Anti-FTTN petition attracts 200,000 signatures

An online petition calling on the Coalition to reconsider its plan for a fibre to the node (FTTN) solution for the National Broadband Network (NBN) has received more than 200,000 signatures since its creation shortly after Saturday’s election.

Creator Nick Paine, a university student from Queensland, created the change.org petition to “highlight Australia’s desire for a superior fibre to the home (FTTH) broadband solution, rather than the Coalition’s proposed FTTN solution”.

Paine is reportedly a Liberal voter. He told ABC News that, although most people are happy with the Coalition being elected, “I just felt as far as the National Broadband Network policy (is concerned), I think that was one area that didn’t quite reflect the Australian attitude”.

“As currently proposed, the Coalition’s FTTN solution relies on the existing copper lines to supply individual premises access to the National Broadband Network over the last mile or so,” the petition says. “However, copper wiring solutions are rapidly approaching a century of implementation, with its inception dating back to the 1920s. As such, its technological limits as well as associated weaknesses are rapidly developing.”

The Coalition’s promise of 100 Mbps download speeds and 5 Mbps upload speeds will not be sufficient for future demand, the petition claims, and an FTTN solution is unlikely to support future technology.

While the Coalition has pointed to the success of FTTN implementation in the UK and USA, these countries are already looking to move on from this technology, the petition says. “So why position Australia and our future generations behind the rest of the world’s leading nations with a technology that they themselves are already decommissioning?” the petition asks.

The advertised speeds of 100 and 5 Mbps are purely theoretical, the petition claims, since actual speeds will be dictated by the distance of a premises from the node. Those who have already been connected to the FTTH method will have an unfair advantage over those who are connected under the FTTN method. To access the FTTH solution, users will need to pay an additional connection fee, and, “if connection costs are even remotely reflective of overseas models, it will prove unaffordable for the majority of Australian households”, the petition argues.

The petition also criticises the Coalition’s cost vs speed proposition: “It is disconcerting to find that your government is proudly quoting an approximate $30 billion cost, roughly two-thirds of Labor’s approximate $45 billion cost, yet it will only manage one-tenth of the speed (with the deficiency in speed likely to continue to grow as time goes on).”

“The promoters of this petition apparently believe that we should ignore the lengthy public debate on the NBN that preceded the election and also ignore the election result,” Malcolm Turnbull, the Coalition’s communications spokesperson, wrote on his blog. “We should within days of the election walk away from one of our most well-debated, well-understood and prominent policies. Democracy? I don’t think so.

“We want to ensure that all Australians have very fast broadband soon, as cheaply and as affordably as possible. The NBN project at present is running over budget and way behind schedule. At the current rate of progress, it will take decades to complete and close to $100 billion.

“There will be a strategic review conducted within the next 60 days which will show how long it will take and how much it will cost to complete the NBN on the current specifications and what that means to both the taxpayer and to the consumers. We will also set out what our options are to complete the project sooner and more cost-effectively and again what that means in terms of affordability and of course in service levels.

“Every public infrastructure project has to be carefully and honestly analysed so that governments, and citizens, can weigh up the costs and benefits. This study is vital for the public to be fully informed and our redesign of the project will be informed by the result of those studies.”