Woz Wants to Become an Aussie Citizen Because of Country’s National Broadband Network

You know Steve Wozniak as the oft-outspoken American programmer who co-founded Apple and invented the Apple I and and Apple II systems, but if he gets his way, you'll soon know him as a bona fide Australian citizen. One of the reasons why Woz finds taking up permanent residence in Australia so appealing is because the country's rolling out a national broadband network.

"I support it very much. It's one of the reasons why I actually like this country and want to become a citizen. I live in a country where we don't have any regulation of telecommunications," Wozniak told The Australian Financial Review in an interview.

According to Wozniak, he'll be able to retain his American citizenship, though he intends to call himself an Australian "and study the history and become as much of a real citizen here as I can." He seems genuinely interested in embracing Australian culture, and genuinely enamored with the country's broadband service.


Here in the States, Wozniak doesn't have broadband service at his California home. As a tech icon, it seems hard to fathom that Wozniak would go without broadband service, but it's a conscious decision he made based on the monopolistic landscape.

"There's only one set of wires to be on and I'm not going to pull strings to get them to do something special for me," he said. "When I worked at Hewlett-Packard we treated ourselves like a family and protecting each other and I believe in that."