IT industry rejects Coalition broadband policy

The telecommunications industry has all but united in their rejection of the Coalition's recently released broadband policy. Several prominent IT professionals have labelled the policy a 'grab-bag' of old ideas, clearly dismissing the Coalition's plan as a failure to provide a long term solution for their industry.

Of concern to many in the IT and small business sectors, some analysts claim that the policy would 'not substantially improve on today's broadband speeds'.

The Coalition confirmed it would scrap the national broadband network as it announced plans to spend $7 billion over seven years. However, despite the much publicised launch of their policy, Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, was unable to explain most of the detail on the ABC's 7:30 Report. When pressed for specifics, Mr Abbott replied that he was 'not a tech-head'.

Alternatively, the Federal Labor government plans to spend $26 billion building a fibre broadband network of 100 megabits a second to 93 per cent of Australian households.