THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 30 #26 Wednesday, December 9, 2015
www.echo.net.au Phone 02 6684 1777 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week CAB AUDIT
Find gift inspiration on pages 17–19
L I F E S T Y L E R E N O VAT I O N D R O P S H E E T
Online in
Community gets Mungo Mayor Simon Richardson n behind family after MacCallum reports from the Paris house fire – p7 – p10 summit – p13
netdaily
S Sorrensen – Are you being served? www.echo.net.au/here-now-134are-you-being-served
Breaking bread in Byron Local ISP to close Govt-owned NBN Co forces Linknet out Hans Lovejoy
Celeste Harris along with the Byron Community Centre crew will host a free community feast, called Breaking Bread, to be held Saturday December 19 at Byron’s Railway Park, from 11am to 1.30pm. Photo Jeff ‘Broke With Bread Since 1986’ Dawson
The Byron Community Centre will be hosting a free community feast called Breaking Bread, to be held Saturday December 19 at Byron’s Railway Park, from 11am to 1.30pm. Community Centre general manager Paul Spooner says, ‘This is a feast picnic for the whole community, providing free food to all who attend. The feast will be a celebration of the generosity and unity of our Byron Bay community. ‘At a time when the world has been rocked by terrorism and many are focused on the numerous challenges we face in our daily lives, the Byron Community Centre is facilitating people coming together in a peaceful, community cultural celebration.’ He says Breaking Bread is a way for all members of our community – rich, poor, young, old, resident or
traveller – to share a meal together in the heart of Byron Bay. ‘The feast will be entirely based upon donations of food, entertainment and the hard work of many wonderful volunteers.
Entirely based upon donations ‘There is no cost for the food or entertainment provided. Everything for the feast is being provided by community donations. ‘Organisers only ask that people BYO knife, fork, plate and blanket to sit on.’ Support is needed from the community to make this event a true success, says Cr Spooner. Support may include donations of food and non-alcoholic bever-
ages, financial support, entertainers and/or cultural activities, food collectors with own cars, food preparation and serving volunteers, park beautification, table decoration, setup volunteers and food carriers for the community procession who will bring food from the Fletcher Street kitchen to the park in a big colourful parade.
Get involved Individuals and organisations are invited to get involved – email volunteers@byroncentre.com.au or call Cr Spooner on 0434 771 510 for more. Any proceeds collected from the day will go towards the Byron Safety Net Appeal to ensure the continuation of our vital local food services, including Liberation Larder and the Byron Homeless Breakfast.
Internet service provider (ISP) Linknet will close shop on January 31, 2016, owing to what its director says is NBN Co offering a better product from last June. The company claims that around 400 customers may be affected. The National Broadband Network (NBN Co) is a governmentowned corporation (Govcorp) tasked with rolling out fast broadband across Australia. Director Richard Hughes told The Echo that as a result, ‘Our small but loyal staff will be without jobs and approximately $500,000 per annum that Linknet generated will not be cycled through our community any more.’ ‘Essentially NBN Co has overbuilt Linknet’s wireless footprint, and by doing so has made available to our customers cheaper and faster offerings by other competitors.’ As for Linknet becoming an NBN provider, he says that it wasn’t an option. ‘Linknet would have to compete against the monster telcos on price and bundle selling. The financial outcome of that business model is not one I would choose to invest in.’ ‘And that still does not provide an answer for the problem that, as customers leave Linknet’s network, it becomes uneconomic to operate. ‘And how do we survive during the transition period, when NBN Co services are not available to all customers in our region?’ Mr Hughes says Linknet founders Peter and Helen Bundy first
Tickets on sale from 5pm on the night. 5DIÁ H GUDZ starts at 6.30pm
30 meat trays 10 turkeys 10 hams
BYRON BAY SERVICES CLUB
Built own network ‘In a way, the government and Linknet partnered to help provide coverage to the NSW northern rivers region.’ This arrangement, according to Mr Hughes, meant that Linknet had to build its own network infrastructure to provide the internet services to its customers. ‘Linknet built its own train track and put its own train on the track to its customers’ premises,’ he says. ‘The larger telcos did not think it was economically viable to compete in our region, so we had our own little monopoly. ‘Then along comes NBN, which builds its infrastructure directly over the top of our network so that our customers can be offered services by the big guys without the big guys having to pay to build the infrastructure themselves. Linknet is left competing against the $43,000 million infrastructure cost, as well as against the marketing budget of the likes of Telstra, Optus, iiNet and TPG to retain our customers. ‘This is called an “open access continued on page 2
SATURDAY 19TH DEC 2015
CASH
$500EACH
Permit number LTPM/1500012
FRIDAY 11TH DEC 2015
provided dial-up services 13 years ago from its Mullumbimby offices and from there the company built a fixed wireless network in the area, ‘because the larger telcos did not consider it economic to do so.’ ‘The federal government provided a number of funding programs to help with the cost of providing the infrastructure, so as to make sure the region had some reasonable levels of internet coverage.
3 big draws starting at 7pm
STH END OF JONSON ST, BYRON BAY 6685 6878 WWW.BYRONBAYSERVICESCLUB.COM.AU INFO@BYRONBAYSERVICESCLUB.COM.AU
Courtesy bus available Ph 6685 5008 to book
Tickets on sale 5–6.30pm only Draw starts at 6.30pm RVICES CLUB B Y R O N B AY S E