Thousands of Australians are losing access to free-to-air television and facing ongoing internet outages, thanks to changes by Opticomm. What was once a promise of modern, reliable services is now a headache for many, with customers scrambling to adapt to a new reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Leah Wray and her family moved into Bellamack, a growing suburb on the outskirts of Darwin in 2023, they were excited. The community was marketed as cutting-edge, with underground technology promising seamless internet and entertainment options. But two years later, Leah says it\u2019s been nothing short of disappointing. Along with her neighbors, she\u2019s faced regular internet outages\u2014and recently, they lost free-to-air television access entirely. Unfortunately, she\u2019s not the only one, reports ABC News<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Opticomm, a private company that runs the fibre-optic infrastructure in Bellamack and more than 500,000 properties across Australia, decided to pull the plug on free-to-air TV for a subset of customers. The company, which is different from the public National Broadband Network (NBN), was offering TV signals through its fibre-optic network. But in September, Opticomm sent letters to customers telling them that free-to-air TV would no longer be available over their network. To get TV back, customers were told to switch to streaming services or install an antenna at their own expense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n