NICTA chief says use Telstra as NBN test bed

Beverley Head
Monday, 24 May 2010 21:21

IT Industry - Development

NICTA chief David Skellern says companies should consider using Telstra's 100 Mbps pilot network in Melbourne as a test bed for applications they might develop for the national broadband network.

Speaking at CeBIT today Dr Skellern said that one of the biggest challenges for organisations which wanted to provide new applications or services using the high speeds and bandwidth the NBN promises was determining what new services might fly. It could take years for some applications to emerge if companies waited for the NBN itself he warned.

'I think we should have test beds - one in each capital city,' Skellern said during a panel session at the conference which is currently running in Sydney. 'We could then link them as a federated test bed across the country, and link them for trials across the country.'

Skellern said that NICTA's researchers were calling out for access to such test beds. Asked whether Telstra's 100Mbps pilot service which has been launched in Melbourne, so far to relatively modest uptake, should be considered by developers as a potential alternative test bed for the NBN, Skellern said: 'sure'.

The CeBIT panel session examined the issues that Australia has to address to gain maximum advantage from the NBN. Skellern dismissed audience concerns about the cost of the initiative.

He said that whatever the final cost of the NBN 'It's worth doing.'

Dr Ian Oppermann, director of the CSIRO's ICT Centre said that the cost of the NBN should be considered in much the same way as the cost of building roads in remote Australia. 'What strikes me is we are looking at the costs, but there is also the cost of not doing it,' said Oppermann.