NBN comparability: Turnbull turns in a promise

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 03 August 2011 14:31

Your IT - Home IT

Malcolm Turnbull has promised that 'all Australians' will get access to 'fast broadband at a price that is comparable to that available in big cities' if the Coalition is elected.

Australia's Shadow Communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has just given a speech at Australia's National Press Club entitled 'Designing the Media Infrastructure of the 21st Century: Investing in Pipes and People'. 

Although there's no transcript of the event available, AAP has reported in Fairfax Media on some of the comments that Mr Turnbull made to the assembled media masses.

He is quoted noting that: 'Our commitment to the bush is that all Australians will have access to fast broadband at a price that is comparable to that available in big cities', while stating that any subsidy to rural users 'should be delivered transparently, ideally as a capital subsidy."

He also said that 1.5 million Aussies would have to rely on wireless and satellite services.

Mr Turnbull also spoke of the need for Telstra structural separation, something that's in the news over the past day, although many through criticism that Telstra isn't promising to do enough to make that separation truly separate.

Mr Turnbull also promised in an ABC radio interview this morning that the Coalition wouldn't do away with the bits of the NBN that have been built or will be built by the time of the next election, should the opposition win enough votes to form government.

So, at least there's finally some more concrete news on what Australia's Federal Opposition will do with the NBN that is currently being built, and while it has been a very torturous process thus far, with years still to go, some answers to questions around Australia's 'very fast NBN' are slowly coming through.