69/07
Friday 18 May 2007
Minister calls for improved broadband statistics
The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan today committed to work with the OECD to improve its reporting on broadband.
“People refer to the OECD reports as if they are handed down on tablets of stone, and then use them to represent a distorted picture of Australia’s broadband performance” Senator Coonan said.
“I have concerns about the methodology adopted by the OECD and question the weight given to any one single indicator of broadband performance.
Senator Coonan said that other countries also share some of these concerns. For example, in April this year the US Department of State had raised their concerns with the OECD’s study on broadband use, stating :
“The United States supports the OECD’s efforts to reflect new technological, economic and policy developments in order to promote and encourage of effective broadband uses. However, we are concerned about the methodology on which the new statistics were based, and their failure to capture important factors, particularly their reliance on user subscriptions as the measure of broadband use.” (source: letter from Ambassador David Gross, US Coordinator International Communications and Information Policy, 24/04/07)
“I echo these sentiments and I will shortly write to the Secretary General of the OECD raising similar concerns such as the omission of data on wireless access. I will also be offering to continue to work with the OECD to broaden and improve the depth and the rigour of their reports to ensure that their representation of Australia’s performance is measured more accurately against those of other OECD countries.
“A prime example of the distorting use of statistics is Labor’s Communications spokesman Stephen Conroy who continues to get it wrong when he claims that Australia is ranked 25th in the world for broadband speeds,” Senator Coonan said.
“He is still referring to information that comes from a five year old survey on international undersea communications cables, which has nothing to do with broadband speeds available to Australian consumers,” Senator Coonan said.
“Labor is seeking to justify a flawed proposal to spend nearly $5 billion of taxpayer’s money on a network that the industry is prepared to fund itself, proving they are incapable of running a trillion dollar economy.”
Ends.
Media Contact: Fiona Telford 0439 003 191