100 Percent Broadband Guarantee
The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator the Hon Helen Coonan yesterday launched the guidelines for the new Australian Broadband Guarantee program, a key element of the Australian Government’s recently announced Australia Connected package.
“This week, the Australian Government announced the unprecedented roll out of fast broadband services through the new OPEL network, extending coverage to 99 per cent of the population.
“The Government has not forgotten about the remaining one per cent of Australians without access to fast affordable broadband,” Senator Coonan said.
“The Guarantee provides a safety net that ensures Australians living in the most remote or difficult to reach areas are entitled to a broadband subsidy up to $2750 per household. That is the guarantee to all Australians.”
The media release contained challenges to Opposition leader Mr Rudd and the Labor Party to come up with details of their broadband announcement. The results are all good for the Australian population. According to one forum topic, Australia's broadband compared to the rest of the world is slower, has a poorer coverage area, has more limited usages and is more expensive. This response was followed by a post that claimed "Indeed, my personal experience is that US broadband is markedly inferior to Australian broadband, generally speaking."
The Australian Local Government Association, in it's June 22 newsletter announced the following:
- Both political parties now have proposals on the table that appear to recognise the critical importance of broadband for the economic and social welfare of the nation.
The Government's plan, which it calls Australia Connected, has two main initiatives:
- Roll-out of broadband to rural and regional areas by 2009, using a wireless system and undertaken by a joint venture of Optus and Elders (This initiative will be partly funded by $958 million from the Federal Government); and
- A new commercial fibre optic network to be rolled out to the cities and large regional centres following a competitive bid process (This initiative will not receive any government funding).
The Government promises that its plan will deliver much improved broadband speeds in a shorter timeframe, at a lower cost and to a wider range of rural and regional users than the Opposition's plan which was announced in March.
The rural and regional broadband network will be supported by a range of fibre optic, cable and wireless technologies and is expected to reach 99 per cent of the Australian population, providing speeds of up to 12 megabits per second by 2009. It will be a wholesale network aimed at promoting competition amongst service providers. The remaining one per cent of the population not serviced by the new network will be entitled to a subsidy of $2,750 per household under the Australian Broadband Guarantee.
A new one stop consumer help centre called BroadbandNow will be established to provide telephone and web information to help consumers to understand the technology options available to them and to provide information about how to get connected.
The $2 billion Communications Fund will remain untouched and be used to provide an income stream for future technology upgrades for regional and rural consumers.
The new commercial fibre optic network in the cities will be provided after a competitive bidding process overseen by an Expert Taskforce to ensure an open, transparent and timely process.
The Government's policy announcement can be viewed in full at: www.minister.dcita.gov.au/media/media_releases.
The announcement, not surprisingly, has triggered debate about the adequacy of wireless technology, the differentiation between rural and urban users, and the duplication of existing infrastructure. The issues are complex and the competing advantages of the differing proposals from the Government and the Opposition are likely to be the subject of much more analysis over the next few months. What is clear, however, is that both parties have focused on solutions which reach the greatest proportion of rural and regional users.
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