Cornered!
Cornered! is a blog devoted, most of the time anyway, to telecommunications: local and global issues, technology, people and trends from the perspective of someone who's been reporting, analysing and commenting on the industry since the dark ages (BC - before competition). Sometimes serious, sometimes flippant, sometimes frivolous. Controversial, analytical, informative, amusing, but never boring; a vehicle for examinations of important issues and observations on my encounters and experiences in an industry where polarised views and hyperbole are the norm.
Follow the Australian Telecommunications scene NEWSLETTER- FREE TRIAL

Blog

Technology news and Jobs arrow Cornered! arrow Government funding for FTTH? No way says Coonan
Government funding for FTTH? No way says Coonan E-mail
by Stuart Corner   
Friday, 12 October 2007
Communications minister Helen Coonan has claimed that a news story in the Financial Review this week which reported her as saying that the Government might be prepared to fund a fibre to the home rollout, rather than fibre to the node, should the Expert Task Force recommends such, took her remarks out of context. Her claim is not very convincing.

Given the furore that the FR's report created, she has taken a long time to set the record straight, and then in a very low key way. So was this just a ministerial gaffe or is there really another agenda? Telstra, which got very upset about the FR's story, made a good point.

The FR was quite unambiguous on the significance of Coonan's comments. "....Coonan said the Federal Government would consider using taxpayers' money to fund high speed broadband rollout if it received a more comprehensive plan than those furnished by Telstra and the Optus-led consortium. Senator Coonan told the [FR] that the Federal Government had not ruled out the prospect of using public funds to partially bankroll such a project if it could deliver faster Internet directly into people's homes and not just to a neighbourhood portal. 'If that [a recommendation for government funding] comes from the expert taskforce process, we would consider the recommendation very carefully,' senator Coonan said."

That story headed up page 3 in the paper. So if it was wrong one might have expected it to produce an immediate response from the minister. It certainly galvanised Telstra which wrote the minister the same day and posted its letter on its Nowwearetalking web site.

Telstra, not unreasonably, feared a repetition of the Opel saga where $600 million of Government funding became almost $1 billion without Telstra, or any other bidder, being given a fair go at saying how it would spend that extra $350 million to bring broadband to rural Australians. Telstra wanted clarity and certainty on any future project.

 
< Next story in category   Previous story in the category >
iTWire user statistics Visitors last 30 days
694,279
Subscribers 15,210
#1 independent technology news advertise here
  •   *  
  • Search
  • AdvSeach
  • Login
  • Events
  • FreeStuff

- Advertisement -

Featured Whitepapers

Cornered! - Telecoms blog
Cornered! is a blog on all things tele-communication from the perspective of one who has observed, analysed commented and reported on the industry since the dark ages (BC - before competition).
Follow iTWire on Twitter

About iTWire

iTWire is all about technology news, information, jobs and community for the IT and telecommunications industry professional. Subscribe to our free ICT daily newsletter