In remarks certain to inflame the already highly contentious issue of telecommunications service delivery, a Telstra spokeswoman said "not everyone" presently serviced by pair-gain systems - which limit the quality of Internet access available - would want the access speed and quality provided by broadband technologies.
"Not everyone on pair gain wants [broadband], we are expecting demand to be in the thousands," Kerrina Lawrence, a spokeswoman for Telstra BigPond said. "Demand for broadband today is really low compared to the customer base and with the money announced, we believe we can meet the bulk of the demand".
Lawrence's remarks came in response to stinging criticism of Telstra's recently-announced $AU10 million rural and regional telecommunications upgrade package from the federal Opposition's spokeswoman on telecommunications and information technology, Kate Lundy. Lundy said that AU$1 million allocated to shift 1.3 million customers serviced by pair gain technology to alternate copper pathways, allowing them access to high-speed Internet services, was "insufficient," equating to less than a dollar per person.
Lundy also claimed half the AU$10 million package represented the "rebadging" of previous announcements', a claim which Lawrence strenuously denies. She said Telstra was planning to deploy minimuxes, a technology designed to allow pair-gain systems running on Remote Integrated Multiplexes (RIMs) technology to handle ADSL, which they currently cannot do.
This is "new news", according to Lawrence.
Evaluation of the minimux technology will begin next year, said Lawrence. "In January we are doing field testing in the Canberra suburb of Gungahlin," she said. "It's a growing suburb serviced by RIM technology and a good example of where demand might be."
"We won't be retrofitting every RIM in the country," added Lawrence. "We'll use an economically responsible model, and a customer demand model." She said Telstra was improving its Broadband Demand Register so it can determine on an exchange by exchange basis whether sufficient demand exists to justify an upgrade. The nature of the upgrade would depend on individual circumstances, as there is no one technology which is a viable solution for everybody, said Lawrence.
The Telstra announcement followed the release of a report by Moree cotton farmer and National Party member Richard Estens, which found that telecommunications service levels to rural and regional Australia were - while improving - continuing to lack in some areas, with provision of high-speed Internet access a key issue.
The federal government had made provision of a certain standard of telecommunications services to the bush a pre-requisite of the sale of the remainder of Telstra. However, reports indicate that process is likely to be delayed by at least 12 months, due largely to likely Senate obstruction and anticipated softness in the company's earnings.
Expensive. Need I say more?