Draft laws for the rollout of Greenfield fibre released by Conroy
A new draft legislation that is aimed at mandating the use of fibre optic broadband connectivity in newly built housing estates has now been released by the governments Broadband Minister, Stephen Conroy.
The decision to make the legislation available to the general public was decided upon by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) two days before Christmas, although discussions with the 29 members of the government’s fibre-in Greenfields reference group regarding the draft legislation began near the beginning of December.
The mandating of fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) connectivity in an estate that receives planning approval from 1st July 2010 onwards will be the purpose of the new draft legislation known as the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Fibre Deployment) Bill 2009, which is an amendment to the current Telecommunications Act.
The deadline in the legislation will hit too soon for the planning cycles of the majority of developments according to complaints raised by housing developers, led by the Urban Development Institute of Australia, during the public consultation process.
Unless a line is specifically an “optical fibre line” the new legislation will specifically prohibit anyone from installing any other form of line for use with telecommunications services in new build estates. Both “building units” and “building lots” will be included in the rules of this new bill.
Which types of housing estates will be exempt from this legislation and which will require fibre connectivity will, however, be left to the judgement of Mr Conroy under the bill.
The explanatory memorandum that accompanies the legislation reads “By enabling the Minister to specify a development or classes of developments in which optical fibre lines will need to be installed, the legislation enables the Minister to implement the Government’s policy on a targeted basis that can take account of changes in this market over time and regional or local circumstances. The Bill also enables the Minister to specify in a legislative instrument that where optical fibre lines are generally required. Non-fibre (eg. copper) fixed infrastructure may be permitted (for example, where customers have equipment that requires the use of a non-fibre line).”
Source – CRN
