104/07
Wednesday August 8 2007

A framework for our next high speed broadband network

The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator the Hon Helen Coonan, today welcomed the release of draft guidelines from the Expert Taskforce for public comment for the competitive assessment process to build a high speed broadband network in Australia’s capital cities and major regional centres.

“The draft guidelines are now available for industry and public comment and I encourage all stakeholders to make their views known to the Expert Taskforce. After this consultation, the guidelines will be finalised and industry will then have four months to develop their proposals for a high speed broadband network.”

Senator Coonan said industry proposals should outline price and non-price terms, as well as the conditions of access and identify the regulatory conditions required.

“The Government will then legislate to provide the regulatory settings that are necessary to enable the network to be built.

“We are committed to a sustainable and competitive telecommunications market that ensures that industry gets a fair return on investments in next generation infrastructure so they will continue to invest in Australia’s future.”

Senator Coonan said the draft guidelines were consistent with the Government’s approach of ‘technology neutrality’.

“Unlike the Labor Party, we are not in the business of picking a ‘one size fits all’ technology and discarding the rest. The guidelines do not specify that the high speed network must be a fibre-to-the-node network. It could contain a fibre-to-the-home upgrade path or another alternative high speed broadband platform.

“But fibre-to-the-node appears to be the most likely prospect based on the strong interest from industry in a fibre network build.

“This network build will not require any taxpayer funding unlike the Labor Party who are committed to a taxpayer rip off to the tune of $4.7 billion on a complete sham.

“A sham that will tear money from the Future Fund and the Communications Fund, that will not reach 98 per cent of the population as they claim and a proposal that will abandon anyone who lives outside a metropolitan area.

“Worse still, it is a proposal which is embarrassingly light on detail, with no maps and no detailed costings,” Senator Coonan said.

Senator Coonan encouraged all interested parties to review the draft guidelines, which include a proposal form, and submit their comments for consideration by the Expert Taskforce.

Draft guidelines are available at www.dcita.gov.au/Expert_Taskforce. Submissions on the draft Guidelines are due with the Expert Taskforce by close of business Wednesday, 29 August 2007.

ENDS

Media Contact: Katherine Meier 0417 441 141