Australia announces $30b broadband network
Sunday, 8 March 2009
CANBERRA, Apr 7 (AFP): Australia announced a 43 billion dollar (30 billion US) national broadband network today, in what Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described as the biggest infrastructure project in the country's history.
Rudd surprised the market by scrapping a tender process for private firms to build a network worth 10-15 billion dollars, instead opting for a more ambitious proposal with the government retaining control.
Labelling Australia a "broadband backwater," Rudd said the government understood the importance a national network would play in "turbo-charging Australia's economic future." "Just as railway tracks laid out the future of the 19th century and electricity grids the future of the 20th century, so broadband represents the core infrastructure of the 21st century," he said.
"Slow broadband is holding our national economy back."
Providing a fast, affordable broadband network was a major campaign promise when Rudd's centre-left Labor government was elected in November 2007.
It had been considering tenders from private companies including Singapore-owned Optus and Canada's Axia NetMedia for a so-called fibre-to- the-node network offering speeds of up to 12 megabits per second.
Rudd surprised the market by scrapping a tender process for private firms to build a network worth 10-15 billion dollars, instead opting for a more ambitious proposal with the government retaining control.
Labelling Australia a "broadband backwater," Rudd said the government understood the importance a national network would play in "turbo-charging Australia's economic future." "Just as railway tracks laid out the future of the 19th century and electricity grids the future of the 20th century, so broadband represents the core infrastructure of the 21st century," he said.
"Slow broadband is holding our national economy back."
Providing a fast, affordable broadband network was a major campaign promise when Rudd's centre-left Labor government was elected in November 2007.
It had been considering tenders from private companies including Singapore-owned Optus and Canada's Axia NetMedia for a so-called fibre-to- the-node network offering speeds of up to 12 megabits per second.