The decision of Australia's Labor government to proceed with the rollout of fibre-to-the-premises (FttP) broadband in the country has been endorsed by Fleur Pellerin, France's delegate for small and medium enterprise.

Endorsing Australia's NBN rollout, Pellerin said, during her recent interaction with reporters in Sydney, that she was "very impressed" with the Australian government's FttP broadband rollout project which will involve a spending of AU$37.4 billion.

With the Australian government's decision coming within weeks of an announcement by the French government about its own _20 billion plan for high-speed broadband, Pellerin said that France had opted for FttP for a large part of its rollout; and elaborated that FttP is "the best and the most sustainable solution" for ensuring that quality, very high-speed broadband can be rolled out to the people.

Noting that France's broadband rollout will also apparently improve its "attractiveness" in Europe, Pellerin said that very high-speed broadband was one of the key parameters for the attractiveness of a country; a fact that had prompted France to use the best technology.

In her statement endorsing Australia's plans to go ahead with the FttP rollout, Pellerin said: "We had the same debate in France. Should we do some more vectoring because it is cheaper? Maybe today we don't realise what kind of speed our citizens will need in the mid term."