THE coalition's plan to deliver earlier and cheaper broadband to Australia has been dismissed as slow and inadequate by the government and IT experts.
In announcing the coalition's first major policy of the election year, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott promised that if elected, his government would offer all households and business minimum download speeds of 25 megabits a second (Mbps) by the end of its first term in 2016.
But Labor's National Broadband Network (NBN) offers download speeds of up to 100 Mbps, with a plan to give households and businesses access to speeds of up to one gigabit per second to those connected by the end of 2014.
Critics say the main plan to roll out optic fibre cable to "nodes" - cabinets on street corners - short-changes the nation's communications infrastructure future.
"It cannot deliver the high-speed services that Australians require to take full advantage of broadband-enabled healthcare, education and business opportunities," Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said in a statement.
RMIT University telecommunications expert and senior lecturer Mike Gregory said the policy wasn't a sensible answer to Australia's communications needs.
"This is the biggest lemon in Australia's history," Dr Gregory told AAP.
"What they are trying to do is offer us a bag of lollies by saying we can do it cheaper and faster, but what we are really being sold is a lemon."
The coalition's NBN would cut costs by using Telstra's copper network from the node to premises in city and most rural areas - bypassing Labor's plan to roll out optic fibre cable all the way.
"We will build fibre-to-the-node and that eliminates two-thirds of the cost," Mr Abbott told reporters in Sydney.
The capital cost of the NBN under the coalition's plan is $20.4 billion, against Labor's $37.4 billion.
Including other funding, the cost rises to $29.5 billion to complete the project by 2019, while Labor's project would be $44.1 billion to finish by 2021.
Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said the policy was based on what telecommunication companies and other governments were doing around the world.
"What we are presenting here is a plan that is consistent with the best practice in the world," he said.
Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne said installing tens of thousands of boxes on street corners meant most households would be "stranded" on a decaying copper network, while new housing estates received modern fibre technology.
"It's a farce," Senator Milne said in Hobart.
An incoming coalition government would aim to have its fibre-to-the-node rollout fully under way by the second half of 2014, following several reviews into the NBN project.
And if it wins a second term it promises to increase the minimum download speed to 50 Mbps for 90 per cent of Australians by 2019.
Mr Abbott said 25 Mbps was more than enough to cater to the average household's broadband needs.
"We are absolutely confident," he said.
Download speeds are currently around 5 Mbps.
Meanwhile, the director of Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society, Rod Tucker, said the coalition's fibre-to-the-node network would use twice as much power as Labor's.
"There is more energy being consumed by that network, which in turn creates a greater greenhouse impact than a fibre-to-the-premises network," Prof Tucker told AAP.
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