China warming to broadband competition

China is allowing more competition in building broadband infrastructure than Australia, where the federal government has created the National Broadband Network (NBN) monopoly, according to Opposition communications spokeperson, Malcolm Turnbull.

Turnbull said the lack of a cost-benefit analysis of the NBN by the federal government had increased unease about the network as Australians learnt how other nations were increasing their broadband infrastructure.

"Are we so confident in our own innate genius to believe that our approach - a massive, new government-owned fixed line broadband monopoly - is correct, and as a consequence, every other country is wrong," Turnbull said at the Broadband World Forum in Paris.

"It is very uncomfortable, as an Australian, to sit with telecoms executives and officials in China and be told that the NBN approach would not find favour in their country because 'in China we are seeking to promote competition in telecommunications infrastructure'."

The federal government has begun rolling out the $35.9 billion NBN.

It is planned to connect 93 per cent of Australian homes and businesses by fibre-optic cable (FTTH), with the rest supplied by wireless and satellite in remote areas by 2021.

Turnbull said a coalition government would restore competition within the local telecommunications sector with different technologies providing broadband services.

He said this should be undertaken by the private sector, not the government.

"Our approach will be technology agnostic," he said.

The level of government contribution to broadband projects varied between nations, but "Australia's dwarfs all of them", he said.

Government subsidies could support the rollout of a FTTH but the government's investment was an "extravagance" compared to public financing in Singapore or New Zealand, Turnbull said.

"Beyond the traditional object of ensuring people in rural and remote areas have access to telecommunications services, what are the other appropriate objects for subsidy?"

Turnbull said the rest of the world could learn from Australia's experience where "starry-eyed politicians and staggeringly expensive technology are a dangerous mix".

"The current Australian government's approach to NBN shows a blind pursuit of superfast broadband at any cost can lead you to some very anomalous policy outcomes," he said.

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