Labor Cries Foul at New Broadband Ranking

By Greg McNevin

November 7, 2007: As election day approaches the two major parties are still at each other’s throats over broadband, with Labor landing the latest round of blows by accusing the Coalition of being a little liberal with speed figures.

The accusation comes in the wake of an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study that found a significant improvement in Australian broadband speeds. The organisation now ranks Australia as 9th in the world, a hefty jump from our previous spot at number 22.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan says this puts Australia ahead of industrialised nations such as Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States for broadband speed, connection growth and affordability.

Opposition spokesman Stephen Conroy disagrees, claiming that the statistics for 2007 provided to the OECD are estimates from the Department of Communications itself and not data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics as has been the case in the past.

“Helen Coonan, [..] directed the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to stop collecting statistics relating to broadband earlier this year, and as stated by the OECD the ABS had none available to supply,” said senator Conroy. “The OECD was left to base its findings on estimates provided by DCITA, resulting in Australia leap-frogging up the broadband rankings.”

Conroy added that the figures are based on advertised figures, not actual speeds that Australians receive, and that Australia is one of only four OECD countries to have broadband download limits.

Both parties have put forward proposals to improve infrastructure, with Labor proposing a fibre-to-the-node network connecting 98 percent of Australians paid for with $4.5 billion of taxpayer funding, which will be matched by the private sector.

The Coalition on the other hand is pitching a wireless network for rural and outer metropolitan areas, which estimated to cost $1.1 billion, while relying on city capacity to be built up by the private sector.

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