Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey has given the strongest hint yet that the federal coalition’s alternative broadband plan will place a large emphasis on wireless, Communications Day reported this week.

Talking to 2GB yesterday, Mr Hockey affirmed that a coalition government would save tens of billions of dollars by cancelling the NBN. While he supported the goal of higher speed broadband, he said “some things are not affordable.”

Without revealing details of a policy that is to be released later in the five week campaign, Mr Hockey said, revealingly, “I favour the mobility of wireless.”

He said the cost of a universal fibre network would “eventually be beyond the capacity of households to pay.” Mr Hockey said that a senior Telstra executive had told him that the NBN would have to sign 5,000 new customers a day for 8 years to financially work. “This is another liability we have to face,” he added.

The shadow treasurer acknowledged a general demand for faster broadband, but said that people were increasingly favouring mobility and were not interested in being tied to the desktop. He also implied that the NBN cost would be more digestible if the government hadn’t already spent billions on economic stimulus.

The coalition is likely to announce a policy hailing a return to a more targeted Opel-style broadband policy for the regions with more of an emphasis on wireless.

Meanwhile, an Engineers Australia report on NSW infrastructure gave the state’s telecom infrastructure a mark of C minus. The Chair of the Engineers Australia NSW infrastructure report card committee, Ian Pedersen, said, “The State’s infrastructure is under stress in many areas and needs major changes to rise above its generally average to poor condition.”

“There remains a lack of strategic planning, coordination and integration and a commitment to existing plans and, with population growth driving further demands, the public and private sectors will need to invest a significant amount of money to bring NSW’s infrastructure up to a reasonable standard.” “B” ratings were given for Airports (B), National Roads (B-) and Potable Water (B-). “C” ratings were for Roads Overall (C-), Ports (C), Wastewater (C+), Stormwater (C), Irrigation (C), Electricity (C-), Gas (C) and Telecommunications (C-). Bringing up the rear were State Roads (D+), Local Roads (D+) and Rail (D-).