At long last, the Australian government has revealed that its ambitious National Broadband Network (NBN) will cost $40.4 billion.
Overseen by the joint public-private NBN Co., the new broadband network was one of Australia's ruling Labor party's election promises in 2010.
Calling it "the telecommunications development of our century," Australia's prime minister Julia Gillard has high hopes for the NBN. Gillard argues that the NBN will drive the country's economic growth by 1.3 percent, but exactly when it will be able to see that growth is unclear.
Just the same, NBN Co. president Mike Quigley has given the network equally rosy outlook, claiming that the network will generate annual revenues between AUD5.8 billion in 2021 to AUD7.6 billion by 2025.
Also, the Australian government will finalize its $10.9 billion purchase of Telstra's wireline network would be completed next month.
For more:
- Bloomberg has this article
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