By JO HARRISON
SHADOW Minister for Communications and Broadband Malcolm Turnbull claims the Coalition’s broadband policy will be rolled out sooner and cheaper saving Australian tax-payers $60 billion in the process.
Mr Turnbull was in Armidale last Friday at the invitation of Nationals candidate for New England Barnaby Joyce to discuss concerns raised by Armidale residents about the way NBN Co and contractors were managing the roll-out.
He was the special guest at a Business Chamber luncheon held at the Armidale Bowling Club before delivering a special guest lecture on the Coalition’s broadband policy at the University of New England later in the afternoon.
Mr Turnbull said the Coalition in government would bring responsible governance to the roll-out of broadband.
“One of the things that Labor refuses to count is the ballooning capital cost of the NBN running way over its budget,” Mr Turnbull said.
“We forecast that to complete the NBN, it will not only take many more years than what they have said, but will cost close to $100 million dollars.”
According to Mr Turnbull, a Coalition government will use the latest technology that is currently being deployed in Europe and North America that will deliver broadband quickly.
“In the New England, we will deliver more wire-line broadband than what Labor will,” he said.
“Labor is going to limit its roll-out of fibre to the premises to communities with more than 1000 premises in it. That is quite a large town.
“There would be plenty of towns in this electorate that would have less than 1000 houses and shops in them that don’t regard themselves as isolated villages or hamlets. They are not going to get a wire-line solution under Labor.”
Mr Turnball said the Coalition’s broadband policy will utilise existing exchanges to deliver fibre to the node solutions.
“Fibre to the node means that you replace almost all the copper in the network with fibre, however the only copper that you don’t replace is from the node to the house. The reason for this is the huge time and cost this takes,” Mr Turnbull said.
“Because of this new technology, you can still deliver very high speeds much higher than residential consumers have a use for or value.”
