RSS Feed
April 8th, 2013 
COMMUNICATION Minister Stephen Conroy says it’s time for the coalition to reveal details and costings of its alternative high-speed national broadband network (NBN) plan.
The federal government owned-NBN Co Ltd is pushing ahead with its plan to roll out a NBN by mid-2021 at a cost of $37.4 billion.
But a coalition analysis suggests the final cost of the NBN could push up to $90 billion and would take an extra four years to complete.
Senator Conroy on Monday rejected the figures and challenged communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull to come clean on the coalition’s plans.
“They rely on misleading statistics and misleading data to try and make these scare campaigns,” the minister told ABC radio.
Mr Turnbull could release the long-awaited coalition’s plan as early as Tuesday.
So far, the opposition favours rolling out fibre optic cable to the node, or street corner, rather than all the way to the home as NBN Co is doing, and making greater use of wireless technology.
Independent MP Rob Oakeshott, chair of a joint federal committee overseeing the NBN project, said the coalition’s policy must ensure reliable and affordable services for people living in regional areas.
Meanwhile, a lobby group representing 60,000 Australian businesses, including telecommunications companies, said Labor should have conducted a cost-benefit analysis on the project from the beginning.
“It’s a project that the business community broadly supports, as long as it’s done properly and with the proper costings in place,” Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said.
NBN Co is rolling out fibre optic cable capable of delivering speeds of up to 100 megabits per second to 93 per cent of homes and businesses across Australia by 2021.
The remaining seven per cent will be serviced by fixed wireless and satellite technologies.
Source Article from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newscomaunationalbreakingnewsndm/~3/oxt8HbI0VUI/story01.htm
Views: 0
Posted in 
