155/07
Friday 28 September 2007
Labor: leaving Australia stranded without broadband until 2013
The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator the Hon Helen Coonan today launched an OPEL ADSL2+ exchange that will deliver speeds of up to 20 mbps in Woy Woy on the New South Wales Central Coast.
“In June the Australian Government announced the Australia Connected programme and we are already switching on exchanges and delivering for consumers.
“Under the Labor Party’s sham broadband plan, Australian consumers would be left without a service until 2013.
Senator Coonan explained that the Australian Government’s Australia Connected initiative is a seamless plan that guarantees a broadband service to 100 per cent of the country.
“OPEL, a joint venture between Optus and rural group Elders, were awarded $958 million by the Australian Government to deliver a new national wholesale network delivering a mix of ADSL2+ and WiMAX wireless technology to over 9 million premises across Australia.
“OPEL will extend broadband out to 99 per cent of Australian premises and provide speeds of 12 megabits per second by 2009.
“An Expert Taskforce is currently calling for industry proposals to build a new commercial fibre optic network in all capital cities and large regional centres,” Senator Coonan said.
“For the 1 per cent of consumers in very rural or remote areas not covered by the OPEL roll out or the fibre optic network we have the Australian Broadband Guarantee as a safety net to ensure that they can receive a broadband service.
“The Australian Government has protected the $2 billion principal of the Communications Fund so that only the interest earned from the fund’s investments - up to $400 million every three years - can be spent. This legislation ensures that the Communications Fund, which the Labor Party has committed to drain, will continue to support areas that need ongoing targeted government assistance – that is rural and regional areas where commercial solutions are not always viable.
“And finally, we have created BroadbandNow available from www.broadbandnow.gov.au or a hotline on 1800 883 488 Monday to Friday 8am-9pm EST, a one – stop consumer help centre which provides telephone and web information to help consumers understand the technology options available to them and provide information about how to get connected,” Senator Coonan said.
“Today I am also announcing that ADSL2+ has been enabled in Cardiff, Hamilton and Corrimal in New South Wales.
“We are getting on with the job of rolling out broadband around the country, this exchange today has been enabled by Optus as part of its commercial contribution of 426 super fast ADSL2+ broadband exchanges and1361 state-of-the-art WiMAX base stations.
“This is in stark contrast to the Labor Party who even if they could deliver on their poorly costed and light on detail sham plan, they couldn’t deliver until 2013.
“As it stands, even if they are left waiting until 2013, around 25 per cent of the Australian population will miss out on Labor's proposed fibre-to-the-node network.
“The Australian Government has the plan to deliver broadband to all Australian consumers and we are already rolling it out and getting on with the job,” Senator Coonan said.
Media Contact: Frank Peppard 0417 061 969