News, Telecommunications - Monday, April 2, 2012 10:57 - 52 Comments

NBN: Australia can’t trust Labor, says Turnbull

news Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has issued a scorching statement on Labor’s track record in building the National Broadband Network, declaring that the three-year NBN rollout plan delivered last week was “a duplicitous and ham-fisted attempt” to conceal its failure to deliver.

On Thursday last week, Chief Executive Officer of NBN Co, Mike Quigley, in the presence of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese, launched the first major stage of NBN Co’s roll-out plans at a press conference in Sydney. The plan disclosed in detail the deployment of fibre and wireless broadband infrastructure to 3.5 million premises in 1500 communities in every state and territory in Australia, by 2015.

In reaction, Turnbull issued a statement claiming that for the past five years Labor’s message on broadband had been ‘trust us’. Yet, in that time, hardly 5000 Australian households had actually received better broadband, he said.

Pointing out that the NBN Co was up to a year behind its targets according to its own 2010 plans, Turnbull’s contention was that the plan did not contain a forecast either of how many households and businesses would actually be able to connect to the NBN fibre by 2015 or, would actually be connected.

Turnbull set forth statistics on NBN Co’s performance thus far, saying that between June 30th, 2011, and March 31st, 2012, the company’s fibre roll-out had reached only 657 additional premises, which worked out to just over 3 per working day. To reach the June 30th, 2012 roll-out targets in its current Corporate Plan, NBN Co would have to connect a further 137,000 premises in the next three months, that is, about 2090 per working day. Likewise, on March 31st, there would be 18,900 premises which would actually connect to the NBN fibre, but work would be expected to commence on a further 249,600 premises by the same date. Applying the same passed-to-commence ratio, only 250,000 premises would actually be connected to the network by 2015.

On the NBN’s progress, therefore, Turnbull said that the three-year roll-out plan announced by NBN Co and the Government was a “duplicitous and ham-fisted attempt” to conceal its failure of achieving its targeted connectivity.

However, not everyone was so negative about the NBN, in reactions which came last week to the three year rollout plan announcement. In a statement, Greens Communications Spokesperson Scott Ludlam asked the Coalition ‘to abandon their dogmatic vow on how to “demolish” the NBN.’

“The Coalition clings to their half-baked scheme to basically halt the Network during construction and try to fill in the gaps with tin cans and string, but there comes a time when even the most fervent ideologue must face the facts,” he said. “Mr Abbott needs to recognise that the NBN is here to stay and the Australian people want it that way.”

“The officials and the workers who built this country’s copper network a century ago did a grand service to their nation, but that copper network can’t deliver the fast broadband the modern economy demands. Without this investment in our infrastructure, Australia will struggle to match world’s best standard for telecommunications.”

Ludlam pointed out that some federal Liberal MPs had clamoured to get the NBN in their electorates first, and Liberal state governments were beginning to push for priority. “We have a situation where MPs state and federal are paying attention to the local reality and want the NBN as soon as possible, while the Coalition’s top brass clings to their ideological hatred of public enterprise.”

National broadband provider iiNet also expressed support for the NBN’s three-year roll-out plan. Michael Malone, CEO, iiNet said: “We’ve always been strong supporters of the NBN because it brings faster, more reliable Internet to all Australians, no matter where they live.” About the large number of households that would get access to iiNet’s service, he remarked that the roll-out would provide an opportunity for iiNet to focus its attention on customers in areas previously disadvantaged by poor Internet coverage and lack of competition.

Image credit: Office of Malcolm Turnbull