Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Birmingham for maybe his fourth or fifth question—I have lost count, we have had such a rush in the last few days. Mr President, I am aware of the report. I am aware of the media reports that iiNet has more customers connected to fibre-optic cabling than NBN Co. I did see that. I am glad to see you are still reading about the portfolio, Senator Birmingham.

Increasing numbers of Australians on fibre to the premise technology is a very good thing. According to those opposite we were going to wipe out all the other fibre providers. Remember that debate: a long debate in the chamber that no-one else would be able to provide fibre to the home. But to paraphrase iiNet CEO Michael Malone, fibre to the premise is the best internet connection around. This is a fact that obviously escaped the tactics committee and Senator Birmingham in preparing the question: I note that of iiNet's 10,700 fibre customers, 25 per cent—or around 2,700—are connected through the NBN. That is actually there in the fact of those 10,000—2,700 are NBN customers.

In fact, I can now update the Senate. As I said yesterday, but was verballed in the question, there are 'more than 7,000'. Let me give you an update, and each time I get a chance to give you an update you will see it has gone up. There are 8,613 fibre customers on the NBN as of 23 November. This has now pushed us past 30,000 NBN customers all across Australia. (Time expired)