Tony Abbott promises cheaper and faster alternative to NBN

TONY Abbott unveils the Coalition's broadband policy, vowing to provide the service quicker and cheaper than Labor's NBN.

TONY Abbott has unveiled the Coalition's broadband policy, vowing to provide the service quicker and cheaper than Labor's NBN.

The Opposition Leader this morning said by the end of a first term of an incoming Coalition government Australian households would have a minimum broadband speed of 25Mbps.

"By the end of second term, should we get one, the vast majority of households will have access to speeds of 50Mbps," Mr Abbott said.

"We will build fibre to the node.

"So we will be able to do this for under $30 billion, compared to the over $90 billion it will cost the National Broadband Network (under Labor)."

He said the figure was in stark contrast to the more than $90 billion it was forecast to cost for Labor’s NBN.

"I am very proud of this policy. I am confident that it gives Australians what they need," Mr Abbott said.

Mr Abbott also announced the Coalition would commission a commercial review to determine how long it would take to meet the NBN’s objectives.

An "audit of how Labor got into this mess" would also be conducted as well as an independent study of telecommunications and broadband needs into the future.

The Coalition also says basic broadband plans will "always" be more affordable.

It projects prices would be $24 cheaper per month by 2021 than Labor's projected NBN prices.

Mr Abbott was joined by his communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull for the announcement this morning in Sydney who he "paid tribute" to for his hard work on the policy.

Mr Turnbull described Labor’s NBN as a "failing project".

"We’ve done the hard analysis that the government never did," Mr Turnbull said.

"Our plan is consistent with the best practice."

Mr Turnbull said fibre to the node would be rolled out to the majority of built up areas in Australia rather than Labor’s fibre to the home in order to cut down on costs.

He said in Greenfield areas such as business sites and hospitals where there was a high broadband demand, fibre to the premises would still be rolled out.

"This saves so much money because the majority of the cost is not in electronics, it is in Labor, it is in digging trenches."

Asked about the 25mps minimum speed for households, Mr Turnbull said the view around the world was that broadband utility flattened out in a residential environment.

But while the coalition was offering only fibre to the node for most households, high users could get connections to their premises.

"It's very flexible," he said of the policy.

Mr Abbott said 25mps would be enough for home usage, adding that at that speed a family could simultaneously download four different high-definition movies at the same time.

"We are absolutely confident 25 megs is enough for the average household," he said.

Mr Turnbull said the government shouldn't be building the NBN, when everywhere else such projects were being created by the private sector.

But he acknowledged that if the coalition won government it would inherit network builder NBN Co and would have to work with it.

"We are going to get this job done," Mr Turnbull said.

He said the government had wasted billion of dollars that could not be recovered, but the coalition would save money.

The Coalition says its plan will cost $29.5 billion.

Under the plan announced today, the Coalition promises:

• Download speeds will be between 25 and 100 megabits per second by the end of 2016 and 50 to 100 megabits per second by 2019.
•  The rollout of the NBN under the Coalition will be complete by the end of 2019.
• Regions with substandard internet services will receive priority rollout.
• Basic broadband plans will always be more affordable under the Coalition than under Labor. Projections show that prices will be $24 cheaper a month by 2021 than under Labor's NBN projected prices.
• The Coalition's NBN will cost tens of billions less to complete than Labor's NBN.

The plan has received swift reaction, with independent MP Tony Windsor accusing the Coalition of leaving residents in the bush behind their city counterparts.

"Return of the city/bush divide: Coalition NBN makes country people second-best (again) by ending uniform national wholesale price," the member for New England tweeted.

Labor backbencher Kevin Rudd was also quick to comment on the plan.

"The Liberal Party's New! Modern! Technology of the future! Based on last century's copper network http://delimiter.com.au/2012/05/01/worst-of-the-worst-photos-of-australias-copper-network/ … #fraudband KRudd," the member for Griffith tweeted earlier today.

This morning, Communications Minister Senator Conroy held a press conference in Canberra on the roll-out of the National Broadband Network in the city's north and said only Labor's plan for high-speed broadband would provide the country what it needed into the long term future.

"Only, and I want to stress this, a superior world class fibre to the home network can deliver the speed we need to harness these opportunities," Senator Conroy said of education and medical advances.

Senator Conroy said the Coalition's plan  was akin to building a "one lane Sydney Harbour Bridge".

"Malcolm Turnbull is going to build a one lane Sydney Harbour Bridge because he can make it cheaper and faster," he said.

Senator Conroy said this morning using the existing copper network was dumb.

"I can't find a dumber public policy than buying the copper off Telstra," he said.

"What the Malcolm Turnbull network can't do is deliver the stability of a fibre connection.

"The speeds he is going to claim today are defying physics."