Carrying the load of rural Australia is made easier with help from the nbn™ access network, as nbn™ local representative, Lynette Keep, recently discovered during the Australian National Field Day in Orange.

Transport and communications have common ground; they bring people together around the nation. And when the two work together, they can change people’s lives, both economically and socially.

Anne Bray, along with her husband Mark, operates M&A Bray Transport, a haulage business based in Eugowra, 341 kilometres west of Sydney. It’s that distance that drives their transport company with daily runs to the state’s capital carrying everything and anything that comes under the banner of general freight.

Since connecting to the nbn™ Sky Muster™ satellite service, business has grown with at least five sub-contractors needed to meet demand.

Anne says it’s changed the way they do business.

“We basically had to go to satellite because we were seven kilometres out of town and we had no choice,” Anne says.

“We wondered what was going to happen with [our service over] nbn – we’d heard all these negatives – but no negatives here. All positives, truly.” *

Anne gives her service a big thumbs up. “We can actually have internet service with our sub-contractors.”

One of those sub-contractors is Claire Duff. Claire and her family live 22 kilometres away in Gooloogong.

Like most other towns in the Cowra Shire, Gooloogong residents are serviced by nbn’s Fixed Wireless technology.

Before connecting to nbn via the Fixed Wireless technology, Claire said business was restricted to land lines, fax or person-to-person. Even her mobile phone service was unreliable.

“You’d have to go onto the veranda, and that was it. There was no service; there is no service in our town so having nbn helps you,” Claire said.

“We’ve got a small business and being able to do everything – you can connect to your mobile, have it there and talk to your customers – it’s great.

“I can get service anywhere in my house. I’ve got my wireless and I can go to my bedroom, I can lie down, I can use the lounge room, I can go outside...” *

Claire says having a service over the nbn™ access network and not having to use dial up has made doing business more reliable. “It’s quick and easy, and if somebody needs something, it’s very efficient.” *

Claire and Anne were among the hundred or so visitors who stopped by NBN Co’s stand at the recent Australian National Field Day in Orange.

The Australian National Field Day

Attracting more than 20,000 visitors over three days, NBN Co was one of 500 exhibitors at this year’s event.

Despite the site dominated by livestock, equipment, agricultural products and services, it’s not purely an agricultural show. Events like this are changing, and what becomes clear as you walk around the grounds, is that technology and communication play a major role in the lives of people living and working on the land.

The field day was held at Borenore, 15 kilometres west of Orange and, out here, innovation and ideas are as abundant as the sheep and crops.

At our stand, the discussion was dominated by the use and opportunities afforded by satellite and fixed wireless technologies.

nbn’s Executive General Manager Network Enablement, NE Business Operations, Wade Campbell demonstrated just how useful the nbn™ Sky Muster™ satellite service is as he dialled into a myVMR (virtual meeting room) session. Wade split his time between his regular work commitments, and assisting nbn delivery partners who were kept busy with a steady stream of visitors asking questions about services and connectivity.

Demonstrating the nbn™ Sky Muster™ satellite service at the Australian National Field Day.

In one of the main pavilions on site, respected veterinarian Dr John Kohnke addressed groups of horse enthusiasts about healthcare practices. While he was singing the praises of ‘Kohnke’s Own’, his equine nutritional supplement and horse care products business, his wife Kaye was singing the praises of their services over the nbn™ access network.

“We’ve had nbn for about a year now and we’ve had an excellent experience with it. It’s fast, the internet is fast, we’ve never had any trouble with it,” Kaye said.*

“We have two websites. We have a website in Australia and we also have a website overseas in the UK through a service in Australia, and it works brilliantly. We have expanded the business in the past year with [our service over] nbn, so we are very happy with it. nbn has changed the way we do business.” *

* nbn is very happy with Claire, Anne and Kaye’s experience with the nbn™ broadband access network. Of course, end user experiences may vary. Your experience including the speeds actually achieved over the nbn™ access network depends on the technology over which services are delivered to your premises and some factors outside our control like your equipment quality, software, broadband plans, signal reception and how your service provider designs its network. Satellite end users may experience latency.

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