[CAnet - news] Australia announce $AUS 2 billion national broadband plan

For more information on this item please visit my blog at 
http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
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[Details are still sketchy, but this is an amazing development, but I hope
the FTTN architecture planned for the cities is not based around closed, out
if date telco architecture.--BSA]

Australia announce $AUS 2 billion national broadband plan


http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/Australia-announces-vast-national-broa
dband-plan/2007/06/18/1182018999327.html


Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Monday announced a 2.0 billion
dollar (1.68 billion US) plan to provide fast and affordable Internet access
across the vast country.

Howard said Optus, the Australian offshoot of Singapore telco Singtel, had
been awarded a 958-million-dollar contract to build a broadband network in
the bush with rural finance company Elders.

The joint venture, known as OPEL, would contribute a further 900 million US
dollars to provide broadband of at least 12 megabits per second by June
2009.

"What we have announced today is a plan that will deliver to 99 percent of
the Australian population very fast and affordable broadband in just two
years' time," Howard said.

An expert group will also develop a bidding process for the building of a
fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) broadband network, funded solely by private
companies, in major cities.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan said wireless was the best option for
rural Australia because it was impossible to install cables which would
reach every farm and property across the country.

"It's been specially developed for rural and regional areas, where (with)
fixed broadband you've got to actually run a fibre optic," she said.

Senator Coonan said the broadband speed of 12 megabits per second could
"scale up" to very fast speeds as the technology evolved.

"It will be able to go much faster, up to 70 megabits a second and of course
our new high-speed fibre network will be able to go up to 50," she said.

But the opposition labour Party attacked the plan, saying it was too little,
too late ahead of this year's election and provided country people with a
second-rate service.

"The government proposes a two-tier system -- a good system for the cities,
they say, and a second-rate system for rural and regional Australia," labour
leader Kevin Rudd said.

labour has proposed spending 4.7 billion US dollars to build a national
fibre optic network which would cover 98 percent of the population.

The National Party, which is part of Howard's ruling Liberal/National
coalition, welcomed the proposal but said it would continue to push for FTTN
technology in regional areas.

Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce said the fact that Australia was a vast
country with a small population meant it would always be playing catch-up
with other countries when it came to broadband.

"We'll always be catching up, always, because we are 20 million people in a
country (the size) of the United States without Alaska," he said.

C 2006 AFP


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