WHEN Graham O’Keeffe, a mechanical fitter of Browns Plains noticed a National Broadband Network flyer in his letterbox a few weeks ago, he read that contractors would give warning before they turned up to install the NBN cable, but things moved swiftly on August 1.
“My wife rang me after lunch and said they were here,” Mr O’Keeffe told the Times.
“I said I don’t really want the thing installed at the moment, not unless I’m at home. I’m in the midst of house renovations and I didn’t want the thing in the wrong place.”
When Mr O’Keeffe got home, he found that Lendlease contractors had fitted the bracket for the cable into the house’s gutter.
“They did a rough job, so I got up the ladder and pulled up a tile and had a look and was thoroughly disgusted. They’d cut the back of the gutter out,” he said.
“We’ve had up to 90 millimetres of rain in half an hour here, so I reckon that it could back-flow into the eaves and down the walls and into the house.
“I had a go at the Lendlease supervisors, asking about their qualifications, but they wouldn’t tell me,” he said.
“If they haven’t got plumbing qualifications then they shouldn’t be touching the gutter.”
Mr O’Keeffe sent pictures of the damage to the NBN Company, who supplied them to Lendlease.
“They (Lendlease) were in denial about what the damage was, and I blew my top,” he said.
“They came out a few days later, and they’ve sort of repaired the fascia, but I’m still waiting for the gutter to be repaired.
“I think everyone needs to know, because they said to me they’ve done hundreds of houses around here like that.”
Disconnection risk
Six years ago, information technology professional Leslie Milburn, of Flagstone, registered an email address to get notifications about the NBN.
“Until this week, no information was ever sent to that email address,” he told the Times.
“When the NBN roll-out commenced in the Jimboomba region, sometime around March, 2016, I started using the NBN ‘check your address’ page to see if the NBN was available to me.
“Up until September 2016, the answer was always no, it is not available.”
According to Mr Milburn, late that month the message changed, saying additional work was still required in order to make his address ready to connect to the NBN network, and that he should contact his preferred phone or internet provider for more information.
“The service provider told me it meant that the NBN was not available,” he said.
“This status message was still being displayed as late as June 20, 2017.
“On Monday, August 14, out of the blue I received an email from NBN Co, to that old email address, with the subject line ‘It’s time to move to the NBN’ and it told me I had to switch over by February 9, 2018, because my existing service was going to be disconnected.
“Rather than being given 18 months’ notice, I am only being given six, which is simply not good enough as I have a complicated phone plan and switching over will result in the loss of two mobile phones as they are tied into my landline plan and will not transfer to any NBN plan, so I need time to get this sorted out.”
Mr Milburn said he contacted the NBN by phone and email.
“So far, they are sticking with the cut-off date of February, 2018, when it should be 2019 if I was given my full 18 months notice.
“If it wasn't for that old email address I registered way back, I would still be unaware of the cut-off date in February and I get the feeling that many residents in the Flagstone and wider Jimboomba area may also be unaware of the situation, especially the elderly,” he said.
“All the information I have read is that the 18-month countdown commences when the NBN becomes available to your property, (whereas) NBN are saying that it is when the NBN comes to your area.”
NBN responds
NBN Co Queensland corporate affairs manager Kylie Lindsay told the Times that if a home or business suffers any financial loss or damage because of any workmanship undertaken by NBN or its construction partners during an installation or removal of NBN equipment, the end user should contact NBN on 1800 687 626, email complaints@nbnco.com.au, or use the ‘contact us’ form on the NBN website at nbnco.com.au to register their complaint.
According to Ms Lindsay, southern Logan suburbs where premises are still awaiting NBN installation include Browns Plains, Chambers Flat, Greenbank, Park Ridge, Park Ridge South and New Beith.
