NBN shouldn't be scrapped: Quigley
- — 21 January, 2011 10:42
Building a national broadband network is in Australia's long-term interest and shouldn't be derailed by the floods, says NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley.
The head of the government-funded company charged with building Australia's national broadband network (NBN) on Friday said the infrastructure was essential.
"This is clearly in our view ... (in the) long-term interest of Australia," he told ABC Radio on Friday.
"Having a fibre network will be a big plus - for all sorts of reasons, for productivity reasons, education, health.
"There has to be remediation from what has happened now as a consequence of the flood but that doesn't mean that we have to mortgage our future completely."
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has defended the NBN and flagged spending cuts as well as a special flood levy to cover the mounting economic impact of the floods.
But opposition leader Tony Abbott has slammed the prospect of an increased tax and instead wants the government to abandon or delay the broadband network rollout.
Kevin Loughrey
Thu 27/01/2011 - 13:36
I totally agree with Mr Quigley's view the NBN roll-out should not be in any way impeded.
My companies have, since 1997, been intimately involved in providing IT support to small and medium sized businesses in Southern Sydney. Without doubt, the past lack of satisfactory high-speed Internet services has held back Australian business; adversely impacting on the profitability of the companies we serve. Certain things (such as smoking in hotels for example) should not be left to the market because the market will (rightly) seek to maximise the return for its shareholders. That resolves down to charging whatever it thinks its customers can stand and catering only for those parts of the marketplace where profits are high. Small business and rural communities, in particular, and the public generally are the losers in such a situation.
Just as SITA provides the communications backbone to the world's airlines belonging to IATA, so we need an NBN, operating as a cooperative, to supply the communications backbone to all competing Telcos and media providers in Australia. Only then is the Australian Public assured there will be competition and service delivery at the lowest possible price.
The only concern I have about the NBN is that it could in the future be privately owned. Should that happen, Australian citizens will be simply trading one Telstra-type-monopoly for another; the only difference being the name. It is important the NBN Co eventually transition to being a cooperative, administered by directors elected from all of its stakeholders; not only the Telcos but also the Australian public it serves.