Despite reported delays and cost blowouts, Eden-Monaro’s move towards 21st century internet is “proceeding apace” according to the Coalition government.
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The expected cost of the much needed National Broadband Network (NBN) in Eden-Monaro will be between $90-100million, according to federal member Peter Hendy.
"I am pretty confident the costings are basically right," he said recently.
I am pretty confident the costings are basically right.
- Member for Eden-Monaro Peter Hendy
Before the last election the Liberal Party promised all premises would have access to download speeds of 25megabits per second (mbps) to 100mbps by the end of 2016.
"By the end of 2018 some 73,000 premises will be able to be connected in the Eden-Monaro,” Dr Hendy now says.
Despite recently leaked NBN internal progress reports, Malcolm Turnbull told parliament in February there are no problems with the either the pace of the roll-out of the NBN nor its budget.
One report, which was never intended to be made public, revealed the project had drifted off course, mainly during the time when Mr Turnbull was communications minister.
Dr Hendy said the reason the budget has blown out to over $46billion is due to the Coalition’s use of figures provided by the Labor government prior to the 2013 election.
He said the Labor government had estimated fibre to the node (FTTN) would cost $29.5billion and Mr Turnbull has now "worked the figures properly".
Although the government has focused on what it promised would be a less expensive approach, the leaked documents also show discrete trialing of a cheaper FTTP option in Victoria.
The Coalition’s use of both FTTP and FTTN technology has been described by Labor as a creating a “digital divide” in the electorate.
Eden-Monaro’s Labor candidate Mike Kelly said last month the Coalition was creating “two classes of people in Eden-Monaro - those who are lucky enough to have fibre all the way to the home and those who are not”.