Cr Kim McAliney and Paul Harrison with one of the new ‘top hats’. 75676 Picture: XAVIER SMERDON
By XAVIER SMERDON
POINT Cook residents will finally be able to access faster internet with Telstra introducing new technology into the booming suburb.
The company has placed ‘top hats’ onto existing street cabinets, the large green boxes that can be found on the side of some roads, that deliver telephone services to local residents and businesses.
Until now these cabinets have not been able to support ADSL2+ technology due to physical constraints.
Telstra Country Wide Area General Manager for Melbourne North West and CBD, Paul Harrison, said the new technology would effectively double the number of people that can get fast internet and bring faster broadband speeds and improved technology where possible.
“In the past, to permanently increase the broadband capacity of a street side cabinet, we had to build another cabinet alongside the existing one. This could take months of planning and network construction activities,” Mr Harrison said.
“The ‘top hat’ is essentially bolting ADSL2+ equipment on top of an existing street side cabinet.
“This means that we are able to quickly and efficiently make ADSL2+ services available to many Point Cook households and businesses that previously could not access a fixed broadband service.”
Wyndham Mayor Kim McAliney said the announcement was good news for Point Cook residents.
“The first top hat in Point Cook is a great start in providing better broadband coverage to the area. We look forward to Telstra switching on more top hats in Wyndham over the next 18 months,” Cr McAliney said.
“Fast internet is one of the vital things that they’ve been missing here in Point Cook.”
Point Cook, along with Laverton, Werribee and Tarneit, is one of the first areas in Australia to receive the new technology.
