If you want a fast broadband connection as part of the National Broadband Network (NBN) then you are a “pointy head”, according to Liberal Senator for Queensland, Ian McDonald.
The senator, who is also the chairman of the Senate select committee on the NBN, made the comments when asking a question to NBN Co chief, Mike Quigley, about the Tasmanian stage one rollout at a Senate Estimates hearing.
McDonald was attempting to find out whether service providers, iPrimus, iiNet and Internode, would have to compete with existing ISPs for business in the towns of Smithton, Scottsdale and Midway Point, which will be connected to the NBN by 1 July and serviced by the three companies.
“They are going to have to compete for the householder, now as you know, the pointy heads will want the very best, but most households, and you’ve done the surveys haven’t you, on what most households want?” MacDonald asked Quigley.
For his part Quigley, answered in the affirmative but said he couldn’t give the answer simply due to the way they segment the market.
The issue of uptake on the NBN has been a point of contention for many observers and the Liberal party has attempted to leverage fears a lack of interest would mean the project’s failure to justify its call to scrap the project.
After the NBN Implementation Study was released, for example, BBY's Mark McDonnell, said uptake at the more expensive, faster speed plans could be slow.
Quigley has previously argued there will be significant demand for higher speeds in future with fixed bandwidth speed demands to reach one gigabit per second (Gbps) by 2020.
Quigley’s position is supported by most industry observers and is backed up by Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures on the continued uptake of faster speeds by Australian Internet subscribers.
The Urban Dictionary defines a "pointy head" as: 1. A person who, whilst most likely possessing above-normal intelligence, nevertheless annoys the living crap out of their friends and acquaintances due to a tendency to expound ad infinitum upon uninteresting topics, using lots of long words.