30 Sep 2013

NBN strategic review wanted by new minister

8:26 am on 30 September 2013

The change of government in Australia is leading to big changes in the telecommunications industry.

The national broadband network is the biggest infrastructure project in Australia right now.

The $A44 billion project to deliver ultra-fast fibre internet to every home in the country was the brainchild of the former Labor government.

But Radio New Zealand's Sydney correspondent reports it's been the subject of cost over-runs and delays.

Now, incoming communications minister Malcolm Turnbull has demanded the resignation of the NBN board and a strategic review of the whole project.

Mr Turnbull proposes a cut-down $A30 billion broadband plan, in which the fibre would go only as far as neighbourhood junctions and then feed into homes using the old copper line phone network.

Radio New Zealand's correspondent reports it's cheaper, but it's slower.