Apple Co-Founder Wants to Be Australian Citizen

Steve Wozniak

Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, would like to become an Australian citizen, The Australian Financial Review reported on Tuesday, citing the rollout of Australia's national broadband network as one of the reasons for the move.

The idea behind Australia's $38 billion National Broadband Network is to allow all Australians to have high-speed Internet access by 2021.

"It's one of the reasons why I actually like this country and want to become a citizen," the publication reported Wozniak as saying. "I live in a country where we don't have any regulation of telecommunications."

Wozniak told the Australian newspaper that his home in California was not connected to a broadband service, referring to the options available to him as a "monopoly."

Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Jobs and created the original Apple computer. He left Apple (AAPL), now the world's most valuable listed company, in 1987, and is an author and philanthropist.
According to the Review, Wozniak, who was in Australia last week during the launch of the iPhone 5, told a local radio station that he was "underway to become an Australian citizen."
"It turns out I can keep my American citizenship. I intend to call myself an Australian and feel an Australian, and study the history and become as much of a real citizen here as I can," the newspaper quoted Wozniak as saying.

Wozniak lined up outside the Apple store in Chermside, Brisbane, on Friday to buy the iPhone 5, the Review reported.
Earlier this year, Facebook's (FB) co-founder Eduardo Saverin renounced his U.S. citizenship. Saverin is a citizen of his native country Brazil, but is a permanent resident of Singapore, where he has lived since 2009.