I took a drive today to a location called Sovereign Islands, located in South East Queensland on the Gold Coast. This place is well known around these parts for it’s extremely expensive and grand housing, as well as being the top spot for celebrities, million dollar business owners and sports stars to live. With 24 hour security and roving security cars at all times, this is probably one of the most elite areas to live in around this area. Imagine my horror then when I heard that Sovereign Islands has no broadband and is actually worse off than the rest of SE Queensland for good internet access.
One of the most common complaints about living outside of a metropolitan area in SE Queensland is that there is a general lack of decent internet speeds around. At present I’m uploading this via an ADSL line, not even ADSL2+ or cable broadband connection because my local exchange doesn’t support them at present. I live in an affluent area where many people run businesses from home and yet their line is like something from the 1990’s. It seems that the people of Sovereign Islands are in a similar predicament, which just shows that money can’t buy you love, or broadband it seems.
On moving here from the UK, I was horrified by how slow and how expensive internet connections are. In the UK, I lived just outside a major city and was able to get cable broadband for a mere $70 a month. This was unlimited uploads and downloads and a mighty impressive 10mbps. Now, that same connection has lowered in price and tripled in speed. Here, I’m stuck with ADSL 8mbps (although it probably runs at around 3 mbps) and maximum downloads of 50GB per month on peak and 50GB per month off peak – it’s an absolute joke. What I really want to know is when are we going to be brought up to date with broadband connections and why the hell is it taking so long?