Telstra gives us ADSL after all

Telstra has announced it will provide ADSL broadband on the Peninsula this year.

General manager for Corporate Relations Telstra Retail, Mr Michael Herfkope, said the staged run-out would begin "hopefully in the first six months of this year".

Mr Herfkope said he was unaware of Soul Pattinson Communication's (SPC) plans to launch a broadband service to the Central Coast, after Telstra originally indicated it would not lay broadband.

"What is important is that Woy Woy is on the list," he said.

He said the roll-out would mean that Telstra could provide an "always-on" Internet service for Peninsula businesses and residents.

"It also means that a second line is not needed to use the Internet and make a phone call at the same time.

"Also speed is a great attraction with the roll-out meaning connection 30 to 50 times faster than there is currently."

He said there was a cost associated with using the service.

"You must remember that the roll-out is hugely expensive for Telstra," he said.

"The product will be available to residents and business and prices start at about $73 a month.

"Some customers may think they don't need it and they can continue to use the present dial-up."

He said Telstra has already done about 200 exchanges Australia-wide.

SPC launched a Central Coast service based in Gosford in conjunction with NBN Television, which had the infrastructure for the service already in place.

Last week, Terrigal Net also announced satellite services providing 256k and 2mb downloads. The services range from about $70 to $180 a month and require a satellite dish and other hardware costing about $600.

Manager of the IT industry group Connect.CentralCoast , Mr David Abrahams, said that broadband capacity in our region should be one of our major infrastructure concerns.

Carl Spears, January 12