[LINK] Tasmanians to be forced to connect to NBN under new laws

Max Devlin lucifer.au at gmail.com
Fri Oct 8 02:18:56 AEDT 2010


[I think I just awoke in nazi germany]

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/tasmanians-to-be-forced-to-connect-to-nbn-under-new-laws-20101006-167vi.html


 Tasmanians to be forced to connect to NBN under new laws
Ben Grubb
October 7, 2010 - 11:08AM



David Bartlett, Julia Gillard and Stephen Conroy launch the NBN in Tasmania.

David Bartlett, Julia Gillard and Stephen Conroy launch the NBN in
Tasmania. Photo: Andrew Meares

Tasmanians will be forced into connecting to the national broadband
network (NBN) unless they "opt-out" of being connected under new laws
being proposed by its Premier.

It's unclear whether the plan will be extended nationally, but federal
communications minister Stephen Conroy said in July that he supported
the idea and that it was "the right way to go".

In June, Mr Conroy said that only 45 per cent of homes in the first
three Tasmanian suburbs to be connected had signed a consent form
opting into connecting to the NBN. Even so, it was unclear how many
would in turn sign up to an internet provider.


"The government welcomes this initiative by the Tasmanian government,"
Mr Conroy's spokesperson said in a statement to this website. "It will
enable faster and more efficient roll-out of the network and minimise
inconvenience to landowners, who will not have to confirm in writing
that they want to be connected.

"It will still allow landowners to opt-out of connection should they
choose to do so. This initiative would allow fibre to be connected to
premises; it does not commit people to taking a service from any of
the service providers."

Opposition spokesman on communications, Malcolm Turnbull, said in a
statement that the laws being proposed confirmed that the business
plan for the new broadband network “depends on compulsion and the
elimination of competing technologies”.

“The move adds compulsion to Labor’s existing plans to shut down
competing fixed line technologies (such as Telstra’s copper network,
or voice and broadband delivered over HFC pay TV cables) after NBN is
rolled out,” Mr Turnbull said.

“If Australian consumers want a fixed line for telephony or internet
access, they are going to have to use NBN’s line – like it or not.”

Tasmania's Premier, David Bartlett, said in a statement that he had
received advice indicating that the state government had the ability
to “legislate in this area” to become the first Australian state to
pursue an opt-out model.

“Already, more than half the householders and businesses in the first
three 'Smart Towns' have accepted a connection to optic fibre," Mr
Bartlett said. “That’s a good early result. But we’re also determined
to get that participation even higher, and ensure every Tasmanian
householder and business that wants access to super-fast broadband can
get it easily and efficiently,” he said.

Last week Mr Bartlett told this website that there was "massive
economic opportunity" in the NBN rollout for Tasmania.

Carrier relations manager at ISP Internode, John Lindsay, told this
website that premise owners that chose not to connect to the network
were devaluing their properties value.

He suspected one of the reasons that premises chose not to get
connected to the NBN in the first three towns in Tasmania was because
they were rental properties, with the owners - not the tenants - not
seeing the letter sent to them to connect them up.

On radio program 936 ABC Mornings this morning, the Tasmanian Premier
deflected Mr Turnbull's comments.

"This certainly isn't compulsion in fact it's a benefit for
householders. The fact that 50 per cent of people in the first towns
did take the time to fill out the form, send the form in, in busy
lives and busy schedules, is a great achievement but what we're saying
is those people who want NBN won't have to fill out that form now,
it's those who don't want the connection that will fill out [the] form
and say 'I don't want this'.

"Now there's no compulsion in that, it's simply tipping the balance of
the bureaucratic effort or the paperwork effort in favour of the
householders who do want to connect and I think as we've seen in the
last federal election result, the vast majority of Tasmanians support
NBN."




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