Matt Miegel, from Rangari station between Boggabri and Manilla, is furious Telstra is shutting down the home plans and says the alternative – the Next G wireless broadband service – doesn’t measure up.

He said ISDN was slower than traditional broadband internet connections but it was reliable and, at $40 a month, cheap.

“ISDN is like dial-up, but a lot faster,” Mr Miegel said.

“I’ve been using it for seven years non-stop and it’s always gone well.”

He said the only ISDN service available after the end of the year would be business ISDN, which was more than four times the price of the residential version.

“What Telstra has told us is ‘We’re turning the ISDN off, we don’t care what you say, unless you pay $2000 a year for the same service’ which I can’t afford,” he said.

“I need the internet for my business, so after I pay my internet costs, that’s it – I’m pretty much broke.

“I can’t see why they can’t keep the service running.

“ISDN was such a great service for people in the bush who wanted a good, reliable internet they didn’t have to pay a fortune for.”

Mr Miegel has signed up for Next G and said it was a lot faster than ISDN but also a lot more expensive.

“Next G sounds great on paper, but... no-one can afford it,” he said.

“They’re saying it’s broadband for the bush, but it might be the most expensive broadband in the world.

“How can I run a

business in the bush and compete with the big boys if Telstra’s going to charge me $200 a month for internet?

“You can get the same service for about $60 a month in Sydney.”

Mr Miegel said the only feasible option left was to set up a computer in Gunnedah, about 30 minutes’ drive away, and hook it up to a cheaper ADSL broadband connection.

Telstra Countrywide Armidale area general manager Richard Bourne said the ISDN customer base had been dropping by an average of 800 every month for the past three years as people switched over to ADSL.