Rural communities to lose under broadband plan

The north-east will be left without a faster speed broadband service for at least another five years, following Labor’s decision to axe the OPEL broadband contract, Mrs Sophie Mirabella, the Federal Member for Indi said today.

“The government’s scandalous decision to dishonour the agreement for the OPEL broadband network, which included the provision of $958 million in Federal funding, is a massive blow for the people of the north-east,” Mrs Mirabella said.

“The OPEL network was to utilise a combination of technologies, including WiMAX wireless technology, to deliver enhanced broadband services to 900,000 premises across the country, including throughout the north-east.”

“The Labor Party’s city focused plan is to build fibre-to-the-node services that will cost taxpayers around five times more, yet deliver speeds that are no faster than ADSL2 or WiMax. It will not provide for fibre to every isolated farmhouse, unlike the satellite subsidy that was the coalition government’s policy,” Mrs Mirabella said.

“Other than talk about its fibre network, Labor has provided absolutely no detail on how it plans to deliver high-speed, metro-equivalent broadband to those of us living outside the key population centres.”

“Over the last few years, Labor has failed to keep up with the coalition in having a policy for bringing telecommunications to rural areas. Does anyone genuinely believe that Labor will now install new fibre to the node to every isolated farmhouse? Of course not, and that is why a wireless service is far more practical and affordable for rural internet users and for the taxpayer,” Mrs Mirabella said.

“Labor’s policy means that the so-called ‘last mile’ between telephone exchanges and residences will not be upgraded. This is where the bottlenecks currently exist—between the exchanges and the users. This is exactly what the coalition government’s clear plan for using innovative wireless technology was all about. Further, the technology advocated by the Labor Party is only accessible by users who are within four kilometres of an exchange.”

“This left a huge hole in Labor’s claim that their broadband service would serve people in rural areas of north-east Victoria. I condemn Labor’s announcement as it will leave consumers high and dry until at least 2013,” Mrs Mirabella concluded.