Parties Dig In For Election On Broadband

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday June 19, 2007

Mark Davis Political Correspondent

LABOR and the Coalition traded blows yesterday over their rival plans to expand broadband internet access, ensuring the issue will be prominent in this year's election campaign.

The Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd, insisted that the Federal Government's reliance on wireless technology to deliver broadband would short-change voters in regional areas and was a politically motivated bandaid for a serious economic problem.

But the Prime Minister, John Howard, lambasted the Opposition's approach, saying a Labor government would waste $4.7 billion of taxpayers' funds on an optical fibre network which the private sector would build anyway.

As the latest ACNielsen opinion poll conducted at the weekend showed Labor in an election-winning position, with 57 per cent of the two-party preferred vote, both sides of politics believe broadband could sway votes in marginal electorates.

Political strategists believe the speed and availability of internet access could not only sway votes in outer urban areas and large regional towns but also among two key Coalition constituencies: small business owners and small shareholders in Telstra.

Mr Howard said the Government's plan would deliver fast internet access to 99 per cent of households within two years.

This would be achieved by spending $958 million boosting existing ADSL2+ technology, which delivers broadband over the telephone network, and introducing wireless technology.

"And we will not need to raid the future savings of Australian soldiers and policy in order to achieve that outcome," Mr Howard said, referring to Labor's plan to use the Future Fund to help pay for its plan to build a national fibre optic cable network to deliver fast internet services.

"The leader of the Opposition will take $2 billion away from the bush and $2.7 billion out of the superannuation provisions for Australia's soldiers and federal police in order to pay for something that ought to be paid for by the private sector," Mr Howard said.

But Mr Rudd hit back, saying the wireless technology relied on by the Government was "a second-rate broadband solution for people in rural and regional Australia."

He said a recent report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that wireless would deliver maximum speeds with in favourable weather, flat landscapes and low use levels.

He released a confidential email from the office of the Minister for Communications, Helen Coonan, which identified 40 Coalition-held electorates as priorities for a media campaign promoting the Government's policy. Mr Howard said the policy would benefit everyone, regardless of whether they lived in Labor or Coalition electorates.

The Government's plan

* Give $958 million to OPEL Networks, a consortiumof Optus and Elders, which will invest another $917million to provide high-speed broadband to people in regional

and remote Australia.

* OPEL will deliver broadband speeds of at least 12 megabits per second by June 2009 at national retail prices of between $35 and $60 per month.

* OPEL will use a mixture of existing high-speed broadband technology - ADSL2+ -

and wireless technology.

* Set up a taskforce to consider competitive bids for a fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) network in the major cities (Telstra has a $4.1 billion proposal, the Optus-led G9

consortiumhas outlined a $3.6 billion plan).

* Expect the projects to deliver high-speed broadband to 99 per cent of Australians.

Labor's plan

* Invest $4.7 billion in partnership with a private company to build a national fibre-to-the-node network - not just in the cities (whole network expected to cost up to $9 billion).

* Would take five years to connect 98 per cent of Australians to broadband at a

minimum speed of 12 megabits per second.

* Labor would fund the investment from the $2 billion Communications Fund and by drawing down $2.7 billion from the Future Fund.

* Labor argues the plan would ensure reliable high-speed broadband for the whole country, rather than relying on untested wireless technology in regional areas.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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