A WELLINGTON Point-based Facebook page has accused Bowman MP Andrew Laming of not keeping his 2013 election promise of fibre-to-the-node high-speed broadband for Redlands by 2016.
The page, called Where’s my NBN? Redlands is headed by Wellington Point electrician and father of two Marty Eugarde.
Mr Eugarde said an email from Mr Laming prior to the 2013 election said Labor had no NBN plan and the LNP guaranteed "FTTN and blackspots fixed to 25MBS in our first term if elected".
"I have kept a copy of Andrew’s email and have it fixed to my office wall as a reminder of what was promised," Mr Eugarde said.
"We are now at the end of Andrew’s first term and I still do not have an NBN connection as per the many thousands of others in Redlands and 80 per cent of Australia.
"Added to this, I am receiving, via my Facebook page, that many people are disappointed by the speed of their NBN Fibre-To-The-Node connections in Redland Bay."
Mr Laming said it was not something he would have written but said in Opposition the NBN Co had not given the LNP precise information about the state of the rollout.
He said the rollout in Redlands was about six months behind schedule and all of Redland city would be connected to the NBN network by 2018.
He said work on connecting Capalaba would start before year's end and suburbs north of Victoria Point would likely be connected before June next year.
He said Victoria Point, Sheldon and North Stradbroke Island would be connected by the end of 2018.
But Mr Eugarde and others in his street said they were prepared to wait for fibre-to-the-premises and, in the meantime, use wireless services such as Vividwireless and Optus, which had dropped its prices and was delivering download speeds faster than ADSL.
Mr Laming slammed the claim that residents were willing to pay and wait for fibre-to-the-premises and said it was "just plain wrong".
"Data shows an overwhelming majority of customers opt for the cheapest service, meaning there is not yet any revenue model to justify fibre-to-the-premises or speeds of over 25-100mbps which can stream UltraHD Netflix in real time," he said.
"Fibre-to-the-node is a sinch to upgrade when financially justifiable to do so."
In 2013, the federal government said it would provide download speeds of between 25 and 100 megabits per second by the end of 2016 and 50 to 100 megabits per second by 2019.
It also promised regions with substandard internet services would receive priority.
Mr Laming denied the promises were made and said no area would be deemed a “priority” and 7 per cent of houses would never get the NBN.
Mr Laming also dispelled claims that customers in Redland Bay connected to the NBN since April were not getting better service.
He said 11 complaints from Redland Bay were investigated and all found to have “teething problems” or faulty NBN connections, which, once fixed would deliver high-speed broadband.
