14 October 2015
Mr Clare’s announcement today that a future Labor Government would return to an all-fibre nbn will leave some Australians waiting more than 10 years for broadband upgrades and paying vastly more.
Typical of the modern day Labor Party, Jason Clare has refused to release any detail.
The nbn rollout under Labor was a slow moving train wreck. Under the Coalition, the nbn will be fully complete by 2020.
The published nbn 2016 Corporate Plan forecasts that an all-fibre fixed line build would require peak funding of between $74 billion and $84 billion. All the extra civil works required for fibre into the home not only costs tens of billions of dollars more but it takes vastly more time to finish. Some Australians would have to wait until 2026 to get a connection.
The nbn is one of many companies in the world rolling out a multi-technology mix. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom has recently announced an expansion of its fibre-to-the-node network, to cover 80 per cent of its fixed line footprint by 2018, while there have also been mass deployments by BT Openreach in the U.K., AT&T in the U.S. and many others.
The Labor Party is also ignoring the incredibly valuable HFC networks that currently pass 4 million homes. Once again this is financial recklessness at its worst.
Bill Shorten and Jason Clare need to explain how they will pay for it and how long they will keep Australians waiting for superfast broadband.
Media contact: Evan Mulholland | 0405 140 780 | Evan.Mulholland@communications.gov.au