Published on the 13/12/2013 | Written by Newsdesk
Australia’s federal Government has reneged on a promise to deliver minimum internet speeds of 25Mbps via the National Broadband Network (NBN) following the release of a strategic review…
A key coalition promise in the lead-up to the September election was that whatever else it did to the NBN, citizens would have access to 25Mbps speeds by 2016. This week the Government announced that only 43 percent of the nation could expect such largesse in that timeframe.
The release of the NBN Co strategic review, revealed that the previous Government’s NBN programme, which hinged around delivery of fibre to the home, was well behind schedule and left unchecked would have cost the nation $72.6 billion. The report also claims that the network would not have been completed until 2024.
Finding the previous Government’s plans to be “extremely optimistic and very unlikely to be achieved” the review recommends that the NBN be scaled back considerably. The review’s proposal is for a broadband network where 26 percent is delivered through fibre to the home; 44 percent through fibre to the node; and the remainder via hybrid fibre-coaxial services.
This would provide 43 percent of the nation with 25Mbps speeds by 2016, and 91 percent with speeds of at least 50Mbps by 2019 (the review also forecasts that up to 75 percent of the nation could have access to speeds of 100Mbps in the same timeframe).
The cost of this approach still comes in at around $41 billion.
Communications minister Malcolm Turnbull released the review for public consumption – somewhat redacted for commercial reasons according to the Government – and also announced a panel of experts had been formed to conduct an independent cost-benefit analysis of the broadband network and the regulatory arrangements for the NBN. That panel – which basically holds the future of the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure and NBN Co jobs in its hands – is scheduled to report within six months.
While the Labor party attacked the methodology and findings of the strategic review, the Competitive Carriers’ Coalition welcomed it as an important step towards more clarity and certainty over the future of the network. The Communications Alliance meanwhile described the report’s contents as “sobering news” for the telecommunications industry. CEO John Stanton said that it was important the Government and expert panel understood the need to maintain the momentum of the NBN rollout.
