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Abbott rejects claim he endorsed NBN

Tony Abbott has rejected communications minister Stephen Conroy's claim that the opposition leader has endorsed the NBN

Opposition leader Tony Abbott has rejected Labor claims that he supports the National Broadband Network (NBN) as a way of improving mobile services in the bush.

The Mount Isa newspaper, the North West Star, this week reported Abbott as saying a fibre network would "significantly" lift broadband and mobile phone coverage in remote areas.

"It's the sort of thing we could get cracking on straight away," Abbott said in the interview.

Communications minister Stephen Conroy seized on the comment as Abbott endorsing the NBN, which will provide high-speed communications through a fibre-to-the-home network.

But a spokesperson for Abbott said the comments were not a tick for the NBN.

"Tony's remarks were a direct endorsement of what the coalition's policy can do for regional Australia, unlike the wasteful and poorly targeted NBN," the spokesperson said.

Abbott said in the interview that the coalition had promised at the federal election to allocate $4 billion to upgrade telecommunications infrastructure in poorly serviced areas, and any new policy would "build on" this promise.

Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.

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Tags: mobile services, National Broadband Network (NBN), NBN, networking, Tony Abbott
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