Labor to launch NBN blueprint

Communications minister, Senator Stephen Conroy

Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and communications minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, will tomorrow unveil a blueprint for the National Broadband Network (NBN) in hope of sparking political debate on communications policies between the two parties ahead of the Federal election. 

According to Conroy, the blueprint will allow the Australian public to see which towns receive fibre, wireless and satellite aspects of the Labor party's proposed network.

Tomorrow's announcement was pre-empted in a speech given by Senator Conroy today to attendees of a press conference held by the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), in which he summarised the party's broadband, digital economy and digital television policies while also slamming the Liberal party for the lack of a communications policy.

"We've got a very very exciting announcement that will actually be the footprint of the National Broadband Network," Conroy said. "You'll be able to see if you're the 93 per cent fibre, you'll be able to see if you're in the 4 per cent wireless and you'll be able to see if you're in the 3 per cent satellite."

The announcement, which will be held in Perth, will allegedly mark the start of the Labor party's campaigning for communications to be "front and centre" on the Federal election agenda.

"I'm hoping [it] will mean next time we see each other - hopefully next week - we'll be able to say, 'yep it's on the agenda now', and it's going to be debated all the way through," Conroy said.

Throughout his speech, Conroy continued to argue that communications was a key point of differentiation between the two political parties throughout the election campaign.

Conroy's announcement comes as the Federal election campaign continues between Liberal and Labor parties with little mention of communications policies from either party, despite the release of election manifestos from industry bodies like the AIIA and the Internet Industry Association (IIA).

Conroy has already announced that, in accordance with the NBN Implementation Study released earlier this year, the amount of premises receiving fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology will be extended to 93 per cent from 90 per cent.

However, the Coalition is yet to announce its policy, fuelling speculation that it will revive the terminated OPEL project, with some sources claiming the party will introduce a fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) network in order to cut costs.

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