JOBS growth at Flinders Estate at South Nowra is being stalled by an internet black hole.
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Frank McKenna, who owns Sanokil, has a new building taking shape at Flinders Estate that will allow him to expand his business from 15 staff to about 25.
However, he cannot relocate from his Bomaderry premises until he has access to an ADSL2 internet service.
“Three years ago when I bought the land, I was banking on the NBN being here by now,” he said.
“I’ve been told Telstra never spent any money upgrading the communications cabinets out here. It looks like they presumed the NBN would be here by now too.
“My building is starting to take shape but I can’t move with ADSL1.”
Nowra builder Burnie Gleeson is constructing Mr McKenna’s building and across the road is in the process of building four industrial units.
He said people in a first world country living only two hours from Sydney should be able to take some things for granted, including fast internet.
“The land at Flinders Estate is well priced and becoming more convenient to Sydney,” he said.
“Every time they spend half a billion on the highway we get the magnetic shift from Sydney.
“I’ve got an office at Nowra Hill and we have wireless internet through three modems.
“We pay $120 per month for each of them and we are always having trouble with the internet.”
Shoalhaven City Council economic development manager Greg Pullen said Flinders Estate was earmarked to be in the first branch of the local NBN rollout.
He said there were about 2500 employees at Flinders Estate and said the area could have reached saturation point with the telecommunications infrastructure that was in place.
However the industrial area has been slated for more growth, so the pressure on infrastructure will increase.
“Under the new Shoalhaven LEP a further 80 hectares will be opened up in the estate for industrial and other business use,” he said.
“People having problems with their internet should contact their service provider, who will contact Telstra who own the cables.”
He said if required council would support companies unable to find a solution.
A Telstra spokesperson said the company was looking into the issue.