[LINK] NBN Co moved an FTTN cabinet after users asked to connect

[David Boxall]

Sometimes, I think they're just being bloody-minded. Perhaps nbn™ 
overdosed on politics and it drove them mad.
<http://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-moved-an-fttn-cabinet-after-users-asked-to-connect-442003>
> Horsham resident Andrew Pillekers thought he’d “won nodelotto” when he 
> found a crew spraying markings on the nature strip out the front of 
> his house to indicate the placement of a node for NBN Co's FTTN network.
>
> Pillekers had originally been destined for a fibre connection, but was 
> switched to the FTTN footprint following the 2013 election. He was 
> rezoned again to a fixed wireless connection two months ago.
>
> So when he spotted the NBN Co crew outlining the location of an FTTN 
> cabinet just metres away from his house in late September, he thought 
> he'd struck gold.
>
> “I could have taken three steps from my driveway onto the nature strip 
> and kicked the thing. I thought I’d finally had a win," Pillekers told 
> iTnews.
>
> However, after calling NBN Co to see if he could switch to the cabinet 
> instead of his assigned fixed wireless, Pillekers was told "policy" 
> prevented NBN Co from being able to change his prescribed connection.
>
> “Which I found just a bit irritating as my copper phone line literally 
> went under where the node was going to be placed [and then up the 
> street to its pillar],” he said. “I felt that this was bloody stupid.”
>
> Pillekers turned to his local MP, who suggested contacting the federal 
> member for his area. He received a response a month later from NBN Co 
> via the federal MP's office.
>
> "We understand he remains unhappy with being allocated fixed wireless, 
> especially given his proximity to a node; however, the boundaries are 
> determined based on a number of factors, including construction and 
> technological constraints, and the existing Telstra exchange 
> boundaries," the statement, sighted by iTnews, read.
>
> "We have also explained that he will have the option of upgrading at 
> his own cost, via our technology choice program.”
>
> Despite the knockback, Pillekers continued to lobby NBN Co to let him 
> connect to the node out the front of his house.
>
> But rather than agree to the request, NBN Co decided to move the node 
> cabinet out of view, 120 metres down the road.
>
> “NBN seem to have decided that my problem was not that myself and 60 
> or so other houses in the area had been dumped from FTTN to fixed 
> wireless, but that I had the node on my nature strip,” he said.
>
> An NBN Co spokesperson told iTnews the original node location had been 
> "chosen to provide FTTN to nearby premises" after placement elsewhere 
> was initially considered unsafe.
>
> "This was the nearest, best location," the spokesperson said.
>
> “We have since identified a better placement for the FTTN cabinet – 
> inside the FTTN service area - and as a result [NBN Co] does not plan 
> to continue construction of the cabinet in the original location."

-- 
David Boxall                    |  The world is run by
                                |  those who turn up.
http://david.boxall.id.au       |          --Tony Windsor