COMMENTARY--A good 30 or so years since the birth of the Internet (if we take the debut of ARPAnet in September 1969 as the starting point), we seem to be at a technological standstill when it comes to access speeds and bandwidth.
Arriving at Melbourne airport while on holidays, I suggested to my wife that we book the night's accommodation on wotif.com. A relatively simple task, one would have thought, given the number of Internet kiosks at the airport terminal. And with Telstra branding all over the kiosk, one would presume a reasonably fast connection. After waiting almost five minutes for the (fairly graphic intensive) site to work, I gave up. A quick look behind the kiosk showed that it was plugged into a standard phone outlet. In fact, a random survey of three of these kiosks (two at the airport and one at our hotel, booked after we drove to an Internet café) revealed that all seemed to offer Internet access at dial-up speeds!
(I'm now writing this column from a hotel at the princely speed of 33.6K. I take full responsibility for this as there are an increasing number of hotels offering broadband Internet access, but it is still very much an exception, limited to the higher-end market).
So, where to from here? What hope has the -clever country" of being the -connected country"? An article in the Weekend Australian stated that Telstra could lose as much as AU$1 billion on its highspeed Internet network before it becomes profitable. According to Merrill Lynch it needs about a million customers on its ADSL network, with 216,000 customers at the moment and an additional 15,000 customers joining each month. (For comparison, just seven million Australians were using the Internet in the week prior to the 2001 census). The article also pointed out a commonly accepted view in the IT industry: while Telstra has no choice in offering broadband access (such as ADSL) to remain competitive, it needs to protect its significant investment in the existing infrastructure. This is particularly relevant in the business market, where ISDN and voice traffic is very profitable. As customers implement VPNs over broadband connections, often realising large operational cost savings, it erodes Telstra's profits and ability to fully leverage existing assets.
For residential customers, the technology is now available but tak-eup is very slow. The cable broadband footprint is still well short of reaching the majority of residents in capital cities (let alone the majority of residents), and further expansion is very limited. However, ADSL, finally, is an option in most city and suburban areas (the nature of the technology only requires homes be within 5km of an ADSL-compatible exchange).
There are still some shortcomings. The initial Telstra offering suffered from reliability issues, which have been addressed. Initially offered with unlimited downloads, most carriers and ISPs have restricted downloads or introduced capped plans. Currently the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman is looking at the capping policies of major carriers, and 26 cases relating to data downloads are being investigated. Bandwidth costs (and difficulties in Mum and Dad residential customers understanding what a megabyte is) are factors the government believes is slowing broadband take-up.
As well as the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman's investigation, the Australian Labor Party (in conjunction with the Democrats) initiated a Senate inquiry in June into universal broadband access. Most of the major IT companies have been lobbying the government for some time to invest more in broadband. The bottom line is that Australia is at the bottom of the DSL broadband ladder, with local experts warning that while the rest of the world is gradually adopting the technology, Australia is falling behind. The government needs to address Telstra's dominance of the local loop (to ensure that broadband pricing is competitive) and promote the development of appropriate applications and content. Carriers and service providers need to focus on the benefits of broadband rather than pushing technology.
A study by National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) has shown the negative impact on wages and employment if Australia fails to take advantage of broadband Internet access. More attention is needed on providingâ€"and accelerating the uptake ofâ€"the information superhighway as a matter of priority. In the meantime, hopefully my article will make it to its destination in time over my slow dial-up link...
Oliver Descoeudres is marketing manager at network IP/Internet network infrastructure builder and solutions provider NetStar Australia. He can be contacted at marketing@netstarnetworks.com or on 02 9805 9759.
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Broadband in Australia is a joke. Our govt is ignorant of the need for Australia to invest in broadband. Govts across the globe are presuring their telcos to roll out broadband, but Sen Alston regards broadband as being used for "porn and gaming"!
I have recently returned home to Aus after working overseas for several years as a broadband internet developer. I am in the process of setting up my own business from home, of which ADSL is a REQUIREMENT. I am connected to an ADSL enabled exchange in a suburb of Perth, but my recent application for ADSL was rejected by Telstra due to "excessive line noise". I don't live in a a cabled area, so I am stuck on dialup, as ISDN and Satellite are prohibitively expensive.
Returning home to Aus from Europe feels like I have stepped back into the last century.....