The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
The Coalition's "grab bag of policies" on broadband was too heavily reliant on wireless technologies that cannot deliver the speeds and capacity needed for future healthcare, education and business applications, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says.
And its failure to address structural reform issues in relation to Telstra meant a return to "a failed era of bandaid broadband policies," that had left Australia lagging behind much of the rest of the world.
"The Coalition's focus on wireless defies the advice of industry experts who agree it is a complementary technology to fibre and will not deliver the high speeds and capacity needed for the delivery of healthcare, education and business applications of the future," Senator Conroy said.
"Even providers agree that hybrid fibre coaxial is not the answer to Australia's broadband future. Like wireless, broadband on HFC is shared, which means the more people using it, the slower it gets."
The Coalition today announced a $6.3 billion broadband plan that uses a mix of fibre, cable and wireless technologies to deliver minimum speeds of 12Mbps nationwide. The plan includes the construction of a national fibre backhaul network, but will leave it to the market to make the last mile connections to homes.
The plan will not require the structural separation of Telstra in Wholesale and Retail businesses, something Stephen Conroy says means it "fails the test of economic reform."
In combination with the structural reforms in the industry, Senator Conroy said the Government’s National Broadband Network would drive competition in the sector because it was an open access platform that could be used by any service provider for the same price, terms and conditions.
"(This) is a reform overdue by more than 20 years," Senator Conroy said.
"The historic Heads of Agreement between NBN Co and Telstra announced in June means we are finally on the cusp of achieving this structural reform, while at the same time delivering approximately $11 billion in value to Telstra shareholders," he said.
He said the issue of national backhaul capacity was already being addressed by the Government’s National Broadband Network, with Labor having already invested $250 million in rolling out fibre in "backhaul blackspot" areas in regional Australia.
The Coalition plan to scrap the National Broadband Network – and shadow communications spokesman Tony Smith said it would close the NBN Co and sell the fibre it had so far laid in Tasmania – would destroy jobs and put the Australian economy at risk for decades.
"If Australia doesn’t have the courage to compete with the rest of the world, we will get beaten by the rest of the world," Senator Conroy said.
"Korean, Japanese and Singaporean business leaders will be overjoyed to hear Mr Abbott's policy today."
David Bass
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