Australia's Coalition broadband plan to 'leave us in backwater'
Posted in: Government & Policy at 11/08/2010 17:35
The Coalition's broadband policy would rob Australia of the chance to lift itself out of the broadband backwater, industry experts say.
A Coalition government would scrap the ambitious and costly National Broadband Network and replace it with more than $6.3bn worth of funding programs that would include $3.5bn to build a nation-wide fibre back-haul network to improve broadband services in the outback.
To read this report in The Australian in full, see:
www.theaustralian.com.au/business/industry-sectors/coalition-plan-to-leave-us-in-backwater/story-e6frg9hx-1225903658119
Also see:
No cheaper rates in Abbott internet plan
The Coalition's $6.31 billion broadband plan will not lead to cheaper internet rates for consumers, analysts say.
Ovum Australia research director David Kennedy doubts the Coalition plan will be cheaper than what Telstra and Optus offer for ADSL and hybrid fibre-coaxial cable services.
www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/no-cheaper-rates-in-abbott-internet-plan/story-fn59niix-1225903665527
Abbott's online understanding looks papyrus thin
Broadband is one of the fascinating issues of this campaign.
The Coalition wants it to be about economics.
The Government wants it to be about old versus new.
And the Government, you'd have to say at this point, is winning.
In 2007, this was a game played cunningly by Kevin Rudd, who integrated broadband into his promises for an "Education Revolution".
www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/11/2979972.htm
