The Internet Reacts To Mitch Fifield Saying NBN Is Better Now

What’s the plural for bullshit?

The answer, at least not in the technical sense, isn’t the NBN. The Communications Minister Mitch Fifield seems to think the NBN is actually a vast improvement on the previous iteration, penning an op-ed for the Australian where he described it as a “failed Labor project, flawed in conception and design” that has since been “salvaged”.

"Broadband was a mess until Coalition delivered earlier and cheaper solution" The Australian https://t.co/an8qXGqOak pic.twitter.com/jqbZXqgQam — Mitch Fifield (@SenatorFifield) April 9, 2019

“The rest of the world, like Australia, had a fibre backbone to its network, but unlike Australia, used a range of technologies for the final connection. Why? Because it was cost effective and faster to do so,” the minister wrote, ignoring the bit where fibre installations cost less to rollout over time, as New Zealand telco Chorus showed.

That left out the part where the telco industry is preparing for a writedown of the network that could cost up to $20 billion. Or the bit where over 180,000 FTTN users can’t even get 25mbps, which is equivalent to 7.6 percent of all users connected via FTTN. Or the under-reported levels of conversion in the fixed wireless network, where one in ten users on microwave and fibre transmission are getting speeds of less than 6mbps in busy periods.

Australia Has Spoken Earlier today NBN Co released its progress summary for the first quarter of FY2019... right when the above image was doing the rounds on the internet. How's that for timing? Read more

Naturally, Australian internet did not take the Minister’s op-ed well.

I hope people on the street know you helped wreck their country. https://t.co/xjcqlFBTcI — Tim Jones (@Forthleft2) April 9, 2019

Australia ranks 59th in the world for broadband speeds, just ahead of Kazakhstan but behind Paraguay. Mr Fifield seems to have missed that somehow. https://t.co/Poq23QB7V6 #NBN https://t.co/hhMQ0gLri4 — Rohan MacMahon (@rohmac) April 9, 2019

As if- your "solution" costs twice as much and delivers no minimum speed. The LNP screwed our future… pic.twitter.com/AQgB6Wmb6N — #21srcenturydialup (@meck01) April 9, 2019

Must have missed that. All I hear are horror stories about slow traffic, poor connectivity, abysmal service & embarrassing comparisons with obscure countries about Internet service. You wrecked the NBN. — Theresa Hackett (@LadyofWildernes) April 9, 2019

Hey @SenatorFifield

Care to explain to me why your $50+ billion NBN is able to offer me slower speed internet access than what I already have that cost me way more money.

How much further down the list of global internet speeds have we dropped under your government? — #IStandWithGoodes (@thematador66) April 9, 2019

Seriously? You vandalised an infrastructure plan that would have brought all Aussies together into the future. You wrecked it. You have left people behind. Your NBN is expensive and unreliable. You should be ashamed! — Lady Marmalade (@LouMiksza) April 9, 2019

Others replied by highlighting the quality of their service or installations.

"consumers are shelling out more for basic internet access under the #NBN than they were for ADSL plans that provided the same speeds." #LNPfail #auspolhttps://t.co/IZDhHOcLNo — Simon Rosenberg (@simon_rosenberg) April 9, 2019

The only thing fast with #nbn is the rate we're falling behind other nations speed thanks to @TurnbullMalcolm @TonyAbbottMHR & #LNP — Angel Ioannou (@Angelioannou) April 9, 2019

Celebrations for the NBN’s 10-year anniversary arrived not long after the government passed laws that would fine and impose jail terms on social media companies and their executives if they failed to remove abhorrent content within a reasonable time frame. The ABC revealed on Friday that social media companies were consulted about the legislation after it was passed.