A Wombarra home owner is caught in a “twillight zone” – not being able to connect to the NBN but also not having access to a copper landline for three months.
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But after the Mercury contacted NBN Co about the issue, a spokeswoman said a technician had been dispatched to his house.
John O’Connor bought his house in Morrison Avenue, Wombarra, in June and contacted Optus about connecting to the internet.
He was told he could not get ADSL but he was in an NBN-ready area.
“The technician said there was an issue and they couldn’t give me an ETA and they had to get someone else to look at it,” Mr O’Connor said.
“That was mid-June and since then I’ve been to-ing and fro-ing between NBN, Optus and myself to try and establish whether NBN are actually going to do something about the issue.”
Mr O’Connor worked in Sydney but occasionally needed to work from home, which was hard given he could only access the internet via his mobile phone.
While there is a copper network right outside the house, Mr O’Connor cannot be connected to it.
Once a landline connection in an NBN-ready area is disconnected – as was done when the home’s previous owner sold it – it cannot be reconnected.
This is even though copper network at Wombarra won’t be switched off for at least a year.
“I can’t actually get the internet from anywhere because I can’t get into the copper network, so technically the NBN has cut me off from the internet since June," he said.
“I’m in a twilight zone and no one seems to want to do anything about it.”
The NBN spokeswoman said the company was sorry “for the difficulties that Mr O’Connor has faced regarding a connection”.
She said action had been taken to address the issue.
“It appears that there could be an issue with the connection from the network to the house, but in order for this to be confirmed, we need to test the socket which is located inside the home,” the spokeswoman said.
“A technician has been booked to visit the property … but as it is a holiday home, it is possible that no one will be there.
“If this is the case the technician will leave his card so the home owner can get in touch and arrange a suitable time for a visit.”