Coonan: Conroy 'completely wrong' about VoIP

Senator Coonan's office has hit back at Labor's communication spokesperson Stephen Conroy for comments he made about using VoIP over WiMax during a debate last week.

Towards the end of the Sky debate, broadcast in conjunction with ZDNet Australia, Conroy asked Coonan why she was supporting a broadband technology not guaranteed to work with VoIP.

"Would the Minister agree that one of the main benefits of broadband for small businesses is the ability to slash ... costs using voice over IP -- telephone calls over the Web.

"Why is she supporting the OPEL fixed wireless broadband network, which can't guarantee to deliver voice over the Internet," asked Conroy.

At the time, Coonan avoided the question, instead choosing to quote research that rated Australian broadband better than that used in the US, Germany and Japan. However, ZDNet Australia mid-week received an e-mail from Coonan's office, which said: "Conroy was completely wrong about VoIP on WiMax".

The e-mail contained a letter from Samsung Electronics in Korea, stating that "VoIP is a current feature of the Samsung WiMax 802.16e network equipment" and that the 802.16e was recently accepted as a global standard by the International Telecommunications Union.

Coonan's latest attack on Conroy was in retaliation for Labor's communications spokesperson accusing her of lying and "rewriting the laws of physics".