Telstra reveals broadband funding plans

The nation's incumbent telcoms carrier will inject AU$25 million into the Telstra Broadband Fund, which will provide seed funding for Australian companies developing tools, applications and technologies that will enhance the uptake of broadband.

AU15$ million of this is contingent upon Telstra matching dollar for dollar contributions of at least AU$1 million from other industry participants. Telstra will not receive any propriety in the projects, but expects the increasing demand to benefit its broadband supply business.

The remaining AU$10 million will be distributed in grants of no more than AU$250,000 per project. The telecoms giant will also be providing AU$20 million of broadband allocation at no charge, once again up to the value of AU$250,000 per project.

-We've become impatient with foreign suppliers complaining about the lack of investment in broadband in Australia," Telstra Retail group managing director Ted Pretty told a press conference. -We've heard deathly silence since we announced the fund." He said that Telstra's move would combat suggestions that it wasn't doing enough to encourage broadband uptake.

Dr Hugh Bradlow, chief technology officer for Telstra and chairman of the fund, said: -The goal of the fund is to develop new and innovative applications to encourage business and consumers to take-up broadband. The key step is to find high value applications which give value propositions."

The fund is accepting applications between July 18 and the September 18, with final decisions to be made before Christmas. Funds will be made available as contractual obligations are met.

Dr Bradlow said he expects companies to provide a threshold level of money to join with the fund, and reach a further threshold before it is administered. If the fund finds the AU$15 million of industry funding it will have AU$60 million under its administration.

Pretty denied the uptake of broadband is slow because it is overpriced, and instead argued the value proposition is not there yet.

The other AU$5 million of the money announced at the WCIT is earmarked for an advertising campaign.

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"Pretty denied the uptake ...Anonymous -- 18/06/02

"Pretty denied the uptake of broadband is slow because it is overpriced, and instead argued the value proposition is not there yet."

Bullshit! This guy has no idea! It's still way too overpriced. Your average person who does not NEED internet but WANTS it will not pay $60 a month (and have downloads limited, etc, etc.) Come on. I pay that amount of money because I use the internet for home and work and am a software developer.

Until it reached the current price ISP's are charging for 56K modem connections ie $25 a month unlimited downloads, it will be expensive.

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I totally agree and our last h ...Anonymous -- 19/06/02

I totally agree and our last hope Optus@home has just capped cable. I pay $70 per month for broadband connection which will be capped at 3GB it is ridiculous, all I need to do is watch one online concert broadcast and one footbal match on nrl.com.au and I have exceeded my monthly limit and that only took 4 hours. There is no use funding software that will utilise broadband when you dont have the bandwidth to use the applications. Hypocrites all of them. Use the money to make it cheaper. And tell those scumbag overseas line holders to drop there prices before bitching about the state of broadband here in oz.

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"Pretty denied the uptake ...Anonymous -- 19/06/02

"Pretty denied the uptake of broadband is slow because it is overpriced, and instead argued the value proposition is not there yet."

Broadband in Australia, is not only overpriced, but relatively unavailable. That is a big comment, but Telstra's own ad campaign says from $54.95 per month (and that is for cable which is not available everywhere). It continues to say that you can even use your phone while on the net (and at the bottom of the screen says excludes one way satellite .. so one way satellite requires the satellite connect costs plus another phone line cost). And Telstra's 2 way satellite solution is way overpriced.

A simple marketing principle can be applied here ... If you build it, they will come. Give broadband to people at the right price, and people will flock from everywhere to get it. Overcharge for the service, and people will continue to use dial up because it works for them.

The Census proved that Australians are using the internet, so more should be done to encourage more use.

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The Mad Hatters are still pour ...Keith Styles -- 19/06/02

The Mad Hatters are still pouring tea round the table at T(H)elstra.
To claim their Broadband service is not overpriced is a clear indication they have no idea who is using it or why!
When cable is not available in most places and ADSL is retricted to the local exchange area coupled with the high price and capped services, why should anyone be surprised at the lack luster performance of Broadband.
A 56K dialup is better value than my ADSL service which costs me $77/month for a capped 1Gig service. I dare not use my ADSL for anything except emails, news and maybe a chat service on a daily basis. Any attempt to make additional use of the ADSL service would take me over my download limit. At over 18 cents/meg it would break my bank.

T(H)elstra exec's are a bunch of idiots who don't have a clue.......

