The only reason that Telstra is not already installing fibre to the node broadband in Australia is that the government is restricting how much it will be able to charge comeptitors to use the lines. Is this reasonable? Should telstra be able to charge whatever it wants if it installs the lines? There's nothing stopping other companies from building their own lines if Telstra charge too much. It may be obsolete in a decade anyway, so isn't it more important to get it installed quickly than try to control the market?

I'd say the only reason Telstra aren't installing it is because they can see the pace of RF/wireless technology. FTTN will leave whoever commits to installing it with an expensive white elephant infrastructure by the time it is available to the majority of consumers in a country like Australia and able to recoup costs and provide a profit.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Telstra-locks-in-broadband-suppliers/2007/06/04/1180809367426.html

Telstra has locked in deals with major suppliers in a bid to beat its rival, the Optus-led Group of Nine (G9) consortium, to roll out its $4-billion-plus high-speed broadband network.

The telco also plans to step up pressure on the opposition by releasing details this week on the prices it will charge other telecommunications companies to use its planned fibre network, The Australian Financial Review reports.

The competition regulator has been pressing the telco to release its prices for some time.

---

Govt may subsidise broadband: Coonan

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Govt-may-subsidise-broadband-Coonan/2007/06/06/1181089142146.html

The federal government might open the public purse to help fund a new high-speed broadband network, but it won't be throwing billions at it, communications minister Helen Coonan said on Wednesday.

Senator Coonan said government subsidies may be needed to ensure a new network, built by private enterprise, reaches rural and regional Australia.

But she slammed the federal opposition's proposal to inject as much $4.7 billion into a network rollout, about half of which is to come from the Future Fund.

---

Labor claims Telstra, govt deal on FTN

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Labor-claims-Telstra-govt-deal-on-FTN/2007/06/14/1181414444208.html

Labor says a leaked email from Telstra boss Sol Trujillo shows the government has reached agreement about a nationwide fibre to the node network.

Opposition communications spokesman Stephen Conroy asked Communications Minister Helen Coonan if the email, sent to Telstra staff, was correct.

She said it was not.

There has been constant delays in the roll out of a nationwide fibre to the node network because of arguments between Telstra and the competition watchdog.

In the meantime, the Group of Nine, led by Optus has proposed rolling out a high-speed internet network in competition against Telstra.

---

Both sides wrong on broadband future: UQ researcher

http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=12378

Both major political parties have got it wrong on broadband, according to a recent PhD graduate from the University of Queensland.

The social science graduate Dr Lucy Cameron said the future broadband strategies of both Labor and the Coalition would wipe out many smaller Australian telcos.

“Instead of building on the previous investment and promoting a competitive telecommunications environment Labor wants to introduce a monopoly on wholesale broadband, while the Coalition is now supporting a virtual duopoly between Telstra and Optus reminiscent of the early 1990s,” Dr Cameron said.

“Optus and Telstra have business models that also supply media and business services which pose the risk of further media concentration in Australia.”

Dr Cameron said smaller wireless, ADSL and community owned telcos which had already invested millions in their own infrastructure and received more than $1 billion of Federal Government subsidiaries in the last five years, would suffer.

She said the Federal Government should set minimum bandwidths for any Australian telco to tender for instead of engaging one or two companies to install a single, faster network.

“It doesn't really matter who supplies the connections so long as the all the networks are able to talk to each other via internet protocol.

“If the government wants everyone in Australia to have 12Mbps (over 20 times the speed of 256kpbs broadband connections), then it should examine ways for any company with the capacity to be able to improve their services to meet that.”

In her thesis Enabled to Engage in the Information Age, Dr Cameron proposes that telcos fund areas of market failure through an industry levy paid to local councils.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/labor-broadband-plan-a-onetrick-pony/2007/08/30/1188067257653.html

Labor's plan to roll out broadband across Australia is a "one-trick pony", federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan says.

Labor has proposed spending $4.7 billion in public funds on a fibre-to-the-node broadband network capable of reaching 98 per cent of Australians.

The government, which favours private-sector investment, three weeks ago released draft guidelines for companies hoping to win the right to build a high-speed broadband network for Australia's capital cities and regional centres.

It recently awarded a $1 billion contract to Opel, a joint venture between Optus and Elders, to build a wireless broadband internet network in the bush using WiMax wireless and ADSL2 technology.

---

Govt hiding behind spin doctors: Telstra

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/govt-hiding-behind-spin-doctors-telstra/2007/09/19/1189881589387.html

Lawyers for federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan are muddying the waters to hide their embarrassment over the handling of a $958 million broadband tender, Telstra says.

The telco faces a two- to three-week wait before the Federal Court rules on its claim that the government secretly offered a second chance to the consortium that won the bid, Optus Elders (Opel).

Telstra is seeking access to government documents covering the Opel tender.

---

Broadband vote a key poll battleground

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Broadband-vote-a-key-poll-battleground/2007/11/09/1194329453662.html

Forget industrial relations and interest rates. For many voters in regional and rural Australia, broadband could be the election issue that decides who gets their vote.

Despite some lucky Australians having access to broadband with speeds up to 30 megabits per second, the picture isn't rosy once you step outside of Sydney or Melbourne.

In recent years, the coalition government has taken a "hands-off" approach to telecommunications, only stepping in to assist those areas of the country falling behind with broadband.

---

Broadband 'not used for ransom': Telstra

http://news.smh.com.au/broadband-not-used-for-ransom-telstra/20080210-1rdt.html

Telstra Corporation Ltd says the main reason it is able to now activate its high speed ADSL2+ broadband network is because of a change in government.

Telstra said last week it was able to connect the fast broadband service at more than 900 telephone exchanges serving 2.4 million consumers after new Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told it there was no compelling case for regulating third-party access to the service.

Telstra's connection of the service ends the telco's long running stoush with government over pricing and regulatory restrictions surrounding the technology.