The Rudd Government’s election promise to work with the private sector to build a national broadband network that will deliver fibre to the node technology to 98 per cent of Australian homes and businesses is certainly a big undertaking. Confirmation that the Government is not wavering on this commitment was reiterated by Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy (refer page 1 article), and the Minister for Infrastructure, Anthony Albanese in his recent Press Club address.
Minister Albanese stated that the Government has identified transport, energy, water and communications infrastructure as priority areas.
More specifically on communications infrastructure Anthony Albanese said, “We have committed to rolling out a fibre to the node broadband network as an essential component of a modern economy.”
The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) through its various State of the Regions (SOR) Reports and its representation on the Online Ministerial Council has been lobbying for some time for high speed and affordable broadband across Australia, and particularly in regional and remote areas.
The 2007–2008 SOR Report confirms that many areas are missing out on this vital infrastructure and this is impacting on local economies, their competitiveness, potential for growth and jobs creation, plus opportunities for improved service delivery through both e-health and e-education. It concluded that while generally the larger capital cities are well served for broadband, looking at both the rural and urban communities in Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory, their levels on connectivity languish well behind other areas.
Added to this, Engineers Australia’s Telecommunications Infrastructure Report Card (December 2007) has ranked both fixed and mobile infrastructure as ‘poor’, ‘very poor’ or ‘inadequate’ for no fewer than 50 of Australia’s 57 Statistical Divisions (refer table on page 1).
The fact that the Federal Government has now delayed the closure of CDMA and rollover to the Next G network indicates that service levels are not up to expectations with many people not happy.
Senator Conroy recently convened a meeting of stakeholder groups to gather their views on the transition from the CDMA network to the Next G network. During the meeting, the Minister advised stakeholders that if they had any additional feedback to provide him on the transition from the CDMA network to the Next GTM network that it needed to be submitted by 11 March 2008.
There is no doubt that Australia’s telecommunications infrastructure has many shortfalls. How well the Federal Government and private sector can work together to address this remains to be seen.
