2020-02-11 Planning & Environment Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                     11 FEBRUARY 2020


  Policy                                                Assessment

  Carriers are obliged to consider co-locating on       As discussed above, the applicant has dismissed
  existing towers or public utility structures in the   the option of co-location with the nearby existing
  area. However it is acknowledged that co-location     Telstra tower and has determined this is be not
  will not always result in the best visual outcome.    desirable.

Access to NBN
The proposed tower is part of the rollout of the NBN service in the region to service remaining
areas in Cooran, parts of Pinbarren, Pomona and Traveston which currently do not have access
to the national broadband network. The service uses low level radio frequency electromagnetic
energy to communicate between towers, base stations and small rooftop installations on
residences which form the NBN network.
If there is no line of sight facility to connect to, it is assumed that satellite connection would be
possible. Residents on Tablelands Road have advised that they have access to a reliable NBN
service (NBN Satellite), thus receive no benefit from the tower while being impacted by the visual
effects.
Mapping of the Broadband ADSL Quality sourced from the Australian Government National Map
databases have been provided by the applicant to demonstrate the need for new NBN services in
the Cooran area. The map provided indicates that large areas of rural Cooran, Pinbarren and
Traveston currently experience, on average, ADSL Broadband Quality ‘E’ service which is the
lowest level quality on the service scale and equates to a median speed of 0Mbps. Refer to Figure
7 below showing the current ADSL broadband quality in the area.




             Subject
             site




    Cooran
    township



       Figure 7 – Current Telstra average ADSL broadband speeds provided by applicant August 2019

At the currently proposed 25 metre height the applicant has indicated that approximately 247
premises will have a direct line of sight to the tower which will enable them to access the fixed
wireless NBN. The applicant advises that coverage from the tower will extend approximately 380m
to the north-west along Tablelands Road, 1.3km to the east, 3.4km south-east to Bell Bird Flat
Road, 4.1km south to Wirruna Drive and 3.7km south-west to Greenridge Pinbarren Road. The
applicant advises that the coverage will fill a large portion of the gap in the NBN coverage in the

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