The NBN rollout schedule becomes a political football

Stuart Corner
Monday, 23 August 2010 18:45

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

Speculation is rife that questions of who gets the NBN first could become a bargaining chip as the ALP tries to woo the support of independents, but wireless and satellite services in particular face a few hurdles.

Accusations of political intervention in the choice of NBN-Co's first and second release FTTH rollout sites have been the order of the day since the names of these were first revealed.

Equally consistent has been NBN Co's denial that there was any such intervention, and its insistence that the sites were chosen solely to meet NBN CO's engineering and planning requirements.

NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley reiterated this denial to journalists at a press conference after delivering the Telecommunications Society's Charles Todd Oration last week. He said words to the effect that the sites had been chosen solely by engineers who would not know a marginal seat if it jumped up an bit them on the posterior, (he put it rather more delicately than that!).

Depending on the outcome of the current horse-trading between the two main parties and the independents, the nexus between political priorities and the NBN rollout schedule is likely to become all too apparent to the back room boffins at NBN Co. The NBN is now seen as a key agenda item for the negotiations and with rural communications high on the list of priorities for several independents.

NBN Co's current policy-driven plan is to provide fibre to 93 percent of premises, wireless to four percent and satellite to three percent.  Given the huge costs that would be incurred in lifting that fibre percentage it's unlikely for any deal to boost that figure.

Whether they support the NBN or not, apart from the unfortunates living in metro area DSL blackspots it is by and large not the ADSL or HFC cable connected urban voters who are crying out for better broadband, ASAP. It's those in the bush.

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