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No where defines the digital divide more than New England, Labor’s New England candidate says. Armidale is benefiting from its fibre to the premise NBN rollout, while the rest of the electorate is suffering through the of the “outdated copper” fibre to the node technology, David Ewings said. “It’s been an absolute shmozzle, it’s a total joke,” he said. Mr Ewings said the Coalition promised its version of the NBN would be half the price and fully rolled out by 2016. “They’ve failed on both those counts,” he said. “It’s not all about watching Netflix, the NBN is crucial for communications with health services and business that are ever increasingly needing to transfer large files to potential customers everywhere.” Shadow Regional Communications Minister Stephen Jones said the current NBN was “last century’s technology”, that wasn’t even fit for the needs of today’s businesses and households. “This is the NBN that Barnaby Joyce championed, the NBN he forced upon regional voters,” Mr Jones said. “It’s not fit for the present, let alone the future – our data consumption is doubling every two years. “The network Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce are rolling out at the moment is not fit for our existing demands, but we're expected to have this well into the future.” Mr Jones said it was “going to be very difficult to unscramble the Coalitions egg”. “One thing we can do is stop the rollout of the copper technology and revert to fibre, we know it is the only future proof solution,” he said. “The stories across regional Australia are the same – businesses and households saying we cannot do our basics, our kids can’t do their homework, out businesses are losing thousands of dollars. “We want the NBN we were promised. We shouldn’t be spending $50 billion on a new network, only to have it the service worse than the one it replaced.” However, Mr Joyce said take up of the NBN in Tamworth (22 per cent) was already double that of what it was in Armidale (10 per cent) after the same three-month period. “When completed in a few months time, the Tamworth fibre to the node rollout will have taken just over a year, compared with more than 40 months for the Armidale fibre to the premise,” he said. He said the Tamworth fibre to the node rollout saved around $40m, and the vast majority of people seem satisfied with their speed, with 90 per cent choosing an internet plan of 25 megabit per second or less. “The Labor party can continue to talk our region down, but they are serious about New England advancing, they’ll stop blocking the things that we’re doing to drive more jobs to the region and put more money in locals’ pockets,” Mr Joyce said.

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