libs on nbn

I posed this question to the office of Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull:

I am a concerned TLS shareholder. If the Liberal Party wins the next election, will it decommission the NBN Rollout. If not, will it modify the roll out?

Tony's answer:

Thank you for your email to the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon Tony Abbott MHR regarding the National Broadband Network (NBN). Mr Abbott has asked me to respond on his behalf.

The Coalition is committed to delivering fast, reliable and affordable broadband to Australians. However, the Coalition does not believe spending $50 billion is the best way to achieve this objective.

The NBN typifies the Government’s failure to deliver. In 2007, the Rudd Government promised to deliver a Fibre to the Node (FTTN) network to 98 per cent of Australians for $4.7 billion by 2012. It is now 2012, the network will cost more than $50 billion and according to Labor, fibre will only go to 93 per cent of the population. The network lost more than $320 million last financial year and isn’t scheduled for completion until June 2021.

The Coalition believes there is a better way to deliver broadband that will be fast, affordable and, importantly, provide taxpayers with value for money. Our plan uses a mix of technologies that are scalable over time. We will not strand infrastructure that is already being used to provide broadband services which the Government plans to rip out. Nor would we seek to destroy competition, which has been responsible for bringing down the cost of broadband and telephone services over recent decades.

Malcolms answer:

Thank you for your email. the NBN will not be decommissioned if the Liberal Party wins government, one of the great untruths being peddled by the current government. We would simply look to find cheaper alternatives than connecting every property to fibre, and prioritise areas who do not already have access to fast broadband.