COMMUNICATIONS Minister Malcolm Turnbull won’t be drawn on a finish date for the NBN in Tasmania, but says the network will be completed nationwide by 2020.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Turnbull, who is touring Northern Tasmania, says the broadband rollout was more advanced in the state than anywhere else in the country, with 10,000 homes passed in Launceston, and construction under way at a further 20,600.
‘‘The NBN is under way and progressing at a greater pace now than it ever has in the past,’’ Mr Turnbull said.
However, he said detailed plans on dates and types of technology used in the broadband rollout were still months away, with NBN Co to release details early next year.
The initial finish date of the NBN was set to be 2015, but Mr Turnbull was critical of the previous government’s handling of announcements about service delivery.
‘‘NBN Co is being very careful now not to declare an area ready for service until it actually is,’’ he said.
‘‘One of the problems that this company had in the past was under this enormous political pressure from the Labor government to deliver fibre to the press release, what they were doing was declaring areas ready for service when they simply weren’t.’’
Mr Turnbull said more than half of Tasmanian homes would have access to fibre-to-the-premises technology, while most other residents would receive fibre-to-the-node.
Labor’s regional development spokeswoman Julie Collins said the government had broken a clear election commitment.
‘‘Malcolm Turnbull needs to deliver on his election promise to Tasmanians and deliver fibre to the home to the 200,000 premises here in Tasmania,’’ she said.
‘‘We’ve now got whole suburbs and towns that are not going to get the NBN, not going to get fibre-to-the-home that they were promised.’’
Tas ICT executive officer Dean Winter said the North-West would be hard hit by the slow rollout, and the lack of fibre-to-the-premises technology.
‘‘It is hard to understand how we came to the situation where Tasmania’s most disadvantaged economic region would be further disadvantaged by federal government policy,’’ he said.
‘‘While Hobart and Launceston enjoy fibre-to-the-premises technology, North-West coasters will be waiting even longer to receive an inferior technology.’’
