Australia’s broadband infrastructure is falling behind technology leaders like Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway, and it needs to change.

In June 2011, out of the 34 OECD countries, we ranked 21st in terms of fixed broadband take-up. OECD statistics confirm that Australia has  fallen behind for fixed broadband download speeds.

As of September 2011 we are four places below the OECD average in advertised download speeds across all fixed line technologies and even worse for fastest available advertised cable speeds (6th slowest) and DSL speeds (13th  slowest).

The OECD statistics also demonstrate that Australia is generally amongst  the most expensive countries for broadband.

For example, as of September 2011, Australia is the fifth most expensive country in the OECD for low speed, low data cap broadband plans.

The NBN will provide key infrastructure to support Australia becoming one of the world’s leading digital economies by 2020 and be a critical national asset for generations to come