Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Last week the government announced its broadband package for Australia, and opposition members received under their door a preprepared press release which said, ‘Fast and affordable broadband for Prospect.’ I thought that was very good and I listened intently to the Prime Minister’s speech in the House. He tabled certain maps and pointed out that the red dots were the best level of service and that red on the map was good. I opened my map with anticipation but I saw no red at all. Almost the entire electorate of Prospect was in green. I looked up to see what the green meant and it said it was OPEL wireless WiMax. I then did some research. Here is what the experts say about the government’s broadband plan and WiMax. Bill Tolpegin, the vice-president of planning for EarthLink, said:

Nobody has high-bandwidth, low-cost networks that deliver. They are not telling the truth, not even the WiMax vendors.

What did others have to say? A respected expert from the University of Wollongong said—

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