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Council denies it misled on broadband deal

Brisbane Council Opposition accuses Mayor of misleading constituents

Brisbane City Council denies it has misled its constituents that an agreement had been reached to have fibre optic broadband running through its sewage pipes.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman announced on Thursday last week that work on the fibre optic network would start in early 2011 at no cost to ratepayers.

Multinational company i3 Asia-Pacific has promised to provide the technology within four years, with plans to roll it out to 15,000 homes a month.

However, Brisbane Council Opposition leader Shayne Sutton has accused Mr Newman of misleading constituents, citing that no firm contract had yet been signed between the two parties.

"It is absolutely irresponsible that Councillor Newman has announced this scheme without any contract, agreement or details," she said.

Finance and Economic Development Councillor Adrian Schrinner on Wednesday confirmed no official contract had been signed between i3 and Brisbane City Council.

He said last week's announcement was to advertise an agreement would be signed.

Mr Schrinner couldn't give a timeframe on when a contract would be signed, only saying the finer details would be provided to cabinet and full council in due course.

"Councillor Sutton's assertion that this council misled constituents is simply untrue," Mr Schrinner said.

"At no stage during the announcement did we suggest an agreement had already been signed but we do have an agreement in principle."

He said i3 proposals for superfast broadband would be available to Brisbane businesses and residents within four years.

"We're about getting Brisbane residents access to superfast broadband internet as soon as possible so council will be working very proactively with i3 to help get their scheme up and running," he said.

The scheme is expected to provide broadband speeds of up to 100 megabits per second, which would allow large files like movies or video conferences to be downloaded or streamed in seconds.

The i3 group's CEO, Elfed Thomas, says it will cost the company about $600 million to roll out.

The infrastructure will not double up on the federal government's National Broadband Network.

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More about: Brisbane City Council, etwork, Newman

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