Coonan pulls a fast one on broadband

Labor’s communications spokesman Stephen Conroy says that the latest rankings, listing Australia as having the 9th fastest broadband in 30 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, is based on estimates. He accuses Communications Minister, Senator Helen Coonan, of supplying figures that make the department look good, not the actual speeds.

"This statement by the OECD that these figures are just based on departmental estimations demolish Helen Coonan's claims that Australia has leap-frogged up the table," he said. "Helen Coonan needs to get out more. She needs to hear how much Australians are crying out for faster broadband."
 
His statement supports Labor’s campaign promise to roll out a $4.7 billion high-speed broadband network to improve general access and to boost the speeds of business and household connections.
 
Coonan refuted Conroy’s accusation, saying the Australian Bureau of Statistics provided the data to the OECD. She replied that Rudd’s Labor has “misrepresented very egregiously what Australia's position currently is".
 
"He's been bagging Australia's broadband performance and quite wrongly claiming that we rank even behind the Slovak Republic," she said. “We have a practical plan for the future to extend high-speed broadband to 99 per cent of the population by 2009 at retail prices of between $35 and $60 per month. Contrast this with Labor's proposal, which will miss one in four households, cost families upwards of $100 per month and won't be available until 2013."
 
Australia is now 12th in the OECD ranking for broadband penetration, reflecting the uptake of broadband internet per head of population.