The Northern Territory government has bitterly complained about a lack of competition in the telecommunications market that it claims has led to it paying Telstra three to five times more for some communications services than the rest of the nation.
The Labor government has kept quiet about the previous administration's Australian Broadband Guarantee as it prepares to axe the initiative in order to concentrate on the national FTTN rollout, according to Shadow Communications spokesperson, Bruce Billson.
The government has extended its subsidy to help rural Australians establish a broadband connection by four years.
Despite fears the Australian Broadband Guarantee (ABG) might be axed, the Rudd government has approved the subsidy for Australia's most remote Internet users for one more year.
After Bruce Billson, Opposition spokesperson for Communications, claimed yesterday that the federal government is planning on cutting subsidies to rural and regional broadband providers, a number of industry sources have cast doubt on whether the policy axe has been raised over the Australian Broadband Guarantee.
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