Government To Legislate On NBN Connections

The federal government has introduced legislation to ensure new homes are connected to super-fast broadband.

The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Fibre Deployment) Bill 2010 is a new piece of legislation that is being introduced that means people have superfast fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) infrastructure installed in new developments across Australia.

The Government envisages that fibre networks in new developments will operate on an open access basis, just like the NBN, and that wholesale services will be offered on an equivalent basis.

The Bill amends the Telecommunications Act 1997 to provide a legislative framework for the installation of optical fibre and fibre-ready telecommunications infrastructure.

The framework allows the Minister of Communications, Senator Stephen Conroy, to set out, in subordinate legislation, which kinds of developments need to have optical fibre installed and which ones need to be made fibre-ready. The Minister may also specify conditions for both fibre and fibre-ready facilities, in order to ensure they meet technical and service standards.