Telstra says NBN pretenders need to put up or shut up

In his ‘Australia is at a crossroads’ speech, Trujillo said a 95 percent issue is equipping Australia for the Gigabit Age and building a nationwide high-speed fibre broadband network, ‘on time and on budget’.

“This is 21st Century nation-building; an enormously complex task given Australia's size, population and terrain. It requires massive investment, potentially more than the Australian Government has committed to the water crisis in the Murray-Darling Basin,” he said.

“It also offers massive rewards, with benefits to the Australian economy estimated conservatively at $200 million a month. It won't be easy; it's high risk; but it's do-able”.

Trujillo claimed that contrasted with what he believes is a five percent issue – ‘micro-regulating’ - access pricing on next generation networks to the point where, guess what, no one invests in the first place.

“That's been the story of Australia's attempts to secure a high-speed broadband future up till now, a policy failure of epic proportions,” he stated.

“We need to change the game. In the case of the National Broadband Network (NBN), we're already way past the point where process is the answer. Every day we delay investment is a day of lost opportunities, as I hope to convince you today.”

He believes that after 17 years of economic growth, this should be a time of bold action, as Australia embraces the ‘Gigabit Age’.

“Broad banding Australia is transformational reform that cuts across every part of our economy and every facet of our lives. Within our reach is a new era of collaboration, interaction and communication - moving from the physical to the virtual,” said Trujillo.

“Whatever sector of the economy we work in, whatever part of Australia we live in, whatever field of human endeavour we choose to explore - a broadbanded Australia is a richer, healthier, more connected, more sustainable society.”

He claimed Telstra wants a world-class fibre network that stands the test of time; infrastructure that can deliver on-line services of all types - including information, entertainment and real-time, high-definition interactive video communications.

“Muddling along with three megabits or 12 megabits per second is no longer good enough. Australia will need 30, 50 or 100 megabits per second over time. Korea, Japan and some European countries already have or are building 50-100 Mbps fibre networks,” Trujillo said.

“Building a world-class National Broadband Network is the biggest and most complex engineering project this country has ever seen. It is time for the great pretenders to put up or shut up.”

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