Business chiefs back NBN

Beverley Head
Thursday, 12 August 2010 11:35

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

Business heavyweights today leant additional support to the National Broadband Network, with Rod McGeoch, a director of Telecom New Zealand attacking the coalition for 'settling for 12 Mbps' speeds and its plan to leave Telstra intact if elected.

Speaking at the SAS Forum 2010 being held in Sydney today Mr McGeoch said: 'I cannot believe that the opposition could have settled for 12.' He said he had received technical advice that a bare minimum would have been 15- 20 Mbps.

'Where did 12 come from? It really troubled me when I saw that as a goal,' said Mr McGeoch.

The ceo of NBN Co is meanwhile expected to today announce that Labor's network which has been switched on in Tasmania today would deliver speeds of up to 1Gbps. This is above original estimates that the network would deliver 100 Mbps, and remains orders of magnitude faster than what the Coalition this week proposed.

David Liddy, ceo of the Bank of Queensland, said that Australia; 'Really needs a solution - not something that gets us half way there.

'I don't think we can afford to compromise,' he said, adding; 'We can't compete if we are backward in this regard.'