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WILLUNGA - Malcolm Turnbull spread the Liberal party's message in the southern vales that the party would deliver a cost efficient National Broadband Network, if elected into government in September. In a win for remote and regional areas, Mr Turnbull said the network would be rolled out according to who had the least access to the internet at the moment. Speaking at the Willunga Bowling Club on Friday, February 22, Mr Turnbull said the Liberal party would deliver a fibre cable to the nearest node, or internet exchange, and feed off the existing copper wires. This differs to Labor's model, where each house would receive a fibre optic cable. This, he said, would be cheaper than Labor's current proposal and would make it easier to accept new technologies that may emerge in 10 or 20 years. However, he was adamant the speed of the service would still be very high. "I am confident we can get the vast majority of Australians at least 25-megabits per second within three years," he said. "There many be new wireless technologies that emerge in the near future. "For people who say they can predict the future, I am sceptical." Mr Turnbull was critical of Labor's model to set up the National Broadband Network as a private business, rather than have the service run by private firms. He said it was something he wanted to investigate. "It's a long-term project, it's literally unsaleable [at the moment]," he said. Mr Turnbull said the Liberal goverment would build on Labor's current infrastructure for the network and would honour existing contracts with Telstra in the delivery of the service. He did not give any clear-cut answers about how much the Liberal model would cost, and said it had been difficult to get information about how many houses have received the new technology.

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Turnbull's NBN election promise for regional areas