Boost Mobile founder Peter Adderton wants NBN privatised, more Aussie start-up support

Australia’s global telco boss Peter Adderton has called on the government to privatise the NBN, and pour its money into young people’s ideas that can change the world.

Exclusive: Australia’s global telco entrepreneur Peter Adderton has called on the government to privatise the NBN, and pour its money into young people’s ideas that can change the world.

The founder of Boost Mobile, who started his $5 billion dollar company in a one-bedroom apartment in Sydney, said Australia had its ‘”foot half on the brake” of the $50bn National Broadband Network.

“It should not be the government, it should be privatised and it should be broken up to people who will compete against each other, but it’s got to be privatised and it shouldn’t be left to the government to operate,” he said.

“I came back here (from the US) and looked at the NBN, tried to hook it up twice and it is the worst experience.

“The speeds and the pricing that I have to pay for which by the way, is not consistent, and it goes down and I’ve been living in America for 20 years, I go back there and it’s almost like this breath of fresh air.

“I get a better speed coming out of the Marriott Hotel at the airport than I do at my high speed Mosman house for the NBN. It’s just crazy. I mean, Australians are so far behind.”

While the rollout of the NBN was finished late last year, the prospect of any sale by Canberra is still seen as some time off, particularly while the network remains loss-making.

In its annual report released in August, NBN said it was committed to delivering access to peak wholesale download speeds of at least 25 megabits per second (Mbps) to all eligible premises, and at least 50Mbps to 90 per cent of fixed-line premises.

Mr Adderton, who sold the US arm of his Boost business more than a decade ago, also called for more local competition to help bring telco prices down for consumers.

“The problem with Australia is that the three carriers (Telstra, Optus and Vodafone) are doing their best to protect themselves from disruption,” he said.

“I do think we will see an NBN-like model where you’ll have different brands reselling our (telco) infrastructure.

Peter Adderton, Boost Mobile’s founder. Picture: Supplied

“Now we already do it with Boost, but, you know, I expect to see Amazon and Netflix come in … you could buy an Echo from Amazon and it might come with five gigabytes of data.

“I see it first hand in America and I’m starting to see what’s happening in Australia.

“The carriers will kick and scream as long as they can, but if you try to get in the way of innovation, you’ll get run over.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Adderton said Australia needed to stop its talent pool being swallowed up by tech hubs like Silicon Valley.

He said big investors also needed to get behind start-ups to give “super clever” Australians a go.

“In an election year, when we’re happy to throw billions and billions and billions of dollars away at silly things, why don’t we start reinvesting back into our youth and our future?,” he said.

“The government should be more focused on young people that are coming out of universities and colleges and high schools.

“There’s no platform for them to be able to create ideas and grow, there’s no entrepreneurial spirit.

“Australian investors always want revenue, right? So you basically have to get mum and dad to help you out … and all they want to do is get on a plane to go to America.”

Mr Adderton, who has also long been linked with V8 Supercars in Australia, drew on his own personal experience.

“If you told me when I started this company 20 years ago, that it would end up being a $4 or $5 billion company with nine to 10 million customers, I would have told you were crazy,” he said.

“I had to go live in America in order to see my dream of being a global telco entrepreneur, I would have loved to have stayed in Australia, but it wasn’t going to work for me … I just couldn't raise the money.”

He went on to describe the process of getting a business loan in Australia as a “disaster” with banks showing little willingness to back new ideas.

“You basically have to have so much money you don’t need the loan, they are risk averse and they want your house on the line .. I think it’s why most people in Australia go overseas or they just don’t create anything,” he said.

Originally published as Boost Mobile founder Peter Adderton wants NBN privatised, more Aussie start-up support