Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull says that while it’s impossible to future proof the NBN, the government is focused on delivering the most flexible network possible to provide a long-lasting high speed solution.
“What do you do in the face of so much uncertainty? You maximise for flexibility so you can adopt the best strategy for each situation. This is, of course, the heart of the Multi-Technology Mix approach.” said Mr Turnbull.
Despite the difficulties faced in the NBN rollout, Mr Turnbull remains positive about the future of the network, and highlights the importance of focussing on innovation, imagination and forward thinking.
“In my experience of the NBN – keeping in mind I have spent a lot of time on the outside looking in, and now on the inside looking out – our learnings about the project have had an inverse relationship to the excitement it has elicited in the Financial Review’s editorial pages. The further up the learning curve we have scaled, the further back in the paper the stories have ended.
“And that’s not a bad thing. The national conversation has to move on from the pits and pipes to the cool things that people are doing with high speed broadband – to the innovations, the disruptions, the transformations and above all the imagination of people taking advantage of the opportunities afforded to them by the new digital infrastructure, “ said Mr Turnbull.
Mr Turnbull’s comments were made at the AFR Infrastructure Summit. Read the full speech.
