Broadband plan raises questions for developers

Property developers are calling for the Federal Government to clarify planned moves to require the installation of fibre-optic connections directly to all premises in large-scale new developments.

Urban Taskforce Australia, which represents property developers, says the government is planning to require developers to install optic fibre in all large-scale greenfield and apartment developments from July 1 next year, as part of its plan for the rollout of a national broadband network.

Aaron Gadiel, chief executive of Urban Taskforce Australia, says developers should only have to fund internal works on a master-planned site.

“We’re asking the government to clearly say the network provider will pay for any links from the master-planned estate to the national broadband network,” Gadiel says.

“Linkage infrastructure and the cost of upstream headworks – such as optical fibre distribution centres – are network costs. These should be recovered from users of the network at large.”

Gadiel says developers shouldn’t have to install optic fibre cable if there’s no prospect of the necessary linkage infrastructure being installed.

“A developer shouldn’t be compelled to install fibre-to-the-premises unless the necessary linkage infrastructure is already present, or there are concrete plans to guarantee its presence in the immediate future,” he says.

“A developer won’t get any marketing advantage for installing optic fibre if the new technology can’t be used.”