Labor's Broadband Shock
6th December, 2007
Labor’s broadband shock – prices to rise by 50 percentIt is now becoming clear that consumers can expect massive price hikes for their broadband and home phone services under Labor’s ill-thought out broadband plan, the Leader of The Nationals, Warren Truss, said today.
“Quite frankly, Labor misled the Australian public before and during the election campaign on broadband,” Mr Truss said.
“Labor said its $4.7 billion plan would reach 98 percent of the population – it won’t. The broadband reach will be more like 75 percent, leaving three million households and small businesses in the lurch.
“The Coalition stated that Rudd Labor’s communications slug on customers would cost more than $100 per household per month. Labor denied the claim, but front page newspaper reports today make clear that Labor was not telling the truth.
“The reports suggest that the average monthly bill for broadband, fixed line telephone and line rental will jump from $101 to $150, or an extra $600 a year slug on the budgets of working families.
“Many experts believe Labor’s broadband network will cost three times what Labor has budgeted so far. What will the cost to consumers be then?
“All this from a Labor Party that promised to make all sorts of things from groceries to petrol more ‘affordable’,” Mr Truss said.
In contrast, the Coalition promised a fully costed scheme that would have covered 100 percent of the population through a mix of technologies – fibre, wireless and satellite. The cost to consumers would have been no more than $60 a month for fast broadband of between 12 and 50 megabits per second. The network would also have been available in 2009, with support for regional consumers through the $2 billion Communications Fund.
“Labor will cover less Australians and ignore most people living outside the capital cities, its network will take four years longer to build, will cost up to $90 more per household each month and is largely funded by stripping money from the Future Fund.
“Rudd Labor’s grand promises on the ‘future’ depend upon getting the range, speed and costings of its broadband plan right for Australian consumers. It already appears as if Mr Rudd and his team have stuffed it up,” Mr Truss said.
