Conroy drops 'bombshell' on coalition's NBN promise

Every policy they have ever created will be littered with booby traps so irrespective of who follows they wil have no choice but to cop it. These are the socialists who have euthanized competition in the communications market by buying them of with generous taxpayer funded bribes and have given due process in the whole NBN fiasco the right royal flick. Conroy is about as honest as Juliar and the rest of the Labor yobbos but then again what can we expect from a party that is rotten to the core.

Well stated Goldie - that is the plan now that Ju-liar's party are resigned to defeat and none of them have the fortitude to dump Ju-liar .Just wreak havoc so that the incoming party look bad - what a bunch of pathetic losers.

Goldie, your brain is rotten to the core.

Well stated Goldie - that is the plan now that Ju-liar's party are resigned to defeat and none of them have the fortitude to dump Ju-liar .Just wreak havoc so that the incoming party look bad - what a bunch of pathetic losers.

If the tax base keeps drying up the way it is, Gillard & Co will have to stop the NBN anyway - they will be flat broke within 12 months.

Goldie I assume, lives in the city where there are service providers on every street corner. Here in rural Australia, we have Telstra and not much else. With the NBN (be it fibre, radio or satelite), we have the oportunity to have access to an info highway that any provider can use, so the plan by the Libs (if correct) to end the cross subsidy and not proceed with the NBN scares the heck out of me.

@ Goldie, dave d, and Homo Erectus: Have you even looked into the NBN? Do you understand how it is paid for?? Do you fully understand what it'd cost to implement the coalitions 'plan'? Do you understand how behind Australia is in broadband availability? Did you know that the Howard government sat on it's hands for 10 years in relation to broadband? Do you understand what the rest of the world is delivering in relation to broadband? Do you understand that there is only One road infrastructure, only One rail infrastructure, only One water infrastructure, only One electricity infrastructure? All these are provided down the one set of rails, roads, pipes, wires. So why would telecommunications be any different? Telstra and Optus tried to compete with infrastructure in the 90s and it cost them dearly and was a schmozzle. Do your research.

Cabidas- Do you understand Mental Health Care - Hospitals - Doctors for the outback -disabled & aged facilities - get off your ar*e & do your homework stop worrying how your going to send your next email or post your next smart ar*e remark on U Tube & think about the important things in life - I love it when people like you turn straight away to what they have O'seas when we in Australia still can't provide decent basic facilities for the people that built this country !!

Is everyone aware that this is being funded by GOVERNMENT BONDS?? Which will be paid back by NBN Co?? No of course not. So lets all just believe the Libs FUD won't we... We NEED the NBN. Some of the copper network is screwed!!

Bob, Quale and Cabidas; Facts are gents is that this government has used commonwealth powers to sideline the major players in the telecommunications industry with taxpayer money so the NBN can have the field to itself. Would they allow a Telstra or Optus to do what they are doing, I think not. They have also repeatedly refused to have a cost benefit analysis conducted and you can make your own mind up as to why they would do this. Bottom line is we can't trust the Feds as they have scant regard for even their own rules and have no time for the people of this country. And Quale, you do yourself a disservice playing "we live in the bush and get nothing card" it is a bit old. No one is making you stay where you are so why not move to the city if you think we have it all.

More FUD Goldie. Is Telstra & Optus wholesale only? No. Telstras wholesale arm should never have been sold off.

@ddande: I live in country Victoria. @Goldie: At the moment, a new estate will be serviced by a wholesaler. 1 wholesaler. They put in the cables/fibre, and they service the whole estate. Then what happens? The next wholesaler deems it too expensive to roll out cable/fibre to that estate and doesn't. So there is absolutely no competition. Under the NBN, NBNco is the wholesaler, Providing 'regualated' pricing to all the retailers. There are 121 points of interconnect, where a plethora of retailers can 'compete' for your and my business. The whole sale price is regulated and stated somewhere into 2020. Does your (1or2) wholesaler/s guarantee it's wholesale price until 2020? You've got more research to do. You have been misled.

@Goldie. Further, are you aware that it is a GBE? That is, a Government Business Enterprise? Every cent that is funded is set to be paid back, with interest. Now, if something goes wrong, which is highly unlikely as NBNco used very very conservative figures, and is already beating them, I'm sure that Labor or NBNco can re-assess their business plan to make sure it has minimal cost to the taxpayer. Now, let's just say something majorly wrong and it costs the taxpayer $10billion ON BUDGET. Unlikely, but let's hypothesise. This is still less than the coaltion needs to spend to run FTTh and you get a way better system. Every country in the world is making the move to fibre to the home. We are at least 10 years behind everyone else. There is little a country can do to roll out such an infrastructure and 'catch up' other than run a government funded GBE. Very few people disagree with this. And many, find it very prudent. Afterall, who needs to HFC cables running past their doors like Telstra and Optus did in the 90's? Do we need 2 water pipes? One from 'such and such' water and one from 'so and so' water, just so I can have 'competition'? Incredible waste wouldn't you agree? Or lets do the same with power lines. If you want TRU or whatever electricity company services you, then if you want to switch to Red Energy or Origin Energy, should they run a new cable to your home? This is what happens now with the internet. Everything has to run over Telstra's cable unless someone else builds their own! Hardly sensible wouldn't you agree?

