Coalition pledges to upgrade old networks

By Ry Crozier on Apr 21, 2010 9:52 AM
Filed under Telco/ISP

Intermediate step but "not the end game".

The Coalition's 'NBN' plan would see it take "intermediate" action to upgrade existing networks while redirecting taxpayer money to fund network construction in areas of market failure, shadow communications minister Tony Smith said today.

Smith told delegates of the CommsDay Summit in Sydney that it would not release its full broadband policy until closer to the Federal election.

But he provided a glimpse into the Coalition's thinking on next-generation broadband in the wake of last month's announcement that it would pull the pin on the national broadband network (NBN) should it win the next election.

Smith said the Coalition did not expect to find a "large volume of irrecoverable" work performed by NBN Co or its contractors and confirmed the Coalition would not "be taking the approach of tearing up contracts".

He believed the "current network of networks can be enhanced" to deliver faster internet services to users faster than Labor's NBN.

Smith claimed "many parts of Australia have infrastructure which could be upgraded to 100 Mbps", referring to households who had access to hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) cable networks from either Telstra or Optus.

He also believed that, aside from HFC, "there are other parts of [existing] networks that could be upgraded."

"Sure, it's not going to be as fast as 100 Mbps but it's fast and affordable enough for today and sooner than Labor's trust-me-it-will-be-worth-the-wait NBN," Smith said.

"I don't say this is the end game but say it's possible to take intermediate actions in the short term to deliver faster broadband services to Australia. Labor has a closed mind to intermediate actions generally."

Smith did not reveal further details of the "end game", saying it was "plainly more sensible to release our comprehensive policy closer to the election."

He has previously suggested the "end game" could involve some elements of the OPEL project, which was scrapped by Labor in favour of the NBN.

Smith also said the Coalition did not support NBN Co buying parts of Telstra, although he acknowledged shareholders would have to consider any offer.

"Nationalising part of Telstra is obviously not something we would support given we were the privatisers," he said. "It would be a backwards step."

He also believed that the release of the $25 million NBN implementation study would "not alter" the Coalition's view that an alternate plan to today's NBN was needed to deliver broadband services to Australian households.

Coalition pledges to upgrade old networks

6 comments in this discussion

"My beef is, just how close to the election do we need to get before Smith and the Opposition will reveal any semblance of a policy? The industry needs to know where it stands."

By BrettWinterford

Tags

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Comments: 6

ITrant Apr 21, 2010 12:34 PM	How socialist and egalitarian of the Coalition. Next thing they'll be declaring broadband an essential service and advocating public provisioning for the good of all… maybe.
hsvandrew Apr 21, 2010 12:43 PM	What a pathetic policy from the Coalition. At least Labour have the policy right, even if their track record on delivery is a bit suss. It is about time Australia realised how important high speed country wide cabled broadband was and got on with making it happen as this is the technology for the next 20-30 years not another sticky tape solution that Telstra has been rolling out for years.
umbria Apr 21, 2010 4:23 PM	NBNCo's Quigley showed yesterday how silly it would be yet again fail to lay fibre to premises. Delivering mobile broadband at only 5 Mbps to only 60% of the population would require 80,000 towers compared to the current 16,000, and they would need to be supplied with fibre backhaul. Coalition policy on this is stuck in the past. The PMG laid copper phones lines to everyone at taxpayer expense in the 20th Century, now it's up to us to lay fibre, starting (as Tony Smith said) with the areas that have nothing. Simple. Just get on with it.
ITnovice Apr 21, 2010 5:22 PM	This sounds like they are just making it up on the run, and changing it each month too. This 'plan' has big gaps in it and is simply the opposition trying to differentiate themselves by being different (and not necessarily better!). The current NBN plan is hardly water-tight but atleast Labor has vision and is doing something other countries are seeking to copy (albeit on a smaller scale, even the US).
anonymous Apr 21, 2010 6:13 PM	It does sound as if Smith is well out of his depth and is trying to shadow box until he can get hold of some background comms info. Perhaps he could ask for some advice from Paul Fletcher who knows all sides of the govt/industry/endusers mix. Subject to a couple of caveats, there is no reason for the Libs to drop the NBN, though it may be tempting to do that after Conboy politically canned Opel. The two vital conditions for NBN are that it be properly managed even if that takes a bit longer (we can't afford another glorious global warming/pink batts/BER rout), and that Conboy should show that he now knows a lot more about comms policy by dropping his grubby filter nonsense.
BrettWinterford Apr 22, 2010 9:26 AM	My beef is, just how close to the election do we need to get before Smith and the Opposition will reveal any semblance of a policy? The industry needs to know where it stands.