Turnbull launches broadband survey
The Federal coalition has launched a nationwide survey to seek the views of Australians about their current broadband services and gather information on download and upload speeds.
Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull says he plans to use the results to help a future coalition government decide which parts of the country to prioritise for faster broadband services.
"Our objective is to use the technology that delivers the outcome soonest, cheapest and most affordably and that's the approach we're going to take," he said at the launch of the survey in Sydney.
Mr Turnbull, however, said the coalition will not be able to provide a fully-costed alternative to the government's National Broadband Network before the next national election.
He maintained that the coalition would be able to roll out a cheaper and more affordable network quicker than what the government is promising.
Mr Turnbull said because the coalition did not have access to the necessary details of the government's NBN rollout, it was difficult to provide a fully-costed alternative.
"Our policy will be costed in the sense that we can provide very hard, reliable estimates of the relative cost of our approach," he told ABC radio.
"But we are not in the position to provide an alternative, if you like, to the NBN Co's corporate plan because we simply don't have access to the contractual information."
The coalition could still roll out its version of the broadband network "a lot sooner" than the 10-year deadline set for the NBN, he said.
He argued using fibre-to-the-node, rather than fibre-to-the-home, connections would create savings.
He also said the performance of the government's network builder, NBN Co, in delivering services had not been good.
"It's going too slowly and the approach they are taking is in itself very slow," Mr Turnbull said.
"So Australians have every reason to be suspicious about the government's promise of improved broadband."
Under Labor's $37 billion NBN plan, fibre optic cable offering high-speed broadband service will be rolled out to 93 per cent of homes, schools and businesses across Australia by 2021.
Four per cent will be provided by fixed wireless services and three per cent in the most remote and rural areas by satellite services, both by 2015.
The coalition survey contains 15 questions about the reliability of a user's existing internet connection and a test to determine the speed of fixed line and mobile broadband services.
The survey will be open for several months at www.fasterbroadband.com.au .
