The federal government says the major infrastructure investment will create as many as 25,000 jobs over the next two years as the existing fibre-to-the-node rollout is extended along streets across Australia.
But Mr Fletcher said Labor's plan had been to build fibre everywhere, before people were willing to pay for it. Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in his recent book said he changed the NBN's technology approach in part because people were not ready to pay for superfast speeds.
The NBN Co is required to provide 25Mbps peak speeds to all premises and 50Mbps to 90 per cent of fixed line connections, but there has been growing demand for faster speed tiers.Mr Fletcher said the number of people taking up a 50Mbps or higher service had risen from less than 20 per cent in 2016 to about 70 per cent today.
, announced on Tuesday, to provide more than a million businesses around the country with the option to have fibre rolled into their premises free of charge.Competitor TPG, in response to the $700 million regional announcement, said NBN Co should look to provide infrastructure in areas under-served by private companies rather than build over existing fibre networks.
Labor communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland said the regional fibre announcement showed the coalition had got it wrong when it moved away from the fibre-to-the-home model.
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