I know its too late to cry over spilt milk, but what should have happened, was that only the retail arm of Telstra should have been sold and the wholesale part empowered to deliver the national broadband network. Something that it was well on the way to achieving before government intervention.

@Goldie - Telstra and Optus are only interested in the cities, that's why the government stepped in to make sure everyone had access. Telecom/PMG as it was, built the copper infrastructure and that was a government enterprise so why not replace the copper via another GBE which will ultimately be sold off?

OMG. Can you hear yourselves? How much competing water do you have? How many water pipes to your homes? How much competing gas do you have? How many gas pipes to your homes? How many competing electricity companies do you have? How many power lines to your homes? How many competing phone companies are there? How many phone lines to your homes? People take a breath and smell the coffee. Seriously. Under the Liberal government, we got two HFC cables, to every 2nd house. And every 'even' house missed out! How is infrastrucutre competition a good idea???? Sure, have private companies can build the thing (which they are), but let a governing body design it for the best outcome for the whole country (like NBNco is doing). Seriously, some people are so blinded by the politics that they haven't stopped to think about the outcome of an alternative. An outcome that over the last 20 odd years, took us from being a world leader in comms, down to something like 52nd.... And as for the Ju-Liar comments, do you really think Tony Abbott can Axe the Carbon Tax before July 2014? A bi-partisan ETS is due for 2015 people!!! Why would he bother and where is the money going to come from? And why is Tony Abbott saying the NBN is a 'White Elephant' that needs to be 'paused', when his comms minister who has done the maths, understands we will need it?? It's time to do some research people. The information is easily available...

Cabidas -are you commercially linked to NBN by any chance as you're starting to sound like a desperate salesman? I think it is you who should do some homework -as a start I would suggest you look at the percentage of people that have declined to take up this "wonderous" service in areas that it is currently available and ask yourself the question "why" if it is so wonderous!! p.s the silence is deafening on your response to schools, hospitals, aged care doctors for the outback etc. etc. or don't they count in the equation ?

@dave d. The answer is no. I've had time off. And I've researched it. Turns out, if you read past the headlines, the NBN has alot to offer. But unfortunately most people don't have time to research things like telecom. And the snowy mountains scheme. etc. And they just belive when their frieds say 'The government always stuff things up.' Tell me, how much do you pay for a stamp anywhere you go in the country? The silence, is truely deafening. Google is a great place to start for research evidently. And I'm not talking about 'news'. But here is another reference point. ---> http://whrl.pl/Rdn7bA As for your comments about failure for takeup. If you took five minutes you would come up with two reasons: a) People are under contracts with their current provider b) It takes time to build infrastrucutre. The NBN is designed for 10 years time. When it is completed. It's too late to provide something, after the need is well and truely there. Horse Meet Gate. People whine when governments don't think ahead. And then when they do, they whine more. Just can't please some people it seems. Here is another reseach point -----> http://nbnmyths.wordpress.com/ But be careful, it might show you some information that will challenge your current view point. I trust you are able to take such a challenge as an opportunity. Sincerely and in good faith.

@Goldie >"No one is making you stay where you are so why not move to the city if you think we have it all." Why do people always play the city vs country card? What I'll lay down as a suggestion Goldie is this. You stay where you are, We'll stay where we are. We won't clog your roads and hostipals. You won't clog ours. We'll pay more for our internet and communications. And you can pay more for your Food, Milk, Electricity, Gas, Water, and Garden and Building supplies. Every single thing that is produced in the country, that is delivered to the city, you pay more for. Hows that for a deal eh? I'm more than happy to oblige. Sincerely and in good faith

@quale >"...and the wholesale part empowered to deliver the national broadband network. Something that it was well on the way to achieving before government intervention." Valid point. Wholesale and retail should have been separated. And it wasn't. That was the problem. Then Optus built HFC. And Telstra destroyed it by copying it verbatim. Every odd house got it, every even house didn't (so to speak). The government intervened, as Telstra was displaying anti competititive behaviour. And there was nothing the ACCC could do about it. They were also delaying investment to increase profits. Whereby some of my local counterparts have only just got broadband, about 3 weeks ago. All because Telsra owned the RIM, and were to tight to install Top Hats. And many in the country were/are in the same boat. It's 2013 nearly. And what year did broadband come to pass? Then, the government put out the NBN out to tender, and do you know what the price packages Telstra wanted? Do you know what ROI telstra wanted? It's all on the internet. So the government had to act. As no one else wanted to build it..... The vertical intergrated private monopoly that was created upon the sale of Telstra was the catylist for every problem we have in comms in this country. The horse had already bolted. All we could do was to fix the fence, buy a new horse, and close the gate. And that is what the current government has been doing.... Very soon the old copper will begin switch off. And we will see some very accurate take up rate data. NBNco has predictions in the corporate plan iirc around the 70% mark (for fibre). The proof will be in the pudding. However at this stage, for non mandated connections, the average takeup across the board is 14%. Above NBNcos prediction in the corporate plan. Again, the proof is in the pudding. (Malcolm Turnbull recently published a graph that illustrated same). For once the government has had the b*lls to think past it's current electoral cycle. And I won't condem them for doing that. Sincerely and in good faith.