Conroy plugs NBN at CA conference

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 20 July 2010 17:23

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

Despite being in the midst of a Federal election, Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy took a remarkably non-partisan approach when he opened CA Technology's customer conference in Melbourne this morning.

Given that an election was called over the weekend, Conroy could have been forgiven for spruiking the ALP's IT credentials when he gave a keynote address to the CA Expo conference today.

Instead, he focussed on the potential for the NBN to transform the Australian economy. This could be regarded as politicking given that the NBN is a Labor brainchild, but Conroy avoided self-congratulatory remarks in favour of providing a status update and listing the sectors that stand to benefit.

Much progress has been made since the NBN proposal was launched just over a year ago, he said. The official launch in Tasmania will happen very soon, and there is already "tremendous feedback" from customers who are already connected in the first three areas.

Furthermore, deployment to the five initial mainland locations will begin in the next few days, and NBN Co has already announced extensions to those five areas plus another 14.

These multiple sites will allow trials of various deployment technologies, Conroy said.

NBN progress cited - page 2.