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Telcos lob broadband grenade: Abbott may be right
Asher Moses
September 1, 2010 - 1:05PM
Comments 164
An alliance of telcos has lobbed a last-minute grenade into talks around who will form the next government by proposing a new broadband plan that appears more aligned with the Coalition's policy than Labor's national broadband network.
The Alliance for Affordable Broadband - comprising telcos including Allegro Networks, PIPE Networks, BigAir, Vocus Communications, AAPT, Polyfone and EFTEL - proposes government-subsidised fibre backhaul but recommends connecting the country with a fourth-generation (4G) national wireless broadband network.
Whereas Labor's government-funded plan will connect 93 per cent of homes with fibre-optic cables, the alternative plan, similar to the Coalition's, will connect homes via a new wireless broadband network. The 4G network would connect 98 per cent of Australians and offer speeds of up to 100Mbps.
The release of the broadband manifesto coincides with meetings between the key independents and members of the government and NBN Co. The independents will decide who will form the next government and broadband is shaping up as a key factor in negotiations.
"We believe the argument for a national fibre-only NBN solution has failed to convince," the alliance of telcos said in a statement released yesterday.
"A well-informed independent member of Parliament might wisely favour an NBN version 3 public-private model on a mix of technology, with deliverables within a term, over a more costly and more risky eight-plus years NBN 2.0 rollout."
Asked why they didn't release the plan before the election, alliance member Jason Ashton, chief executive of Big Air, said the delay was due to the fact that the Coalition released its broadband policy late in the election cycle.
The Coalition seized on the alternative broadband plan as evidence that Labor's $43 billion broadband plan was a "white elephant" that was technically and economically deficient.
"The sensible and affordable approach outlined by the alliance largely reflects Coalition policy," shadow finance minister Andrew Robb said.
"By using a dynamic mix of technologies, including next generation wireless, and by deploying a core fibre backhaul network, major improvements can be achieved, particularly in rural and regional areas, for a fraction of the cost of Labor's $43 billion, one-size-fits-all approach."
The alternative plan, like the Coalition's, relies on the private sector to build much of the future broadband infrastructure. Labor has argued the government should build the infrastructure and then sell it to the private sector later.
Labor's plan will give speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second, whereas the alliance believes 100Mbps is good enough.
"We see the greatest priority is giving broadband to those who don't have any, not faster broadband to those that have," the alliance said.
It believes that a 4G wireless network could be built for $3 billion with a large part of this delivered by private investment as opposed to public funds.
But several telco experts, including Internet Industry Association chief executive Peter Coroneos, have said wireless would never be a substitute for fibre. Labor's NBN plan has significant support within the industry.
"The problem with wireless is that it always is a shared spectrum so you always have the problem that if you want to use it in built-up areas you actually need thousands and thousands of towers so the signal doesn't degrade to such a level that it becomes unusable," telco analyst Paul Budde said.
Budde said all the wireless towers would need to be linked to a fibre network anyway, so the question was largely around whether to connect the "last mile" to people's homes using fibre, which is what Labor is proposing, or wireless.
"Experts around the world are saying that fibre is by far the most cost-effective way of doing that - it's not just a matter of the upfront cost but also the maintenance," said Budde.
"The ongoing cost of maintaining a wireless network is significantly higher than the ongoing cost of a fibre network. Telstra has clearly indicated this in the past."
Budde said it was unclear whether wireless networks could deliver future services promised by Labor and the NBN, such as "tele-medicine" and "tele-education".
He argued that 4G wireless networks should still be pursued but only in parallel to a fixed network such as the NBN.
A spokeswoman for the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said Labor's NBN policy was not a "quick fix for an election" but a solution for the long-term benefit of the country.
"The NBN will deliver affordable, high speed broadband to all premises in Australia, no matter where they are located. Every home, business, school and hospital will be included and no one will miss out," the spokeswoman said.
The government provided a list of companies that had come out in support of the NBN, including Telstra, Optus, iiNet, Internode, Macquarie Telecom, Primus, Adam Internet, Intel, Huawei and Google.
A spokesman for Telstra said: "We are not joining the debate on the NBN."
