Abbott Proven Wrong On NBN Again

In his federal budget reply speech on 10 May 2012, opposition leader Tony Abbott made a pretty bold statement on how the National Broadband Network (NBN) would hurt household budgets:

“Why spend fifty billion dollars on a National Broadband Network, just so customers can subsequently spend, almost three times their current monthly fee for speeds they might not need?”

A three times their current monthly fee? Really?

“Fears that consumers would be hit with massive bills after signing up to the national broadband network may prove groundless, with new research finding almost two-thirds of customers pay the same or less than before.”

People are spending less?

“After interviewing 282 households in Brunswick, one of the first neighbourhoods in Australia connected to the NBN, researchers from the University of Melbourne and Swinburne University of Technology found 63 per cent of households that joined the NBN reported their internet bills had either stayed the same or decreased. About 26 per cent said their bills had increased somewhat.”

Almost everyone is spending the same or less?

Interesting.

Once again, Abbott is wrong about the NBN, but since he is “no Bill Gates”, I guess that makes some kind of sense.

“Most of those surveyed (82 per cent) thought the NBN was a good idea. This supports national research showing the NBN is Labor’s most popular policy – with about 70 per cent of the population in favour of it.”

Yeah – why do something popular? Maybe there’s something more to it?

Fail.

Fail hard.