Despite the challenges faced by La Niña delivering multiple rain events seen only every 100 years, we have navigated our way through land-slides, heavy flooding and power blackouts.
While I’m pleased to say the performance of the KVBN has met the demands of the severe weather with no outages reported, the heavy rain has slowed down the construction of the remaining base stations under the Connecting Country Communities Fund.
As road closures and mud slides made accessing remote sites difficult, I purchased a trail bike to ensure maintenance and construction work progressed on the network. This has paid off with work on two critical locations now complete.
Red Rocks and Mt Scanzi now operational
I’m very pleased to announce that sites at Red Rocks and Mt Scanzi are now operational and I am connecting premises along:
- Mt Scanzi Road, Tallowa Dam Road and Radiata Road
- Jenanter Drive
- Bendeela Road and Jacks Corner Road (right to the end)
- Moss Vale Road at Barrengarry
- Kangaroo Valley Village.
The activation of these two sites means around 350 extra premises can connect, with coverage now reaching around 500 premises across the Valley.
A further 120 premises will soon receive coverage
I’ve started work on the three remaining sites left under the rollout of the Connecting Country Communities Fund.
Under the initial funding agreement with the NSW Government, I planned to rollout network coverage to 1,000 premises. However, this did not account for NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service site rental fees or enhancing site resilience to sustain bushfires and floods. As a result, more than 400 premises were removed from the network rollout.
However with the remaining funds allocated under this program, I am pleased to say I am able to build three additional sites at:
- Scanzi South (southern end of the summit of Mt Scanzi)
- Jarretts (top of Jarretts Lane)
- Binya Hill (above Clover Hilltop).
This will provide coverage to a further 120 premises.
Extending network coverage in the future
I have a vision to extend the KVBN network outside of what has been delivered under the Connecting Country Communities Fund, that would see coverage available to an additional 400 premises,enabling fixed wireless broadband access across all of the Valley.
While there are no remaining funds available under this program, I intend to actively pursue upcoming State and Commonwealth Government funding opportunities through relevant grants and tenders as they become available.
This includes submitting an ‘Unsolicited Proposal’ to the Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade for consideration of ‘KVBN2’.
How to connect to KVBN
Getting connected is straight-forward. I will visit your premises so I can check the best line of site to a base station.
I’ll talk to you about a location in your home for the router. I will then draw up instructions for my installers and liaise with you on an installation date. Most installations involve getting onto the roof, which means if it is raining the installation will be postponed.
If you live outside any of the areas mentioned above and would like to enquire about access, please contact me to discuss available options.
Call me on 0408 864 262 or email me at john@kvbn.net.au to see how I can help you.
John Sinclair
