Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition leader Bill Shorten should put politics aside and agree on fibre-to-the-driveway (FttDP) technology for the national broadband network, Internet Australia chief executive Laurie Patton says.
Patton, who has been a constant critic of the multi-technology mix NBN that is being built by the Turnbull government, told Sky News on Sunday that a compromise on FttDP technology - which would make the distance from the road to premises to be served by copper minimal - would ensure a 21st century network.
Today, he said the current NBN strategy was "crap". It had been "cobbled together using Telstra's ageing copper wires", he said, adding that "last week we saw NBN co launch 'the biggest spin cycle' since someone invented the automatic washing machine".
He was referring to the NBN Co chief executive Bill Morrow who released the first-half results for the company building the network; the rollout is now showing a loss of $1.83 billion.
{loadposition sam08}Morrow went on the record as saying that Australians did not want faster speeds than what was on offer now, and would not use gigabit connections even if they were given such connections free.
And exactly why Australia will continue to lag behind... @NBN_Australia need to have a chat to @ChorusNZ pic.twitter.com/7SuSBgwZym
— Michael Meloni (@michaelmeloni) February 9, 2017
"Internet Australia has consistently maintained that the issue is not about the Internet speeds we need now but what we will need in the future," Patton said.
He said FttDP was not in use when Labor launched the NBN or when former prime minister Tony Abbott told then communications minister Turnbull to take the knife to the NBN.