Conroy provides more detail on FTTP legislation

Stephen Withers
Friday, 16 April 2010 17:20

IT Policy - Regulation

The Federal Government has released a position paper on the provision of fibre networks on greenfields housing developments.

The Federal Government introduced the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Fibre Deployment) Bill 2010 into Parliament on 18 March, and has now released a position paper on the subordinate legislation that will determine the provision made for fibre on new housing developments.

"High speed broadband is becoming a critical utility service like water, electricity and gas. We want to see people in new estates getting access to superfast broadband as soon as possible," said Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

"It makes sense for new houses to be fitted with fibre or fibre-ready technology when homes are first built," he added.

The government's rationale is that allowing developers to install copper-based communications networks in new estates will increase the long-term costs as they will subsequently need to be retro-fitted with fibre or else become "broadband black spots".

The position paper is available here.