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

You really should not use Piers Ackerman as your laws-of-physics source, because Mr Ackerman continues to be completely wrong. He is wrong in his claim about fibre, because he is one who has also made that claim. He is actually dead wrong. He could not be more embarrassingly wrong except if you read his next paragraph. Each one gets more embarrassing as it goes along, but he has made this ludicrous claim about the cost of maintenance of fibre. It lasts past 30 years and in many cases the latest fibre lasts past 50 years.

Yes, there is some maintenance, but let me tell you it is an awful lot less than the maintenance program for the deployed copper network that Telstra have to pay. The cost of maintaining that copper network approaches nearly $1 billion a year. We are all familiar with the stories about Telstra having to use a gel in the more humid areas of Queensland because the copper is literally degrading in the ground. So, when it comes to the cost of maintenance, copper far exceeds that of fibre-optic cable. (Time expired)