LABOR’S $43 billion ‘superfast’ National Broadband Network is offering coverage to 93 per cent of households and will be government owned and operated.
The government says the remaining 7 per cent of households will receive a wireless or satellite signal.
This week, Labor revealed that the project would enable connection speeds of one gigabit per second – 10 times faster than originally planned.
Labor says the eight-year rollout will create some 25,000 jobs annually.
So far, 1200 kilometres of the optical fibre cable has been laid in Tasmania.
The coalition’s $6 billion ‘plan for real action’ encompasses an optical fibre, wireless, digital subscriber line (DSL) and satellite network.
The coalition says it will cancel Labor’s NBN and create a National Broadband Commission to manage a “competitive selection process” for private companies.
Most of the funding has been allocated to a $2.75 billion fibre optic ‘backbone’ that can be accessed by any telecommunication company.
A further $2 billion will fund new fixed wireless networks in metropolitan, rural and remote areas.
The seven-year initiative will deliver connection speeds between 12 and 100 megabits per second to 97 per cent of households.
The remaining 3 per cent will be serviced by a $700 million satellite signal.
