DSL cracks cable as Aust broadband choice - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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DSL cracks cable as Aust broadband choice

By James Pearce, ZDNet Australia
September 11, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/DSL-cracks-cable-as-Aust-broadband-choice/0,130061791,120268121,00.htm

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technologies are rapidly overtaking cable in Australia as the broad-band connection of choice, industry figures have confirmed.

Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde told ZDNet Australia that, based on his research findings, the number of broadband connections utilising DSL technologies had this quarter passed the number that utilised cable. "I think it is actually a global trend," he said. "ADSL is seen as a more suitable broadband service than cable."

Budde said there were around 10 million telephone connections and 2.5 million cable connections in Australia, so there was more chance for operators to connect to ADSL than cable. ADSL is more cost-efficient than cable for telcos, so operators promote ADSL far more vigorously than they do cable.

Telstra Bigpond spokesperson Kerrina Lawrence confirmed the company was focusing on ADSL more than cable. "Telstra's strategy when we rolled out fibre in 1994 was to focus on hybrid fibre coaxial cable," she said. "As we started to ramp up our investigation of ADSL it became an attractive technology that was more cost effective for Telstra."

According to Lawrence, Telstra now operates 800 ADSL-enabled exchanges covering 70 percent of the population. She added Telstra now has "well in excess of 190,000 broadband subscribers", and broaching the 200,000 milestone was imminent.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission yesterday released figures showing that, as of 30 June 2002, telecommunications companies serviced 283,600 broadband customers, with cable connections only about 7,000 in front of the fast-growing DSL sector.

The ACCC statement pointed out that DSL connections - 120,700 of which were ADSL and 13,500 were other types of DSL - were likely to overtake cable in the next quarter. These slightly lagged cable connections, which totalled 140,900.

The report showed subscriber growth between 31 July 2001 and 30 June 2002 to be 354 percent for ADSL, 864 percent for other DSL technologies and only 52 percent for cable.

Recent Nielsen//NetRatings figures showed Internet connections at greater than 56 kbps now exceed 500,000.