The report reveals that Australia accounted for only two percent of broadband subscribers in the region in 2001, but supplied 14 percent of revenues. By 2006 Australia will have eight percent of subscribers who will provide 39 percent of total Asia-Pacific broadband revenues.
Geoff Johnson, vice president and research director, Gartner Australasia, told ZDNet Australia: -The interesting spin is that we have 14 percent of the revenue. I'd be looking at US dollar conversions and purchasing power parity."
According to IDC senior analyst for communications, Emilia Wasiak, one of the reasons for Australia's disproportionate contribution to the region's coffers is the high price of broadband services in Australia.
-Our basic access for cable is AU$54 and ADSL is AU$60, which is not that much more expensive than other markets," Wasiak told ZDNet Australia. She said the extra costs come with installation charges and excess download fees, which are uncommon in other markets.
-I think that over time we will see the basic access price go down, not in the next few months but it will happen," said Wasiak. -If we want to see mass uptake, the price has to come down, because the two major drivers are price and content."
Wasiak said IDC research shows small business don't take up ADSL because of the cost. -I think it is a legitimate concern. If you look at different companies throughout the world and how much they charge for service, Telstra is at the top of the list, and they charge for installation and excess usage."
A spokesperson for Telstra said the company expects its recently introduced AU$129 self-install program with BigPond ADSL to have an impact on take-up, especially with price sensitive customers. -If we are to continue to provide a long-term sustainable business, our move to bring our revenue streams into line with our cost structure is a viable business approach."
-Telstra's decision to move to volume-based charging is consistent with international moves on pricing," said the spokesperson, citing several European and North American companies as examples.
The Australian broadband market grew by 448 percent between 2000 and 2001, to AU$914.2, according to IDC. The report goes on to predict a 132 percent increase to 449,000 subscribers by the end of 2002, and 3.51 million subscribers in 2006.
Greg Pettersen, senior analyst with AMR Interactive, told ZDNet Australia the figure is in the high end of possibilities. -That probably sounds a little bit bullish. Even if half the [Australian] businesses were online, I wouldn't expect more than 2 million households online. So I'd put it between 2-2.5 million if I was combining business and residential."
The IDC report said this increase will be driven by the increase in broadband content and applications on offer, the uncapping of the cable modem bandwidth restrictions, proactive government initiatives, and the increased adoption of next-generation services such as network storage or Virtual Private Networks.
However, cable is not widely offered, even in the major cities where it has been rolled out, and Wasiak said it was unlikely to penetrate further. -I don't think Optus and Telstra are going to invest in cable. Telstra's focus is on ADSL and they're showing it clearly."
Meanwhile, Optus recently had to answer claims it was exiting residential broadband altogether.
As for proactive government initiatives, Gartner's Johnson is sceptical of any support. -Don't hold your breath. The government cannot be relied on to develop markets, networking markets particularly." Johnson said broadband in Australia will be a corporate service, not a domestic service.
-In Australia DSL access is going to be a relatively scarce resource. So if you're in business you should grab your ISP account exec and show them your business plans and demand to know how and when and what price you can get DSL," he said. -Be selfish, be aggressive about acquiring it. The carriers will appreciate that kind of response because they'll bill that requirement into deployment priorities. This implies that consumers come later."
Yes I have felt for a long time that we Aussies are being Ripped off badly. These ISP's see us as a BIG bank book ready to give them copius amounts of cash at any minute. We should be paying half of what we pay now......