Coalition boasts million premise NBN milestone, while Labor says Turnbull is taking credit for its work
Communications Minister Malcom Turnbull today announced that over million premises can now be connected to the National Broadband Network (NBN). 752,313 of these premises are serviced through fixed line connections, 220,917 through fixed wireless, and 38,743 through an interim satellite service. No distinction was made between fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) and fibre-to-the-premise connections.
Turnbull also used the opportunity to criticise Labor's approach to announcing progress on the NBN rollout.
"What Labor used to do was declare areas ready for service. So they’d go out and say 'Yep! NBN’s here, it’s ready for service ladies and gentlemen', and boast about it in parliament," said Turnbull. "Even when on occasions, 90 per cent or more of the premises couldn’t actually get a service even if they asked for one."
Turnbull said that under the Coalition government, areas aren't declared ready for service until 40% of premises can be connected "within a couple of weeks" and another 40% within "just under a month".
Shadow Communications Minister Jason Clarke hit back at Turnbull, saying that the Coalition is taking credit for Labor's work.
"Malcolm Turnbull today put on his trademark charm and did a song and dance about the one millionth home or business in Australia that has access to the National Broadband Network," said Clarke in a press release. "What he didn’t reveal is that more than 99.8 per cent of these homes and businesses have access to the former Labor Government’s version of the NBN. Less than 2,000 of these homes and businesses have access to Malcolm Turnbull’s second rate copper version of the NBN."
NBN began its FTTN rollout in November of last year, with the aim of connecting 200,000 homes and businesses in 12 months.
FTTN technology makes use of fibre optic cables that are run to a central cabinet serving a neighbourhood. Customers then connect to this cabinet through Telstra's copper lines. NBN pilot program on the Central Coast has shown customers attaining download speeds of up to 96 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 30 Mbps.
