Australia - Opposition says it would use and not discard the NBN

[smh] Malcolm Turnbull says a Liberal government won't discard existing National Broadband Network (NBN) infrastructure if it wins the next election.

The shadow communication and broadband minister made the comments at a business banking forum in Sydney today.

Mr Turnbull said the Labor government's plan to close the existing copper wire network and replace it with a fibre optic network was wasteful.

"You can be sure that we won't start ripping things up (if elected)", he said in his opening address to the AB+F Corporate and Business Banking Forum.

Mr Turnbull said it was "simply reckless and irresponsible" of the government not to perform a cost benefit analysis before spending $43 billion on the NBN.

"The Gillard government must urgently undertake a thorough cost benefit analysis of the NBN," he said.

"Its stubborn failure to do so can only lead us to conclude that it does not want to know what it fears it will reveal."

Mr Turnbull said overcapitalising on the NBN infrastructure would lead to higher prices for customers, or a loss for the government.

"It will either have to charge higher prices from the customer, or for political reasons ... not be able to generate adequate returns and end up with a value below its $43 billion."

Libs won't 'rip up' NBN: Turnbull