By Angela Dorizas

The Federal Government today announced that it will build a new $43 billion national high-speed fiber-optic broadband network through a public-private partnership.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the Government had rejected bids in the tender because they did not offer value for money to the taxpayer, opting to establish a new company to roll-out the National Broadband Network (NBN).

He said the NBN would be the single largest nation building infrastructure project in Australian history.
 
“It is the most ambitious, far-reaching, and long-term nation-building infrastructure project ever taken by an Australian Government,” Rudd said.

“Like the building of the Snowy Hydro, the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, this is a historic act of nation-building.”

The scheme will connect 90 per cent of homes, schools and workplaces through fibre optic (fibre to the premise or FTTP), providing broadband speeds of up to 100 megabits per second, which is 100 times faster than speeds currently available.

Rudd said the NBN would support up to 25,000 jobs each year, on average, over the eight year project.

The Federal Government will be the majority shareholder of the new company, but it also anticipates significant private sector investment.

The Government will make an initial investment in the company, through the Building Australia Fund and the issuance of Aussie Infrastructure Bonds (AIBs), but will gradually sell its share within the five years following the construction of the network.

The jointly owned company will invest up to $43 billion over eight years to build the NBN.

According to the Government, it will be the biggest telecommunications reform in two decades, because it would separate the infrastructure provider and retail service providers, lead to great competition and deliver better services.

“This solves once and for all the core problem created when the previous prime minister privatised Telstra a decade ago without ever resolving the conflict of a private monopoly owning the network infrastructure and dominating the retail market,” Rudd said.

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has labeled the plan as unviable, claiming that consumers would be forced to pay more for broadband internet under the proposed scheme.

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