AM Stephen Dziedzic Updated August 03, 2011 10:11:19
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The Federal Government's National Broadband Network is starting to become more of a reality, with construction to begin in six new sites over the next five months.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says this stage of the rollout will cover more than 50,000 premises.
He says Springfield Lakes and Aspley in the Brisbane region, Toowoomba in Queensland, Riverstone in western Sydney, Coffs Harbour, NSW, and Gungahlin, ACT, are next in line for the NBN.
The federal government-owned NBN Co will also extend its current network in Armidale, Kiama and Jamberoo in NSW as well as Townsville in Queensland.
"The National Broadband Network is a reality today, there are over 600 customers using it in Tasmania and the connections across mainland Australia will continue to increase and increase," Senator Conroy said.
"The average time from start to finish is around 12 months so we will see 50,000 new premises with NBN connections within 12 months."
NBN Co's Dan Flemming says workers will be highly visible in the communities selected.
"There will be lots of people working in the streets both underground and aerially, so it will be quite conspicuous. One of main games is that we don't congest areas too much," he said.
The service, which provides access speeds of up to 12 megabits per second, will be rolled out in Geraldton in Western Australia, Toowoomba in Queensland, Tamworth in New South Wales, Ballarat in Victoria, and Darwin from the middle of next year.
Senator Conroy says NBN Co was largely responsible for choosing the rollout sites.
"I would love to be able to tell you that I've been influential in these matters," he said.
"When it came to the first five release sites I pointed out to the engineers at NBN that Western Australia hadn't been included in the first five release sites, that I thought perhaps that given it was a national broadband network Western Australia should be included in those sites.
"And history will show that Western Australia wasn't included in the first five release sites, so my capacity to influence these decisions are clearly shown to be fairly minimal."
The Federal Opposition's Broadband spokesman, Malcolm Turnbull, says the new NBN sites will be kept if the Coalition wins the next election.
"All of the NBN infrastructure will remain in place and we will ensure that its value is maximised," he said.
"[Prime Minister] Julia Gillard likes to say the Coalition would tear up the NBN.
"That's nonsense. Our objective is to ensure that all Australians have access to very fast broadband at an affordable price and that is delivered in the most cost effective way to taxpayers."
Slow take-up
Apart from Tasmania, the NBN is already operating in Armidale and Kiama.
More than 6,000 homes are connected in those towns, but there are reportedly less than 50 active customers at this stage.
But Senator Conroy is not worried by that figure.
"When we announced the activation there was a limited trial taking place and we were aiming for a small number of trial customers," he said.
"It's not open to everybody who wants to use it at the moment being able to use it.
"But again I repeat - the Telstra deal means we are disconnecting the copper network. If you want a fixed line it will be a piece of NBN fibre.
"This argument about take-ups will be completely irrelevant once the Telstra shareholders vote."
Senator Conroy anticipates a final decision from Telstra shareholders in October.
"[The] ACCC obviously have to finalise all of their considerations but the intention at this stage is for there to be a mid-October vote with Telstra shareholders," he said.
The Opposition has been pointing to breakthroughs in wireless technology that have got a bit of media attention.
It says that it shows the importance of being technology-agnostic.
But Senator Conroy denies the NBN relies too heavily on fibre technology.
"The technology that has been talked about recently is in the very early stages and we continue to maintain that wireless and fibre networks are entirely complementary, not competing, as Malcolm Turnbull has spent the first half of the year pretending," he said.
"You all have heard Malcolm say over the last six months that wireless is the way, wireless is the future.
"Well why is he now announcing a fibre-to-the-node build of his broadband policy?"
NBN heading for six new towns - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