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So, if I am reading this right ...Anonymous -- 20/06/02

So, if I am reading this right, telstra plans to use $50m to attrack more business to broadband,,,
well the only business they will get from me is a brown eye.

Dial-Up has died and it's way too slow for todays internet, where we have very large files and streaming data, which has become the standard now, the days of downloading files like 100kb or even 1Mb have just about gone. Telstra has the power and resources to provide all existing ISP's with DSL access. but they don't, instead they think of plans on how to convince people to go over to DSL from Dial-up, when they offer crappy download limits and a high price.
All Dial-Up ISP's now have a session limit, which in most cases is only 2 hours or 4 hours, which this means to me that Dial-Up can not handle our internet usage. So DSL comes in, and of course always telstra has to tag limits and high prices out of reach of the most common person, YOU.
$50/mth for 300Mb on a 256kbps connection is just plain stupid and a consumer rip off.

Until people sit back and think for a moment, I can see DSL being for the extreme rich only, just like howard wanted it.

Here's a thought about download limits: I downloaded a demo business program at 56Mb on my dial-up, when I opened the file, it was corrupt, so I just wasted 1/4 of my 300Mb on a stuffed file, and had to get it again, so it cost me 1/2 of my limit. Does telstra even consider the fact that some files on the net are bigger then 300mb, which forces us to purcahse a higher d/l limit.
Brut tactics like that won't last.

We're not all as dumb as you think telatra, put the $50m into a care or charity fund, it will do much better there then on DSL.

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My view. Telstra is wating tim ...Anonymous -- 20/06/02

My view.

Telstra is wating time and money on doing anything to their DSL, unless they can uncap the download limit.

They should stop thinking that we are all stupid, and spend the 50mil on something worth while.

We would all love DSL, but with the capped limits and the 18c/meg after the limit is ludicris.
Telstra is making billions of our dollars a year in profit, thats after all their bills paid.
So why should they have a capped DSL service, but then I think, they have disk heads working for them, that have no idea what 1Mb is and just how quick it can be downloded on DSL, say like 10 seconds or so.

I will tell you this, I used 6Gb on telstra's DSL when it was in the trial period, I watch some streming video, played online games, downloaded programs which would take for ever on dial-up, and if I was to do that now, it would have cost me over $1000 for that one month of DSL useage.

I'm not going to stop using the internet just because telstra wants to try and make it a luxury item, when it should be a common household item.

Telstra, I have one thing to say to you, you won't be getting my services, and I hope for Gods sake that we get some REAL competition for you, because we need it, and I hope Mr. Howard falls of his chair and breaks his nose, becuase he can't see it to well when it come to telstra.

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I agree with most of what is w ...Anonymous -- 20/06/02

I agree with most of what is written. Telstra need to start giving back to the community that supports them. Capped limits of the size Telstra offers are unrealistic for most users. They state that the $54.95 cable deal is for those who browse a few pages and write and receive a few emails per month so therefore a 300mb monthly limit is OK. Yeah right! Who would pay $54.95 just to do that? A dial up at around $20-$25 per month with no cap would suffice. I play Nascar 4 online once or twice a week and download emails and drivers for hardware and ave. 360mb per month on a dial up account. So I need the $64.95 service and on it goes. Why do companies put up the price on products that are growing (SMS for example). Surely you put the price down to increase usage!! Everyones happy. And cable and adsl need to be this price to be profitable? Where do the massive profits come from then? Underpriced services? Now we have sold half of Telstra they need to share out the profit to a new bunch of stakeholders. Why didnt we keep it public and put the money into improved cheaper services? Why sell profitable enterprises to fund election promises?

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I too fall into the category o ...Anonymous -- 20/06/02

I too fall into the category of the occasional user of internet who, though I'd appreciate faster access, cannot possibly justify the charges that are being asked.

Charging around $55 a month for a service that provides me the same download limit that a standard Dial-UP service does for half the cost is ludicrous.

My usage patterns mean that I really can't justify even the $25 a month plans, so I've opted for a pre-paid hourly rate based access plan that has given me access for $40 per year plus $1 per hour, costing me something like $80 so far this year.

The thing that I do find worrying though is that ADSL prices in the USA are generally higher than here. Looking at some 'special' deals available in the US, people there are paying $40US to $60US per month for ADSL services comparable to Telstra's. Do the currency conversion on that and you'll see that, though it may be pricey in our minds, Aussie ADSL access is somewhat cheaper than that it the US.

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