3 NEWS: TelstraClear is questioning the National Party's plans for fibre-optic expansion, saying the main result of faster broadband links to the home may be more downloads of pornography and movies rather than improvements to productivity.
In April National leader John Key announced his party's plan for a public-private partnership to put broadband into every home and business through fibre cables during the next six years.
Under the plan, the government would invest $1.5 billion as part of a $2.5 billion to $5 billion partnership, which would provide speeds many times faster than Telecom was proposing.
TelstraClear chief executive Allan Freeth said National's proposal did not take account of demand, The New Zealand Herald reported today.
"What we are seeing is a series of questionable studies and hype," pushing fibre links to the home as a priority, he said.
Dr Freeth said existing technology such as ADSL and the newer VDSL, combined with Telecom's cabinetisation programme, where fibre-optic links exchanges to cabinets or "nodes", would be just as valuable as fibre to the home.
Politicians and local bodies planning fibre-optic rollouts should be careful because they could discourage investors such as Telstra from investing.
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