The 98 percent broadband NBN promise is being changed by Labor say coalition

A statement claiming that the Australian Federal Government is attempting to alter the promise made to provide 98 percent of Australia with fibre based broadband by instead using wireless from commercial operators has been put out my Senator Nick Minchin, the Opposition Shadow Minister for communications.

A number of issues currently face the National Broadband Network (NBN) like a 5 year build timeframe that has yet to see any work carried out, the guarantee of 12Mbps fibre broadband that has hit repeated delays, the largest telco in Australia, Telstra, being removed from the bidding process and the awarding of any contracts so far.

Claims are now also being made by the Federal Opposition that the “Rudd Government does not believe taxpayers should have to foot the bill for broadband services in any part of Australia where a commercially sustainable wireless option is available”.

In this statement Senator Nick Minchin, the Opposition Shadow Minister for Communications has said that this “raises serious questions about its motivation to spend $4.7 billion of taxpayers’ money on its trouble-plagued National Broadband Network”.

He continued by saying “It has been reported that the Rudd Government plans to reduce subsidies available under the Australian Broadband Guarantee (ABG) program by tens-of-millions of dollars because of the continued expansion of 3G wireless services. The ABG was established by the previous Coalition Government to provide Australians living in under-serviced parts of the country access to subsidised broadband services such as satellite.”

A spokesman for Stephen Conroy, the Communications Minister said, in what could be considered as a major shift in broadband policy by Labor “The purpose of the ABG is to ensure metro-comparable broadband is available to all Australians. If it is available from a sustainable commercial operator then there is no need for taxpayers to subsidise.”

Based on these comments, said Senator Minchin, it would appear that the Rudd Government doesn’t believe that any area where some kind of fixed or wireless broadband service is being provided by the private sector should have any taxpayers money spent on it.

Senator Minchin said “The Rudd Government wants to spend $4.7 billion of taxpayers’ money on a fibre to the node project that will replicate the type of fixed-line services already available to many Australians, particularly those living in metro areas, but is now effectively saying it doesn’t really believe taxpayers should have to pay,” Senator Minchin said.