Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to celebrate the news that telecommunications provider, iiNet, is upgrading its cable broadband service across the Geelong region. Geelong is one of few centres in Victoria to have cable broadband, formerly known as neighbourhood cable. This technology, hybrid fibre-coaxial or HFC, was first deployed in Australia by cable television providers but is now widely used to deliver broadband services. iiNet's HFC technology can deliver speeds from 12 megabits per second up to superfast speeds of 100 megabits per second. iiNet has announced this week it is doubling its capacity to around 50,000 premises in Geelong, including large parts of suburbs in the Corangamite electorate—Grovedale, Belmont, Highton and Waurn Ponds.

After the southern suburbs of Geelong were left off the NBN roll out by Labor, our government's NBN which embraces a multitechnology mix encourages companies like iiNet to keep on investing in its network. I have taken up the case of many Corangamite residents who have struggled with poor broadband or no access to ADSL. For local residents looking for a better service, I would urge them to investigate the iiNet option. It may not be part of the NBN network at this point in time, but iiNet's cable broadband is delivering an NBN-like service right now in our great city.