UN report says NBN should be 'technology neutral'

James Riley
Monday, 20 September 2010 17:00

IT Policy - Regulation

A United Nations report on broadband infrastructure recommends that government's remain "technology neutral" in national roll-outs as the most risk averse strategy - a finding Malcolm Turnbull says highlights the Coalition's concerns about the NBN.

Mr Turnbull says the UN's Broadband Commission for Digital Development report concludes that no single technology could "provide all the answers," undermining the Government's 'do it once, do it right, do it with fibre' argument for its National Broadband Network.

Ironically, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy sits on the UN commission, having been appointed to the role in May and was in New York at the UN headquarters for a panel discussion that accompanied the report's launch.

Mr Turnbull says that while the UN states fibre clearly plays an important role, particularly in providing backhaul bandwidth, it not need be used to the exclusion of other technologies like mobile wireless, fixed wireless and satellite.

On technology neutrality the UN says a mix of wireless and satellite might provide the best access network in some cases.

"Policy-makers should seek to adopt a technologically-neutral approach as regulation needs to accommodate new upgrades of current technologies , as well as future technologies that do not yet exist," the report said.

"Optical fibre is desirable at the core of the internet, and the majority of backhaul traffic, to achieve a high capacity backbone, but at the edges of the network, and in particular in the hands of end-users it is most likely that mobile devices will deliver many broadband applications and services."

"Satellites also provide invaluable solutions, particularly for providing capacity in hard to reach rural areas and for providing the essential backhaul capacity required by other operators to reach their customers."

Mr Turnbull, who was appointed to the shadow communications role a week ago, has argued that by his reckoning the value of the network when its construction is completed will be considerably less than its cost - effectively destroying the value of a chunk of taxpayers' investment in the project.

"There is no argument about the importance of broadband. The issue here is simply this: is the construction of a $43 billion NBN without any business plan or cost benefit analysis a responsible investment by Government?," Mr Turnbull said.

He then asks "can the goal of wider access to broadband be achieved more cost effectively? This is the debate we need to have."