The fallout from the Coaltion’s NBN plan continued this week before the debate all came to a head today at a Parliamentary Inquiry into the roll-out of the National Broadband Network.
Opposition Communication Minister, Malcolm Turnbull hit out over the misinterpretation of Tony Abbott’s “25Mbps is enough for an average household” statements this week, saying that the Opposition Leader was being misquoted by prominent newspapers. We point out, however, that it’s exactly what he said, while hoping it’s not exactly what he meant.
Meanwhile, some creative accounting and a look at the total cost of ownership actually demonstrates the Coalition’s broadband plan might cost the same as the NBN in the long run, but with a very important catch: fibre wouldn’t be deployed to everyone straight away, because not everyone needs it straight away and that money can be used for something else in the meantime. Makes a bit of sense, actually.
NBN Co wasn’t phased by any of this, however, pledging to roll-out 1Gbps services onto the NBN by December, outing the full wholesale pricing schedule in the process. 1000Mbps is like a dream, isn’t it?
It all came to a head today when various industry heads — including parties from Vodafone and ACCAN — came together to talk about the roll-out of the NBN so far with a Parliamentary Committee. NBN Co head Mike Quigley was there, with a document (PDF) giving a detailed breakdown of exactly how much the NBN will cost to refute the Coalition’s claim that it would cost $90 billion to build Labor’s fibre vision.