Big news of the week? It’s got to be Australia’s announcement of its national broadband plan. The Kevin Rudd Government has announced a new company to build and operate a new super fast fibre optic wholesale National Broadband Network. The government will sell off its stake within 5 years of the network being set up. This will be the single largest nation building infrastructure project in Australian history. In case you haven’t heard, these are the main elements:
1. Connect 90 percent of all Australian homes, schools and workplaces with broadband services with speeds up to 100 Mbit/s
2. Connect all other premises in Australia with next generation wireless and satellite technologies that will be deliver broadband speeds of 12 Mbit/s
3. Directly support up to 25,000 local jobs every year, on average, over the 8 year life of the project.
Cost? An eye-watering A$43 billion ($30bn US) – say it quickly!
Telstra is one of the world leaders in mobile broadband HSPA, and has recently announced a 21Mbit/s HSPA+ service to business customers. There is a roadmap to 42Mbit/s and onward towards 100Mbit/s, working with Ericsson. Beyond that will no doubt will come a migration to LTE at some point.
Thinking about all this, my point today is – where does Telstra’s HSPA network fit into this grand master plan? Will there be a super fast fibre optic network and a super fast mobile broadband network? Where does fixed to mobile convergence play into this?
Maybe I’m missing something but I’d welcome answers and comments on a postcard please….
Tags: Australia, Ericsson, fiber, fibre, government, HSPA, Kevin Rudd, LTE, mobile, mobile broadband, national, network, optic, plan, prime minister