Invest in FTTN in haste: repent at leisure

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 11 June 2008 10:48

Opinion and Analysis

FTTN is not necessarily wrong, but in comparison to the BSG's Framework report and other studies in the UK, little has been done to demonstrate that it is right. The sad fact is that what is happening in Australia now is basically very similar to what Telstra proposed to the Howard Government in a confidential briefing just after Sol Trujillo arrived.

The resulting furore that erupted over the ACCC's role in pricing access to this network, Telstra's very public decision to cancel the project and the Howard Government's ineptitude and indecision on broadband created the perfect opportunity for visionary and decisive policy making which the ALP well demonstrated in its March 2007 policy statement.

It was an opportunistic document conceived with the limited resources of a party in Opposition. Unfortunately its hour has come and it is now lumbering into being.