Labor's Broadband Plan

The Labor government has pledged 4.7 billion dollars of taxpayer money toward improving broadband service within Australia. The proposed fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) network will unquestionably require a contribution from the private sector if it is to be realised. The total cost of building this network has been estimated as 8 billion dollars. Telstra has already rejected entering into any public-private partnership (PPP) with the government. Telstra enjoys a monopoly ownership of the current copper-wire infrastructure and only wants to be involved in the provision of a fibre network on it's own tems. Co-ownership of the network would not allow Telstra the freedom to set it's own prices for use of the network. It is possible that the telco is just looking to provide itself with some leverage in it's argument for regulatory reform.

The government aims to have tenders for the roll out of the network awarded by mid 2008. So if Telstra aren't interested then what alternatives are there out there? The G9 Consortium headed up by Optus are a possibility, and there may be other players that are prepared to throw their hat's in the ring. Hopefully whoever wins the tender provides more competitive pricing among all players in the Australian market. Given the investment of public tax dollars we should expect a network that will provide more competitive pricing across the board. That may not suit whoever wins the tender, but it is essential to ensure that the Australian community benefits into the future.

Minister for Broadband, Stephen Conroy has stated that the government is interested in hearing proposals for a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network. Which would provide faster broadband than the current FTTN proposal. There has been quite a bit of criticism of the governments choice to implement FTTN over the faster FTTH. Many are saying that by choosing the slower of the two, Australia is falling behind even before it starts, but it is highly unlikely that anyone will be prepared to invest the funds required to run fibre directly into Australian homes. It could cost anywhere up to three times more than providing fibre to an exchange, and then providing ADSL the rest of the way.

Currently, Australia ranks 25th in the world for available internet bandwidth. We must upgrade our domestic network to provide greater availability of bandwidth. The recent announcement of an undersea cable from Sydney to Guam, the fourth such link, should provide cheaper and faster broadband between Australia and the rest of the world. The direct benefits to Australian society of faster broadband are difficult to assess. It is likely to lead to increased competitiveness and innovation and potentially greater foreign investment. We are also likely to see an improvement of e-services within government, health, and education. More importantly we should start to see growth in online business opportunities, and a widening of the market place available to all online businesses.