While he might have gotten the exact rollout dates wrong, Google – in the shape of CEO Eric Schmidt – (the same man Stephen Conroy thinks is the “founder” of Google”) – has delivered glowing praise towards the NBN at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
| Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Loves The NBN |
“Let me start by saying that Australia is leading the world in understanding the importance of fibre. Your new Prime Minister as part of her campaign and now as part of her prime ministership, has announced that by roughly I think 2015, 2016, 93% of Australians – which I guess are all the folks in the cities – will have gigabit or equivalent service using fibre, and the other 7% will be handled through wireless services of a nature of LTE. This is leadership. And again, from Australia, which I think is wonderful.”
Whether or not you understand the NBN, or believe the FUD created by certain heavily right-leaning sections of the Australian media, such praise for the project is hard to ignore.
With NBN services taking something very close to their final form, it is time to start listening to people who know what the network will mean for our country, rather than listening to the political luddites who wouldn’t know social and technological advancement if it bit them on the posterior.