The demand for faster broadband and the lack of private sector investment in the appropriate infrastructure has incited national public debate on how much of a “clever country” Australia really is. OECD reports show that communications services in Australia are among the most expensive and least value for money among developed countries.
The effort to keep up the pace of broadband innovation has been blamed on a number of factors. As the government gradually shed its controlling interest in Telstra, its retail, wholesale and the monolithic network infrastructure were not broken up and sold separately. While this maximised the value of the company at sale, this granted the company ownership of the national copper phone network. This resulted in frequent run-ins with the ACCC over anti-competitive practices. Another problem for broadband in Australia is its low population density. Rolling out broadband infrastructure is expensive, and where the return on investment is deemed low, such as in rural areas, only government subsidies have ensured that services are put into place.
The government has pledged to fix our broadband woes in the last federal election with a policy that would create and fund a new public company to oversee the building of a National Broadband Network (NBN).
What is the NBN? In April, 2009, the Rudd government announced the founding of a company called NBN Co with the purpose of building a National Broadband Network. The goal is to connect 90% of all Australian homes, businesses and schools to broadband with speeds of up to 100 megabit per second and other 10% to wireless and satellite broadband with speeds up to 12 megabit per second transfer speeds. The entire project is expected to take up to 8 years, with fibre optic cable and infrastructure to be rolled out in metropolitan, regional and rural areas simultaneously. With a budget of $43 billion, the government embarks on a very ambitious project that will cost a great deal to the tax payer, but promises to pull Australian broadband into line with the rest of the developed world.
Another Telstra? Having promised to keep NBN Co wholesale-only to the Australian broadband market, draft legislation shows the company will be able to offer retails services if the government approves them. This could put the company in direct competition with its wholesale customers. This has raised strong concerns of possible anti-competitiveness with the company being operated under wide ministerial discretion.
Meanwhile, the government is forcibly separating Teltra’s retail and wholesale/network structure into separate entities. The telco giant and the government are playing a legal “cat and mouse” game as the government threatens to deny Telstra access to 4G mobile broadband spectrums if it doesn’t cooperate. The future 4G mobile spectrums have been recently sourced by Senator Conroy through a deal with the commercial television networks, who were promised lowered broadcasting license fees and paid $250 million to hand over their analogue tv spectrums. These recycled wireless spectrums are expected to be handed to NBN Co and possibly auctioned off to the major telcos.
Trials Begin on Australian Mainland The Federal Government announced on March 2nd that the first sites on mainland Australia where the new National Broadband services will be rolled out:
• The Melbourne suburb of Brunswick
• An area of Townsville covering parts of Aitkenvale and Mundingburra
• Minnamurra and Kiama Downs, on the south coast of NSW
• Armidale, NSW, including the University of New England
• Willunga, South Australia
About 3000 homes and businesses in each location will take part in the trial network and are said to provide a diversity of terrain and climate in which to test the service.
NBN Benefits to Business The new National Broadband Network, as it becomes available, should help to make Australian businesses more competitive and productive in the global economy. While the project represents the largest single investment in information technology in Australia’s history, the question remains as to whether the NBN will be future proof. Being around 8 years before the proposed rollout is complete; will 100 megabits be fast enough that far into the future? The government assures us that a 1 gigabit upgrade path will be built into the network to ensure that the project is not doomed to redundancy before the project’s completion.
In the information age of the 21st century, faster broadband promises to speed up business processes and make them more efficient. Internet speeds of 100+ megabit would enable more web-based media content like video and other data intensive applications over the Internet.
AWD IT Consulting Services When it comes to Internet connections in Australia, are you paying too much? Compared to the rest of the world, most likely. Be that as it may, AWD can make sure you are getting the right Internet access plan for your business at the best price and appropriate quality. We can also help with your business telephone systems, web design, eCommerce, server requirements, enterprise software and hardware, IT support and security. AWD is your complete IT solutions provider.
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