Demand for broadband doubles in six months - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Demand for broadband doubles in six months

By Andrew Colley, 0
July 29, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Demand-for-broadband-doubles-in-six-months/0,130061791,120266976,00.htm

Telstra has released figures indicating that demand for broadband has doubled over the last six months.

Telstra group managing director Telstra Retail, Ted Pretty, today said that monthly applications for broadband connections doubled between Q2 and Q4 of the 2001-2002 fiscal year. He also said that 5,000 new users currently apply for broadband in Australia each week.

In conjunction with the announcement, Telstra has reaffirmed its commitment to reach a target of around one million Australian broadband users by 2005.

Telstra chief executive officer Ziggy Switkowski said that while broadband take-up in Australia had been slow, the figures released today signal the end of the early-adopter phase of broadband development in Australia.

The early adopters, according to Switkowski, were "enthusiasts, computer nerds, specialists and people who have a professional need for high-speed connectivity".

Switkowski now claims that always-on capability rivals speed as the most attractive feature of broadband connectivity.

"Always on capability is rivalling the appeal of speed this product becomes a mass-market product," said Switkowski. "We expect that to take the penetration level up to the next phase".

Despite the its optimism it appears that there may be periods when Telstra is unable to meet demand for broadband services. Telstra said it currently has the capacity to handle around 17,000 new subscribers each month but aims to ramp up capacity to boost that figure to 20,000.

During the announcement today, Telstra focused most attention on its ADSL network. Of the 175,000 broadband customers Telstra currently serves, it estimates that 95,000 are ADSL users.

The service, however, has been hampered by continual outages and a former general manager of Telstra wholesale customer iPrimus recently dubbed it the worst roll out he'd ever seen.

Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman John Pinnock said last Thursday that the advisory body is currently taking a close look at the performance of Telstra's service level guarantees.

Telstra today chose not to comment on the news, saying that it has yet to hear from the TIO regarding the matter.