Government awards new broadband grants - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Government awards new broadband grants

By Staff writers, ZDNet Australia
June 13, 2003
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Government-awards-new-broadband-grants/0,130061791,120275373,00.htm

The Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts has awarded two research grants for investigations into the use of broadband and 'last mile' technologies.

The Australian National University's e-Commerce group will receive nearly AU$100,000 to investigate the "demand drivers" for broadband take up by households and businesses.

A further AU$65,000 has been awarded to a consultancy, Clear Advantage, to look at alternative methods of delivering broadband to homes and businesses.

The technologies to be examined are all 'last mile' -- called this because they form the last physical mile of connection between a network and a customer -- delivery mechanisms. These include fibre, hybrid fibre/copper technologies, wireless access, such as wireless local loop (WLL) technologies, satellite and power line distribution networks.

Telstra's total ownership of the 'last mile' copper network is seen by many industry as the biggest obstacle to genuine competition in the Australian broadband market.

A spokesperson for the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Richard Alston, conceded the small grant was unlikely to trigger a revolution in broadband technologies.

"It's a start," he told ZDNet Australia. "It's not intended to overcome some of the limitations of current technologies in one swoop".