This Saturday 21 November 2015 decided to use my Platinum service with Telstra and call them in order to get them to try to fix the NBN Fixed Wireless Broadband causing interference to my AM radio.
As the retailer of the service, and my being the customer, Telstra has a contract with me to provide a service. At present I am paying for an inferior broadband service because when the Fixed Wireless Broadband is turned on there is the side effect of severe interference on the AM Radio station South West Regional Radio which is transmitted to me on 1044 from Bridgetown. The power of that transmitter is small only 1Kw whereas the signal from Wagin on 558 comes from much further away and is fine when the NBN FWB is connected. It has a transmitter with 50 Kw so produces a good signal to noise ratio even at some distance.
The drawback with receiving ABC Regional Radio from Wagin is that the content is coming from the Great Southern not the South West and although regional it is not localized. Emergency Warnings may not be broadcast from Wagin if they relate to the South West.
I am hopeful that Telstra will support this customer (me) vigorously to achieve a solution because I am not the only resident in the South West affected. A person from Donnybrook (a town 30 km north of us) called into the ABC to say that he has to turn off his FWB each night so he can listen to local regional ABC radio. The interference on his AM radio with NBN on is very strong.
With the Esperance bushfires still not over it is a timely reminder that we need to make the best use of all the communication channels when it comes to timely information in an emergency. One piece of technology - Fixed Wireless Broadband - should not render ABC Local Radio useless. It is the Emergency Channel on the AM band.
A report on the problem appeared in the Weekend Australian, 14-15 November, 2015 on page 11, The Nation. The article highlighted the problem I am experiencing at my property in Balingup in SW WA.