When Leah Wray and her family moved into a new suburb on the outskirts of Darwin in 2023, she was sold on the promise of it being a “smart community” with top-of-the-line underground technology.<\/p>\n
But two years later and Ms Wray says “ultimately it was the opposite of that”, with reports of regular internet outages and recently, the loss of free-to-air television.<\/p>\n
And she’s not alone, with tens of thousands of residents across Australia \u2014 typically living in greenfield suburbs \u2014 experiencing similar issues.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Leah Wray lives in Bellamack, where private company Opticomm owns the fibre-optic network. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)<\/p>\n
Decommissioning free-to-air TV technology<\/p>\n
In Ms Wray’s suburb of Bellamack and in more than 500,000 other properties across Australia, the fibre-optic network is owned by a private company called Opticomm, as opposed to the publicly owned network most Australians are familiar with \u2014 the National Broadband Network (NBN).<\/p>\n
Unlike the NBN, Opticomm not only provides the infrastructure for internet connectivity, but also the technology for each home to receive free-to-air (FTA) television over the fibre-optic network.<\/p>\n
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Leah Wray says the loss of free-to-air television is “unbelievable”. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)<\/p>\n
However, in September, Opticomm sent a letter to a subset of their customers \u2014 about 10 per cent according to Opticomm \u2014 telling them that free-to-air television would “no longer operate over our network”.<\/p>\n
The letter advised residents to either transition to streaming services using free-to-air apps or investigate whether they could install an antenna \u2014 both at their own cost.<\/p>\n
“We shouldn’t have been required to have any other additional costs to get our free-to-air on,” Ms Wray said.<\/p>\n
“We bought into this suburb knowing we would have access to free-to-air television and then suddenly its gone.”<\/p>\n
Leah Wray says not long after receiving Opticomm’s letter she came to find her television could no longer access free-to-air channels. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)<\/p>\n
While Ms Wray was eventually able to install an antenna on her home’s roof for about $600, the process is not that simple for everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Apartment residents ‘left in the lurch’<\/p>\n
Mike Thomas who lives with his wife in a multi-storey retirement village in Yeronga, Brisbane also received the letter from Opticomm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The situation that they have presented us with is very poor, and it’s just not good enough,” Mr Thomas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“There’s a lot of people who were really left in the lurch.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mike Thomas says Opticomm’s removal of free-to-air television has been a huge blow to residents, particularly at such short notice. (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)<\/p>\n
Village Retirement Group general manager Ryan Knowles explained that as a multi-storey apartment building with senior residents, the options provided by Opticomm were not ideal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Knowles said installing an antenna would require the re-cabling of the entire apartment building at a huge cost.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“From people we’ve spoken to, it would be running into the couple hundred thousand dollars to re-cable it,” Mr Knowles said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ryan Knowles says residents at two of his villages have lost access to free-to-air television over Opticomm’s fibre-optic network. (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)<\/p>\n
As for streaming apps, Mr Knowles noted that “not everyone in our villages has the digital acumen to handle digital tv”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To make matters worse, despite Opticomm’s letter stating the decommissioning of free-to-air would begin on October 1 with a full-shut down on February 1 2026, most residents in Yeronga and another village lost access on September 27\u2014 the day of the AFL grand final.<\/p>\n
“To lose that at the AFL grand final afternoon was very devastating and very upsetting for the majority of residents,” Mr Thomas said.<\/p>\n
Mike Thomas describes himself as an “avid” watcher of sport. (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)<\/p>\n