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.
You are all stupid people,
When are all you yuppies going to learn that broadband is a rip off and way over priced.
Your 300Mb and your 3Gb limits are ridiculous.
Did you know that you only have around 30 hours per month of broadband data download. Because the 512k bradband can get over 100Mb an hour. So if you wanted to, you could use up all you access in two and a bit days. Now you work it out for yourself, am I being ripped off... YES. As for the 18 months and now 24 month contracts, your just signing 1000's of dollars over to telstra and other DSL providers without even seeing past the crap they are shoving in your face.
You all think broadband is great, yeah it is - but trying palying some online games like UT, or Quake3 and see how far your access goes, or maybe download and take a look at the Earthview program from nVidia, there goes all you access in minutes.
Why should heavy internet users be punished because 99% of you only use broadband to read emails, or visit a couple of websites, use broadband for what it should be, high data volume, but because telstra wants to rip more money out of your pocket, us Australians can't experience broadband for what it is, without worrying about our limits and the overcharge for going past our limits.
I could go on for hours and hours... I've seen what an unlimited broadband can do, 6gb/mth data should be standard, with no restrictions and no f&*king high price tag.
Get a life you telstra loyals and stop wasting money on a company that doesn't give a ****.