IDC says Opel, Optus 3.5G and Vodafone 3.5G could be dead in Australia

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Wednesday, 13 February 2008

Page 1 of 3 ! Now that Australia’s dominant telco, Telstra, has finally decided to switch on their wired ADSL2+ network in over 900 exchanges across the country, analyst firm IDC predicts that WiMAX provider Opel, along with Optus and Vodafone’s upcoming 3.5G networks, could now be dead in the water thanks to the new Federal Government’s ‘razor gang’ chopping expenditure left, right and centre. Analyst bigwigs IDC have just released a new report that states there is a “potentially ‘bigger picture’ situation evolving as Telstra plans to switch on ADSL2+ in over 900 exchanges, which could potentially have significant flow on effects to the greater communications market and in particular the regional and rural consumers of Australia”.   David Cannon, Programme Manager, Telecommunications at IDC says that: "We believe that the announcement from Telstra to activate their remaining ADSL2+ ready exchanges as a result of Ministerial assurance and the Government's requirement to cull more than $10 billion dollars of funding are related. As a result the Opel Pty Ltd funding will potentially be a casualty of larger macro economic inflation management processes”.   Cannon goes onto say that: "The activation of the ADSL2+ exchanges gives regional and rural communities metro-like broadband services and will counterbalance any negative public sentiment should the Opel funding be withdrawn," said Cannon.   IDC says that if they are correct their assumption of 'macro economic inflation management' they predict serious additional consequences in the industry. First up is their prediction that Optus will no longer build their 3.5G HSDPA 2100Mhz network, planned to reach 94% (although IDC says 96%) of Australians by the end of calendar year 2008, remaining only in major metro and regional areas. IDC says that a knock on effect of any Optus decision to delay or discontinue their 3.5G rollout could then well see Vodafone also decide to ‘re-evaluate’ their plan to also build a 3.5G network in Australia in conjunction with Optus, either forcing Vodafone to work with another partner or perhaps even pull out of Australia altogether. So, what else do IDC say, and what do I think the whole sorry situation? Please read onto page 2 for more... << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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