Position paper released on fibre technology for broadband

Australian Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Senator Stephen Conroy has released a position paper to help with deliberations on the Fibre Deployment Bill.

According to a recent report the Australian Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Senator Stephen Conroy has released a position paper that should help with deliberations of the Fibre Deployment Bill. The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Fibre Deployment) Bill 2010 was introduced into Parliament in March of this year.

The government’s fibre in greenfields policy is said to have been at the centre of consultation since April of last year. The position paper that has been released by Conroy is being provided to the Senate Environment, Communications and the Arts Committee in order to assist with deliberation of the Bill. It will also help with debates of the Bill in parliamentary sittings.

Senator Conroy stated: “High speed broadband is becoming a critical utility service like water, electricity and gas. We want to see people in new estates getting access to superfast broadband as soon as possible. It makes sense for new houses to be fitted with fibre or fibre-ready technology when homes are first built.”

He added: “The position paper released today builds on consultations with the Stakeholder Reference Group to assist with the implementation of the policy. Our legislation, and the position paper on key details today, takes a sensible, targeted and measured approach to the implementation of this policy. It allows us to target those estates where it is possible to have fibre now, while ensuring others have fibre-ready infrastructure installed so it is easier and cheaper to connect them later.”

Source – DBCDE.gov.au