Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

One of the mix of technologies advocated by industry experts, WiMAX, is a proven fixed wireless technology that has already been deployed and trialled by 275 operators across 65 countries, including the United States, Canada and much of Europe. I think it is commercially rolled out in about 35 countries. In fact, I received a letter dated 19 June 2007 from Nortel, a leading global vendor of telecommunications equipment, confirming:

WiMAX will provide a leap forward in the delivery of broadband services to rural and regional Australians.

Nortel goes on to say:

WiMAX is the world’s most advanced global standards based wireless technology. It has been designed to provide users with a true broadband internet experience while enjoying the benefits of wireless freedom.

In fact the global WiMAX forum now has over 420 companies signed on to support this technology. It includes companies such as British Telecom, Motorola, Samsung, Fujitsu, AT&T and Alcatel. These are major companies that perhaps even the Labor Party might credit with some capacity to understand this. They certainly would not be investing in unproven technology. It goes to show that any serious commentator who is not trying to push their own commercial interests would tell you that you do need a mix of technologies to deliver world-class high-speed affordable broadband.

A year ago Senator Conroy was on record praising the virtues of a mix of technologies when he told the Connecting Up conference:

The most important infrastructure in this regard is the infrastructure that allows the delivery of broadband, optical fibre, DSLAMs and wireless base stations.

Well goodness me, Mr President, that appears to be what our policy does. But poor old Senator Conroy has been forced into a one-size-fits-all solution that is very inferior and can only reach 72 per cent of the population and would leave three million premises without a high-speed broadband service. The challenge is for the Labor Party— (Time expired)