Introduction

SETEL http://www.setel.com.au/ is a lobby group for small business telecommunications with its headquarters in Canberra. Gungahlin is fortunate to have the head of the organisation Ewan Brown as a resident. He requested the GCC assist him in surveying the takeup of broadband in Gungahlin with the following letter. This blog along with the survey at is the outcome of the letter. Your participation is welcome. Please participate in the questionnaire and put comments on this blog.

Click here to take survey

Letter from SETEL to GCC

Despite improvements in the availability of aDSL services to the Gungahlin community SETEL is aware that some residents are still unable to get broadband internet connections, unless forced into accepting satellite services.

We suspect that technologies, such as RIMs (installed with minimuxes), used in many areas of the community may limit access for slow adopters once a number of residents in a particular street or area have been successful in securing an aDSL connection.

Gungahlin continues to be a high profile urban area servicing a rapidly growing residential, business and home business community. It therefore has a significant need for modern communications facilities to enable residents to match products and services available to other metropolitan users.

SETEL is interested in participating in an audit to determine the current status of broadband availability in the Gungahlin area and is seeking support from local parliamentary representatives and community groups. We feel that the results would be indicative of experiences in similar urban developments throughout Australia.

SETEL is concerned that the growth rate in broadband update (primarily resultant from price cuts in Telstra services last year) is again slowing. Estimated uptake stands at just over 3 million services but another potential 6.6 to 7.5 million users remain to be connected Australia-wide.

This large deficiency in broadband uptake may be due to lack of, or problems experienced with, access, pricing, the inability to afford computers or lack of justification for such a service. We would like to determine whether the problems with access are a major contributing factor to the slowdown in the growth of broadband uptake, particularly in areas where technical issues such as the existence of RIMs and Pair Gains have caused supply problems.

A simple draft survey for residential/home business users is attached. Appropriate analysis of the results should provide an indication of whether technical issues impact on residents in a particular street or small urban area. It may be appropriate to separately survey existing and new business operators in the rapidly expanding commercial areas to determine their levels of satisfaction with availability and access to high-speed data services.

SETEL is seeking your support for this project and welcomes ideas on how it can be accomplished.

SETEL has published the SETEL Guide to Pair Gain and RIM which is available from the SETEL website. The SETEL Issue Paper on Pair Gain is also available from the website.