ARAG’s April meeting will be held this coming Thursday 13 April at 7pm. (Not the usual day of the week!)
The meeting will be held at the Cliff Noble Community Centre, 24 Suttor St, Alexandria (Corner of Renwick St). This will be our temporary home for the next few months while Alexandria Town Hall is renovated.
On the agenda:
- NBN-Lite is coming to Alexandria
- WestConnex, Euston Road and McEvoy Street widenings.
It has been announced that Alexandria, despite having some of the oldest and worst copper lines in Australia, is getting Fibre to the Kerb (FTTC). Come along, and find out the difference between Fibre to the Kerb and Fibre to the Home (FTTH), Fibre to the Node (FTTN) and ADSL. And find out why it matters.
And come and get an update on the planned widening of Euston Road and McEvoy Streets.
Alexandria Residents' Action Group 
I’m sorry, but what time? Did I miss that?
Meeting is at 7pm. I’ve updated the post to add that piece of information. Thanks for pointing out the omission.
I missed the meeting because I am overseas, but FTTC is actually the best option we can hope for under the Liberal Coalition NBN. What we need to be worried about is FTTN, which despite the FTTC “announcement”, is all I can see being listed on the rollout page for Alexandria. This is the technology that will run over the old copper from the phone nodes (the little Telstra cylinders you see around) to you house. FTTC will run from the phone pit outside your house over much newer copper into your home. It has a much shorter copper length, resulting in faster speeds. It also allows residents who need or want fibre to the home to easily upgrade. Given that FTTH is dead, buried and cremated thanks to Turnbull and Abbott, we need to push for FTTC for our area. FTTN will consign us to digital poverty if it doesn’t get upgraded in the next 10 years (which it won’t).
I have recently moved to Alexandria fairly recently and unfortunately I missed this meeting, however, I am curious as to what information you have regarding Alexandria getting FTTC (AKA FttDP) NBN?
I recently read the following article which states that Alexandria is down for FTTC sometime in 2018:
https://www.finder.com.au/nbns-fttdp-technology-rolling-out-in-2018
When I enter my address in the address checker (http://www.nbnco.com.au/connect-home-or-business/check-your-address) I am told the NBN is planned for Jan-June 2019 with FTTN technology. I also note that a large part of the suburb has NBN construction underway currently using FTTN technology (e.g. https://www.finder.com.au/nbn-tracker/map?address=24-26%20Bowden%20St,%20Alexandria%20NSW%202015,%20Australia&placeType=Home). I am unable to find any addresses in Alexandria on the NBN website that are using FTTC.
Good question. The press says FTTC. But when we go looking, NBNCO are saying FTTN.
I raised the discrepancy with nbn back in February when they made the initial press release stating Alexandria and Erko would get FTTC – they told me the website rollout maps may be inaccurate and to check back later for updates. It’s now May and they still say FTTN. I have emailed Tanya Plibersek’s office to see if they can press the issue and will try the Minister for Comms next.
I urge everyone to raise this issue with our local representatives because if we get saddled with FTTN, we’re going to be left behind for decades to come, whilst the rest of the nation/world pushes forward on fibre. Also, if anyone’s looked into the Telstra pits around here, they’d know that the copper is in no fit state to handle FTTN.