Nearly 300 visitors kept staff at the Telstra van in Parker Street busy last week answering queries about the costs, benefits and practicalities of transitioning from copper wires to the national broadband network available through Cootamundra's new optical fibre network.
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Telstra staff member Mark Quinn, who normally works at the Telstra office at Young, said he and his colleague Chloe West had been surprised at the strong response from Cootamundra residents, who were alerted to the van's visit by newspaper advertisements and a letterbox drop. When the Herald called by last Friday, there were two people waiting outside - Anne Miller and Tony Bains.
Ms Miller had just a general inquiry because "being of the older generation" she wasn't sure what the NBN was all about and needed some help to understand it.
Mr Bains had a specific interest, hoping the NBN would make it easier to work from home.
Working for a defence company in Canberra, he commutes most days, leaving at 4.30am and not getting back home until 6.
"Occasionally I can work from home, but with the current ADSL connection I have to turn everything else off except my PC when I'm working remotely, because anything else that tries to come on line kills my connection and I can lose what I'm working on," he said.
"I'm hoping NBN will make things different."
Mr Quinn said NBN offered the potential for much higher speeds than the old ADSL connections, depending on what plan people move to. The van is not scheduled to return.
