Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Senator Stephen Conroy said legislation was today introduced to ensure new homes were connected with infrastructure to deliver superfast broadband.
The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Fibre Deployment) Bill 2010 provides the legislative framework for having superfast fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) infrastructure installed in new developments across Australia.
On 7 April 2009, the Government indicated that, to complement the National Broadband Network, it would introduce legislative changes to facilitate the roll out of fibre to greenfields developments.
"Our legislation takes a sensible, targeted and measured approach to the implementation of this policy," Senator Conroy said.
"It allows us to target those estates where it is possible to have fibre now, while ensuring others have fibre-ready infrastructure installed so it is easier and cheaper to connect them later.
"It doesn’t make sense for new houses to be fitted with old copper technology, particularly when it is easier to put fibre or fibre-ready technology in when homes are first built.
"High speed broadband is becoming a critical utility service like water, electricity and gas.
"We want to see people in new estates getting access to superfast broadband as soon as possible."
The Government envisages that fibre networks in new developments will operate on an open access basis, just like the NBN, and that wholesale services will be offered on an equivalent basis.
The Government recognises that the future structure of the telecommunications sector needs to be addressed. This is precisely why we have separately introduced the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2009, which is currently before the Senate.
The Bill introduced today amends the Telecommunications Act 1997 to provide a legislative framework for the installation of optical fibre and fibre-ready telecommunications infrastructure.
The framework allows the Minister to set out, in subordinate legislation, which kinds of developments need to have optical fibre installed and which ones need to be made fibre-ready.
The Minister may also specify conditions for both fibre and fibre-ready facilities, in order to ensure they meet technical and service standards.
Details of the subordinate legislation will be publicly released by the Government in the coming weeks, before the Bill is considered by the Senate Communications Committee and Parliament.
Regulations made under the legislation will also provide for an access regime to facilitate third party access to fibre-ready facilities.
The Bill also amends the industry codes and standards processes under Part 6 of the Telecommunications Act to make it easier for codes and standards to be made about optical fibre infrastructure and services where this is required.
Since April 2009, the Government’s greenfields policy has been the subject of extensive consultation, including a discussion paper, input from a Stakeholder Reference Group, one-on-one consultations and release of an exposure draft Bill in December 2009.
The Government intends to refer this legislation to the Senate Environment, Communications and the Arts Committee immediately, so that it is able to be debated in the Budget sittings.
The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Fibre Deployment) Bill 2010 provides the legislative framework for having superfast fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) infrastructure installed in new developments across Australia.
On 7 April 2009, the Government indicated that, to complement the National Broadband Network, it would introduce legislative changes to facilitate the roll out of fibre to greenfields developments.
"Our legislation takes a sensible, targeted and measured approach to the implementation of this policy," Senator Conroy said.
"It allows us to target those estates where it is possible to have fibre now, while ensuring others have fibre-ready infrastructure installed so it is easier and cheaper to connect them later.
"It doesn’t make sense for new houses to be fitted with old copper technology, particularly when it is easier to put fibre or fibre-ready technology in when homes are first built.
"High speed broadband is becoming a critical utility service like water, electricity and gas.
"We want to see people in new estates getting access to superfast broadband as soon as possible."
The Government envisages that fibre networks in new developments will operate on an open access basis, just like the NBN, and that wholesale services will be offered on an equivalent basis.
The Government recognises that the future structure of the telecommunications sector needs to be addressed. This is precisely why we have separately introduced the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2009, which is currently before the Senate.
The Bill introduced today amends the Telecommunications Act 1997 to provide a legislative framework for the installation of optical fibre and fibre-ready telecommunications infrastructure.
The framework allows the Minister to set out, in subordinate legislation, which kinds of developments need to have optical fibre installed and which ones need to be made fibre-ready.
The Minister may also specify conditions for both fibre and fibre-ready facilities, in order to ensure they meet technical and service standards.
Details of the subordinate legislation will be publicly released by the Government in the coming weeks, before the Bill is considered by the Senate Communications Committee and Parliament.
Regulations made under the legislation will also provide for an access regime to facilitate third party access to fibre-ready facilities.
The Bill also amends the industry codes and standards processes under Part 6 of the Telecommunications Act to make it easier for codes and standards to be made about optical fibre infrastructure and services where this is required.
Since April 2009, the Government’s greenfields policy has been the subject of extensive consultation, including a discussion paper, input from a Stakeholder Reference Group, one-on-one consultations and release of an exposure draft Bill in December 2009.
The Government intends to refer this legislation to the Senate Environment, Communications and the Arts Committee immediately, so that it is able to be debated in the Budget sittings.
3 comments:
- At 26 June, 2010 00:39 Anupam Das said...
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is there any time estimation set by the the government, within which the high speed internet would be available for everyone?
- At 26 June, 2010 12:17 Stephen Davies said...
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8-10 years is the time frame for the roll out of the network.
FTTP is already being delivered into new greenfield estates today. - At 28 July, 2010 19:59 home improvement said...
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It is a great thread of our government FTTP is already make a statement.
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