Labor pledges to bring back FTTP NBN

Labor has pledged to bring fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) to up to two million additional homes and businesses if it wins the upcoming election.

The Opposition has asserted it will be able to deliver a superior network, while allocating the same amount of public funding as the Coalition plans to under the current multitechnology mix model and completing the construction in the same amount of time.

A Shorten Labor government would cap the total funding for the NBN at $57 billion — compared to the $56 billion projected cost of the Coalition’s current multitechnology mix model — according to a joint statement from Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten and Shadow Communications Minister Jason Clare.

“The public equity contribution will be the same regardless of who wins the election. The difference is that up to two million more Australians will get a fibre-to-the-premises NBN under Labor,” the ministers said.

Under Labor’s proposal, the use of fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) technology would be phased out once the current pipeline of construction work is completed. Design and construction of FTTP would be scaled back up to replace it.

Infrastructure Australia would also be commissioned to develop a plan to outline how and when parts of Australia left with FTTN could be upgraded to the superior FTTP technology.

“A Shorten Labor Government will complete the initial rollout of the NBN by 30 June 2022, the same time the Liberals’ second-rate NBN is likely to be complete,” the ministers said.

“A Labor Government will fix Malcolm Turnbull’s mess and build the NBN we need to meet the needs of the future and create the jobs of the future.”

The Coalition has asserted it will complete the NBN rollout by 2020.

Internet Australia has expressed support for the proposal to return to FTTP as the predominant NBN technology. CEO Laurie Patton commented that “fibre is the only sensible way to connect the internet to people’s homes and businesses”.

He said the NBN project should be considered a long-term investment in Australia’s future.

“We didn’t have this sort of debate when it came to the Snowy Mountains Scheme or the Sydney Harbour Bridge,” he said.

“How can we become an innovation nation if we don’t have the tools required? One of those tools is a competitive NBN; one that is on par with the broadband speeds in the countries in our region with whom we will need to compete in the emerging digitally enabled world economy.”

But some media pundits have expressed scepticism that Labor will be able to fulfil its promise of delivering a superior network at a comparable cost.

Image courtesy Colby under CC BY 2.0