Australia announced that they're sick and tired of lacking decent broadband and they aren't going to take it anymore. Prime Minister John Howard unveiled a $1.68B US plan to deploy fiber and wireless connections to 99% of Australians with a minimum speed of 12Mbps. The wireless portion, which would serve rural areas, is expected to be able to ramp up to 70Mbps while urban areas will be connected via fiber optics with an initial speed of 50Mbps. Some members of the opposing Labour Party want to do a full-on fiber network to everyone… at a cost nearly triple the current proposition on the table. Sounds like Australia gets it when it comes to broadband policy.
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