High speed broadband can also transform and facilitate citizen interaction with government, through online voting, census collecting, and information exchange. Currently around 800,000 Australian households complete their census online, while over 1.9 million individuals lodged their tax returns online last year.

"Broadband can also lead to cultural revolutions. There is a growing trend among libraries, archives, museums etc to digitize their holdings and make them available online. High speed broadband will play an increasingly important part in accessing these materials, whether large files or as interactive media, for education or just for fun."

Rizvi also touted the NBN's ability to transform notions of how, where and when we work. Broadband enabled video conferencing and teleworking can significantly reduce the need for road and air travel, leading to increased productivity and reduced road congestion, travel time, fuel costs and emissions.

"For individuals this could mean much greater choice about where we live and play, and gives employers the means to offer more flexible working arrangements, to attract skilled staff from other areas of the country, and even to encourage people back into the workforce."

High speed broadband is also expected to reap rewards for Australian businesses and innovation, facilitating rapid file transfer, collaborative research and development across the nation and with the US and Europe, and aiding business continuity and disaster recovery.

"A ubiquitous, always on network can also support remote monitoring applications such as smart metering and smart grids, which will help us more efficiently manage electricity generation and consumption.

"The potential market for services delivered over the network is almost every Australian home and business...It's time to focus on the benefits, opportunities and potential the NBN will offer. It's time to start preparing the Australian economy and society for a world after the rollout of the network."

Rizvi said he was confident that there is a strong field competing to deliver the NBN, and has every reason to expect that the RFP process that requires a minimum speed of 12Mbps to 98% of premises will produce a very good outcome for Australian consumers.

"Furthermore, the government expects proponents to demonstrate their capacity to upgrade speed and services over time...The government is carrying out a review of the e-security framework, and with forethought the industry can also help make transactions over the Internet as appealing as possible to all users.

"This will inevitably influence the uptake and use of high speed broadband, increasing productivity across the economy, and improving services for all Australians. This is truly what a National Broadband Network is all about."