Residents of the Belmond Estate in the suburb of Cranbourne currently have no landline, mobile phone or Internet connection. The members of the new community have had no telecommunications access since last November and have been told that the services will not be connected until May.
The developer Newland confirmed that they had notified NBN Co of the completion of the construction and it was now up to them to ensure delivery of service.
NBN Co and Telstra have confirmed that the issue was on their end due to problems with roadwork construction holding up the installing telecommunications infrastructure. This issue is being echoed around the country as Australians are increasingly getting frustrated by the lack of NBN service roll out in their neighbourhoods. The recently released NBN rollout website has caused more frustration as some suburbs are showing even greater delays than they had initially been told.
NBN Co is supposed to ensure connections are ready as soon as possible, however Telstra still has obligations to provide a standard telephone service to all Australians under the Universal Service Obligation [USO].
According to The Age, one Belmond resident said, “At no point was I offered a landline or anything like it”.
Telstra told The Age on Friday residents have to make it clear if they have no access to fixed voice service to trigger the USO.
“The Belmond Estate is on the NBN rollout map,” the Telstra spokesman said.
In cases where service is not yet possible an alternative such as a copper connection or satellite service should be provided. This policy ensures that residents are not cut off from emergency services or assistance if needed and not be cut off from business contacts and loved ones.
