Labor welcomes the announcement by NBN that Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) will be expanded to a further 440,000 premises.

Today’s announcement is an admission that the long-term economics of fibre are superior to those of Turnbull’s beloved copper and HFC.

A year ago, Labor called on NBN to abandon Turnbull’s copper rollout where design or construction had not commenced, and deploy FTTC as a minimum standard instead.

This would have delivered FTTC to 1.4 million premises.

Despite twelve months trying to resist reality, today NBNCo announced it would switch a similar number of premises to FTTC.

This will benefit consumers and small businesses which are part of the switch, but offers little consolation for copper users, including those in many regional areas.

The Australian public will not forgive this Prime Minister for the utter folly that is his multi-technology mess.

Turnbull’s poor judgement will leave millions of Australians with an inferior broadband service at greater cost to the taxpayer.