Section of Casey mysteriously forgotten in initial NBN rollout can now access fibre-to-the-premises NBN

The Gungahlin region was granted early access to the NBN by the then federal Labor government following inadequate telecommunication networks installed when it was being built.

The first fibre-optic cable was installed in 2012 as part of a complete fibre-to-the-premises initiative in the whole region, giving it the best and fastest internet out of all Canberra regions - except for a small portion of homes located in Casey.

The section is bordered by Ashton Calvert Street, with approximately 100 homes having significantly worse internet speeds than their neighbours just over the road.

The east side of the street instead received fibre-to-the-node technology, meaning rather than having internet connecting to their households directly, it connected to a shared cabinet located somewhere in the street.

Treasurer and previous president of the Gungahlin Community Council, Peter Elford, who has been a member of the council since 2010, said he had been "badgering" the government for improvements ever since the initial rollout.

"Something definitely got lost somewhere along the way," he said.

"We were telling the government to do something about it, but we were constantly being told, 'We know, but there is nothing we can do about it'."

In 2020, the federal government announced $4.5 billion would go towards stretching the NBN in areas with fibre-to-the-node technology to reach homes instead.

"We pestered them, asking, 'How do you pick where gets it, and can it finally be in Casey'?" Mr Elford said.

In June 2021, it was announced Casey Stage 1 would be one of the areas upgraded to enable fibre-to-the-premises connections.

The federal government in February announced an additional NBN rollout would reach 1 million more Australian homes, specifically mentioning 3088 in Canberra with some located in Casey.

Other areas include Ainslie, Dickson, Kingston, Macgregor, Monash and Yarralumla.

In the first week of May, residents in Casey Stage 1 started to hear from their internet providers that they would be given the option to upgrade their services.

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"It's been a long haul. And it is still a problem around a lot of other areas in Canberra," Mr Elford said.

"We became part of a bigger campaign. Other regions around Canberra think it's time for them to have upgrades that match what most of Gungahlin got in the first place.

"We are feeling a lot of joy and relief as a result of this, it proves that something can be done after all this time."

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