AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL BROADBAND NETWORK: Keeping copper wire in ground on coastal flood plains

The Abbott Government intends that the last section of the National Broadband Network which enters an Internet users premises will remain the original copper wire installed by Telstra – unless the user is rich enough to pay for the laying of optic fibre between the street node box and their residence/business.

Giving evidence before the Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network last week, NBN Chairman and Acting CEO Dr Ziggy Switkowski on the subject of fault levels on Telstra’s copper wire-based telecommunications system:

I am certainly familiar with the issue in the sense that long periods of drought tend to be associated with lower fault levels than seasons that are very, very wet. The difference might be two or three per cent out of a 10 per cent to 15 per cent base. I am just guessing here or trying to remember.......

Northern Rivers communities will be alarmed at this statement, given the number of floods and heavy rain periods the region experiences. 

Because what Dr. Switkowski statement indicates is that there is little hope that the Abbott broadband scheme will see any improvement in the rate of server dropouts or in upload/download speeds for Internet users on the NSW North Coast.