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| Friday, 10 August 2007 | |
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Australian plans for ‘broadband bush’ under fire from opposition…
An opposition Australian politician has waded into the row over the award of an A$958mn contract to the SingTel Optus and Elders consortium (OPEL) to build a rural broadband network in the country. Debating the ‘Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Protecting Services for Rural and Regional Australia into the Future) Bill 2007’ Hon. Simon Crean, MP for Hotham and Shadow Trade and Regional Development Minister , claimed the award by the Howard Government was a spoiler and a stunt designed to block Labor’s own plans for a ‘broadband bush’. The outburst follows criticism of the OPEL award procedure from Australian incumbent Telstra (click). OPEL intends to use WiMAX and ADSL2 technology to bring broadband to rural areas. Labor had proposed fibre to the node. Here’s Crean’s statement in full: “The Howard Government proved again in the Parliament this week how desperate and out of ideas they are on securing broadband for regional With no worthwhile strategy of their own to secure a broadband network for regional Desperate and floundering, they have to resort to a cheap political stunt to quarantine the use of the A$2bn Communications Fund, with its inadequate plan to just use the interest from it. The Fund was set up to secure the telecommunications needs of regional The Government’s plan to use just the interest from the Fund will not secure fast, affordable broadband for regional The Government’s Bill will deny the full use of the Fund for the purpose it was intended. It will only hide their own incompetence in securing regional broadband. Labor will use the Fund for the purpose that it was set up. It will form part of the A$4.7bn public equity injection to guarantee 98% of Australians will be served by a fibre to the node network, delivering true broadband speeds of a minimum of 12Mbits/s. The 2% which cannot be reached by fibre due to their geographical location will be guaranteed broadband access through alternative technologies, which will be as close as possible to that provided by the new fibre network. Not only are the Government’s actions a stunt, it is hypocritical. The Howard Government has already spent A$4bn of public funds but regional Pre-election bandaids and cheap political stunts will not secure our regions’ future. Only a Rudd Labor Government can guarantee regional Not pulling any punches then. John Williamson |
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