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"Absolutely ridiculous": Digital divide in Macgregor means one side of the street has NBN, the other doesn't

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The digital divide isn't just a north versus south conflict in the capital, it's even splitting neighbourhoods in two.

The rollout of the National Broadband Network in relatively new areas of Macgregor has seen one side of the street miss out while their neighbours on the other have full access to faster internet speeds.

Jo Davies and Kamar Deep live opposite each other in the suburb. Mr Deep's home is slightly newer than Ms Davies', and that timing made all the difference. While Mr Deep can access the NBN, across the road, less than 100 metres away, Ms Davies cannot.

Both are IT professionals, they know the benefits and downfalls of the service.

A spokeswoman for NBN Co said economic and physical resource constraints meant not everybody could be connected at the same time.

"Ultimately though, no one will miss out and the overall aim is to get to all Australian premises as quickly and as cost effectively as possible," the spokeswoman said.

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While Mr Deep has access to the NBN, he chooses not to connect to it because of the expense.

For Ms Davies, who works from home, the NBN would be of great benefit. She said her network slows every night at about 5pm, when the lines get busier as people return home.

"I find it quite annoying," Ms Davies said.

"The NBN would make my life a lot easier. We don't get terribly good speeds [of internet] out here, we're a long way from the closest exchange," she said.

"It can be very frustrating. I do thinks like diagrams and it can be very laggy."

The strange thing is, she believes the NBN cable runs along her side of the road, not Mr Deep's to whose home it is connected.

"It's absolutely ridiculous, to be honest," she said.

"I would have preferred the NBN was available when they put it in across the street. I don't understand why they couldn't just hook it up.

"I was very disappointed considering how new this suburb is."

Ms Davies said she'd called the NBN Co to find out when the network would be rolled out to her side of the street, but they couldn't give her a definitive answer.

"It would be nice to get more information about it, to know it is coming. How hard is it? Why wasn't it done in the first place? I wish they'd hurry up."

The NBN Co spokeswoman said construction to connect about 2400 homes and businesses in parts of Macgregor and Latham would begin around August.

As for Mr Deep, his disappointment stemmed from the cost of the service. He didn't think people understood the prohibitive expense of faster internet speeds.

"If you need 10, 20 or 80 megabytes per second, they charge you," he said.

"If you need good speed, it will cost money."

Mr Deep said one good aspect of having the NBN was his property was likely to sell for a better price than those across the road.

"It is a fact that if you're NBN connected, those properties get sold quicker in Macgregor," he said.

Federal Member for Fenner Andrew Leigh said it was disappointing some Canberrans were waiting so long to be connected.

"It makes no sense to residents in Macgregor that one house can have an NBN connection while a house next door or over the back fence is not even on the rollout map," Dr Leigh said.

"Without an NBN connection, residents are missing out on the vast range of 21st century opportunities – particularly for small businesses – that their neighbours have, to say nothing of the effect a lack of an NBN connection may have on the price of their property. It's not fair and Canberrans deserve better."

Dr Leigh said the network was failing expectations.

"Far too many Australians are enduring unacceptable connection delays and faults, slow data speeds, unusable services and drop-outs.

"No wonder Australians are fed up… They are simply not getting what they paid for."

The NBN Co spokeswoman said it was important to shop around for the right package when the time came to switch to the "fast and reliable broadband on the NBN".

"For the first time in Australia's history people will get the choice of speed," she said.