NBN CEO Says Aussies Wouldn’t Use Superfast Internet Even If It Was Free

And in today’s basket of “are you fucking kidding” news, I present NBN Co CEO Bill Morrow.

A solid majority of the country is waiting eagerly to get connected to the National Broadband Network, and with good reason: Australia’s internet sucks. But at the announcement of NBN Co’s half yearly results yesterday, NBN Co chief executive Bill Morrow figured things weren’t too bad and that we didn’t really mind that much anyway.

When asked about the possibility of offering connection speeds of more than 100 megabits per second, Morrow reasoned that the demand wasn’t “that big” and the data from providers overseas showed consumers that had access to superfast speeds weren’t making the most of that capacity.

That’s perfectly understandable. And then Morrow, as reported by the Courier-Mail, said this.

“Even if we offered it for free, we see the evidence around the world that they wouldn’t use it anyway … we know there are things on the horizon that are going to increase the need for further demand.”

Understandably, people aren’t impressed.

According to iTnews, the NBN chief executive added that “roughly” 1.5 million Australian homes had the ability to receive a gigabit internet connection. “A couple of retailers have signed up to our trial base where they’re looking at what a 1Gbps service might look like but they have chosen not to offer it consumers … I presume there isn’t that big a demand out there for them to actually develop a product to sell to those end users.”

Again, that’s a wholly reasonable statement to make. But the premise that Aussies wouldn’t use superfast internet even if it was free?

Yeah, nah.


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