Gillard deal ‘flexible on fibre’

CRITICS of the Coalition’s revised NBN claim almost all Australians will receive “second rate” copper wire connections.

CRITICS of the Coalition’s revised national broadband network claim almost all Australians will receive “second rate” copper wire connections, after it was revealed Gillard government contracts do not guarantee fibre to the premise.

At last year’s federal election, the Coalition government promised to honour all “existing contracts” for the rollout, which under Labor was based on fibre-optic cable to the premise.

This had led to assumptions that areas where the rollout was already contracted and underway would receive fibre to the premise.

However, late yesterday NBN Co confirmed to The Australian all of its contracts with companies performing the rollout were sufficiently flexible to allow for changes of delivery technology, including switching to copper.

“All major construction contracts contain sufficient flexibility to take into account changes in things such as price, volumes and approach,” said NBN Co media manager Andrew Sholl. “We’d be rightly criticised if there wasn’t that flexibility in NBN contracts. It’s especially important in a project as complex as the NBN, a telecommunications rollout the magnitude of which has never before been attempted.” This “adaptability” would allow NBN Co to deliver high-speed broadband to more people faster and “at less cost to the taxpayer”.

The issue created a storm of controversy in Tasmania yesterday, after NBN Co chairman Ziggy Switkowski confirmed the Gillard government contract with Visionstream to take the NBN to 220,000 Tasmanian premises did not guarantee fibre to the premise.

Dr Switkowski said that from next year the rollout in Tasmania would shift to a mix of delivery methods, including using existing copper wires to take broadband connections from nodes to individual homes and businesses.

Tasmania was a key battleground during the federal election and the Liberals won three seats from Labor partly by neutralising a Labor “scare campaign” on the NBN by promising to honour the Visionstream contract.

Yesterday, Labor Premier Lara Giddings accused the Abbott government of reneging on its promise, given the clear understanding in the electorate that it meant delivering fibre to all 220,000 premises. She warned the rest of the country to be aware that even existing contracts were no longer a guarantee of fibre to the premise, and claimed copper wire would not provide “e-health” and “e-education” services or hi-tech businesses.

“It’s obvious for the rest of Australia that nobody is going to get optic fibre to the door as promised by Tony Abbott,” Ms Giddings said, after meeting Dr Switkowski. “This is the tragedy of it.”

Even state Liberal leader Will Hodgman rang federal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull to urge him to continue to deliver fibre to the premise in Tasmania. “Our firm position is fibre to the home,” Mr Hodgman said.

Mr Turnbull denied breaking an election promise, arguing the Coalition was resurrecting a stalled rollout in Tasmania, where he said Visionstream could not deliver its contract at the agreed price.

More broadly, he said, the Coalition was ensuring the NBN could be delivered more quickly and more affordably to more Australians.