was no interest from them to deploy to Gleneagles Estate, most probably due to the lack of power lines in the Estate.

Advantages of Fibre over VDSL2:

• Waterproof – to address the groundwater issues due to the underground creek running through the middle of the estate
• Scalability and selection of speeds to meet your current and future needs – VDSL2 may seem good now, however its limitations will become apparent very quickly as requirements change. The example of how we use technology with tablets in the home, particularly with stream media, was highlighted.
• Reliable – no more constant adjustments to people’s phone lines, which impact others.
• Clear return on investment – marketability and at least $5K on value of home, given the confirmation there will be a large number of residences in Canberra who will only have VDSL2.

Help from residents required:

The project needs a large volume of residents to register their interest and vote in the poll to allow us to move forward and approach NBNCo.

Comments on quality of internet should be made on the website, so it is a record, and can be used as part of the proposal to NBNCo if required.

Questions were then asked from the floor:

Q. Is wireless an option?

A. This option can be explored by the committee, however there are still bandwidth issues. It was raised by a member of the meeting that they were using Telstra Broadband wireless, and he was only getting 20Mbit down and 1Mbit up.

It was noted at this point that video conferencing for business was unworkable for the Estate, and wouldn’t be that improved with VDSL2 due to the upstream limitation of that technology.

Q. How many communities are proposing a project such as ours?

A. To the best of our knowledge, we are not aware of other community campaigns. We believe we are the first to propose such a policy given the response from Minister Turnbull In April 2014 this year.

We have confidence that the Estate is the perfect model for such a rollout, and if it cannot be done in the estate, then it cannot be done anywhere else.

It was stated that this was the opportunity for the Estate to grow as a whole, and become a more marketable area.

Q. How much would it cost?

A. We don’t know the cost, we are asking the question by this project.

We anticipate it will be affordable. There would be a significant return on investment in terms of marketability and home value.

Q. Has NBNCo purchased TransACT?

A. NBNCo purchased the Fibre To The Home component of the TransACT network. It is anticipated that a purchase of the TransACT VDSL2 network would eventually happen, in line with the government ‘no overbuild’ NBN policy.

Action items:

A number of residents have volunteered to informally ‘walk the streets’ and publicise the project. It was noted the more people that can do this the better, as this is exactly the assistance the committee needs from residents at this time. The use of flyers, as well as distribution of postcards face to face was proposed and accepted by those present.

It was suggested that we approach ACT MLA’s as well as Federal counterparts. Steve mentioned he was waiting for a response from Mick Gentlemen, and asked for suggestions of other MLA’s to contact.

Steve closed the meeting by announcing that Simon Hackett, founder of Internode and a member of the NBNCo Board, has responded and given his firm support for our project. Steve is waiting for the CEO of NBNCo Bill Morrow, to respond to the initial contact request for a meeting.

Steve thanked all the residents for their support, and to continue to support the project by talking to their neighbours about the project and encourage them to support it through registering and using the polling facility.

Steve closed the meeting at 19:30