libs will scrap the nbn if they take governmen

In the Australian yesterday. Obviously not newsworthy on the Television and radio stations as I heard nothing.

...Coalition would not roll out national broadband network Mitchell Bingemann From: The Australian March 30, 2010 12:00AM Increase Text SizeDecrease Text SizePrintEmail Share
Add to DiggAdd to del.icio.usAdd to FacebookAdd to KwoffAdd to MyspaceAdd to NewsvineWhat are these?THE federal Coalition, if elected, would honour national broadband network contracts already in place but would stop short of rolling out the Labor government's ambitious $43 billion fibre plan.
Opposition communications spokesman Tony Smith said a Coalition government would adopt a non-interventionist approach to competitive broadband markets such as capital cities.

It would favour mobility over speed, and aim for a swift construction timetable.

The plan will mainly benefit rural and regional Australians, whom the opposition believes have been left out as the Rudd government continues with its election promise to build an NBN.

The government's NBN, which promises to deliver internet access speeds of up to 100Mbps to 90 per cent of the nation, is on an eight-year construction timetable, but since it was first unveiled in 2007, not a single service has been switched on.

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The government says construction of the ambitious project, which involves connecting about 10 million homes with new fibre cables, takes time, money and patience.

But the opposition thinks there is a faster, cheaper way.

"No one disagrees on the need for faster, more affordable and reliable broadband -- that's not an issue," said Mr Smith, Liberal MP for the Melbourne seat of Casey.

"The issue is how you get there, particularly in outer suburban electorates such as mine."

He said the Coalition would look to implement a "different, targeted approach" to deliver affordable, reliable services where needed.

Prior to the NBN's conception, the Howard government had planned to build the $1.9bn rural and regional broadband Opel network using wireless and wired technology.

But it was pushed aside six months after Labor took power in 2007.

Its demise freed Labor to focus on its initial plans for a $4.7bn NBN, later amended to the $43bn fibre-to-the-home project.


But two years after the decision to can Opel, Mr Smith says the project's goals are still relevant.
The solution is to focus a lot of government attention on areas of market failure where its not commercial and to step in and try to lift that service. Thats what the Opel contract was about and in many respects.

Im not saying that we would exactly revive OPEL but certainly the principles and priority that underpinned it. I dont resile from what was behind the OPEL contract but in terms of how we would in a policy sense deliver on those principles we will say so a bit more down the track.

It is likely that mobile broadband will also play a much larger role in the Liberal partys plans.

The other critical thing to consider is the take-up of wireless broadband. People argue it will never be as fast as fibre but I think while thats true, its getting better all the time. The trade off in speed for a lot of people is in mobility. Small business in areas where I represent many of them would happily trade off capacity and a little bit of extra speed for mobility, Mr Smith said.