Labor would put fibre in national diet
http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/labor-would-put-fibre-in-national-diet/2006/08/09/1154802961929.html
Stephen Conroy
August 10, 2006
[Senator Stephen Conroy is the Federal Opposition's communications
spokesman. Ken Harvey is a member of the Labor Party]
SENATOR Helen Coonan's claim this week that "no one is complaining about
the speeds of broadband in metropolitan areas" would have caused more
than a few Australians lumped with existing "fraudband" products to
grind their teeth.
In Senator Coonan's view, Australia's copper network is sufficient and
the nation does not need fibre-optic broadband infrastructure. The Labor
Party does not agree.
The essence of her claim is an argument for the status quo in which
Australia trails the world. A range of international organisations agree
that Australia is a broadband backwater.
The OECD ranks Australia 17th of 30 countries it surveyed for take-up of
256 kbps broadband. The World Economic Forum ranks Australia 25th in the
world in terms of available internet bandwidth and Australia's
"networked readiness" at 15th and falling. A recent World Bank study
confirms that Australia's average ADSL speed of barely 1 Mbps is one of
the slowest in the world behind countries such as Britain (13 Mbps),
France (8.4 Mbps) and Canada (6.8 Mbps).
Fibre-to-the-node infrastructure, of the kind proposed by Telstra in its
ill-fated discussions with the ACCC, would go some way to remedying this
situation. Telstra's antiquated copper network will not be able to
deliver the type of bandwidth Australian businesses and consumers will
need in a knowledge economy.
The Internet Industry Association believes that 80 per cent of
Australians will need to have access to 10 Mbps+ broadband by 2010 for
the nation to remain competitive. This target will be unachievable
without extending the reach of optical fibre infrastructure in Australia.
Labor's broadband plan commits to a series of regulatory reforms and
public funding. It would create a joint-venture company to own and
operate a national open-access FTTN network.
The joint-venture infrastructure owner would be separated from retailers
to ensure competition. Investment certainty would be delivered through
prospective access terms and some Trade Practices Act exemptions.
Labor's plan makes available up to $2.7 billion of public funding to
extend the reach of this fibre network to ensure 98 per cent of
Australians have access to a minimum of 6 Mbps broadband. Most would get
much higher speeds.
Unlike the Government, Labor has a plan to ensure Australia has
world-class telecommunications infrastructure.
_______________________________________________
Gpcg_talk mailing list
[email protected]
http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk
