Review of the rollout of the National Broadband Network: second report

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PDFReview of the rollout of the National Broadband Network: second report

05 December 2011The Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network presented its Second Report on the Six Monthly Review of the Rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

The Review Report includes for the first time an examination of the Government’s performance report on the progress of the NBN and NBN Co’s performance. In addition, the committee broadly considered various issues arising from the rollout of the NBN including: the Definitive Binding Agreement between NBN Co and Telstra, the NBN Co’s Special Access Undertaking and Wholesale Broadband Agreement and access pricing for retail service providers.

The impact of the NBN on improved services for regional and remote areas was again highlighted. Services and affordability for low income households and disadvantaged groups was also focused on.

The committee made five recommendations which include that:

  • The Government’s Performance Report be formatted to ensure information is readily accessible through tables and graphs to assist in the comparison of data across years.

  • The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) review its existing clearance processes for providing answers to questions on notice with the aim of adhering to the notified due date or within a reasonable timeframe thereafter.

  • As a matter of urgency, the NBN Co formalise and publicise its policy for the provision of costing extensions to the NBN fibre footprint, especially for regional and remote Australia.

  • The NBN Co finalise and publicise its plans for community consultation wtih regional and remote Australia and report details of the progress, issues raised and numbers of participants to the committe.

  • The DBCDE undertake a study of methods to improve access for low income households and other disadvantaged groups to the NBN, which includes examination of community proposals for measures which would support a basic broadband account and a broadband low income measure scheme.
Publication typeReport
Publisher TypeGovernment or Gov agency
CoverageAustralia
Permanent URLhttp://apo.org.au/node/27384
Views1707

Comments

arkayspark
December 7, 2011, 7:50 am
Yes, there has to be access for low income households...and don't make the low too low either! If you work out how much farmers are worth and factor in the value of their farm.... Sure, do you want everyone on the land selling up and living off the proceeds? Are you really surprised that takeup up has not been huge when pricing structure is out of this world for _most_ people. The pricing structure is well above average broadband levels. All the NBN will do is make people envious and angry. The pricing structure should have low enforceable low entry prices. This is turning into a big money spinner for the sellers involved and making a mockery of the high ideals that NBN was esposing

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