Australia - Opposition spokesman has used a UN report on broadband to argue for a market-based alternative to the NBN

[the australian] MALCOLM Turnbull has seized on a UN report that urges a competitive, market-based approach to the development of highspeed broadband networks.

The report by the UN’s Broadband Commission for Digital Development recommends "a market-led approach facilitated by an enabling policy environment" as the best way to promote the deployment of and use of broadband networks.

And it has called for a "technology neutral" mix of fibre, wireless and other technologies to get there.

Coalition Communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull has seized on the report as proof that there is no need to be "dogmatic" about the need for a fibre network.

The report found that "it is unlikely that any single technology will be able to provide all the answers".

And while it described optical fibre as "desirable at the core of the Internet and for the majority of backhaul traffic", it found that "at the edges of the network and in particular in the hands of end-users, it is most likely that mobile devices will deliver many applications and services".

Fast broadband best served by market: UN report