91k issue plea to Abbott on NBN

Nick Paine aiming to get more than 150,000 signatures on his online petition

Nearly 92,000 people have issued a plea to prime minister elect Tony Abbott to continue the National Broadband Network (NBN) with a fibre-to-the-home plan, instead of the Coalition’s proposed fibre-to-the-node plan.

In April this year the Coalition announced its broadband policy, with 71 per cent of Australia to get fibre-to-the-node (FFTN); 22 per cent to get fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP); 4 per cent to get fixed wireless; and 3 per cent to get satellite.

This compares to Labor’s plan for 93 per cent of Australia to get the NBN via FTTP, with the rest to be serviced by satellite or fixed wireless.

The petition, which is being run through the change.org website, has been running for several days and now has more than 91,000 signatures.

The petition organiser, Nick Paine, is aiming for a target of more than 250,000 signatures. He is urging people to sign petition as well as write to Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull to ask them to reconsider their proposal for the NBN.

“Having lived abroad for several years I have witnessed first-hand how far behind Australia is in this respective infrastructure. Your party’s claim to the success of FTTN implementation in other countries such as the UK/USA are irrelevant with said nations already seeking options to move on from this out-dated technology,” Paine writes in his petition.

“So why position Australia and our future generations behind the rest of the world’s leading nations with a technology that they themselves are already decommissioning?”

The Coalition expects its NBN will be completed in 2019 at a capital expenditure cost of $20.4 billion, requiring $29.5 billion in funding.

This compares to Labor’s NBN which would have cost $37.4 billion in capital.

“[These] ‘savings’ figures do not factor in the cost of upgrading the FTTN network again when the time comes just a few quick decades down the road,” Paine.

“These upgrade costs on top of your $30 billion estimated cost, combined with inflation rates will result in a budget blowout which will well exceed that of the Labor party’s existing NBN proposal.”

Paine has addressed his petition to Abbott, Turnbull, the Liberal Party and the Senate.

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Tags Malcolm TurnbullNational Broadband Network (NBN)Tony AbbottFibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP)fibre-to-the-node (FTTN)

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