Forecast: 63 percent take-up of Australia's NBN by 2020

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 10 June 2009 03:11

IT Industry - Strategy

In a report that praises the Australian Government for its National Broadband Network FTTP initiative, US market research firm, Strategy Analytics, says it expects 63 percent of the population will be on the new network by 2020.

According to the report, Australia's $A43 Billion National Broadband Network: Will It Play In Alice Springs? ,  the Australian Government's plan to deliver a 100Mbps FTP service to 90 percent of Australian homes, 5.2m customers, "will set the bar for other nations mulling publicly-backed networks."

Strategy Analytics analyst, David Mercer, said: "The $A43bn investment by the Australian government seems like a huge bet at a time when the global economy is on its knees. But in our view it is also a forward-looking and timely statement of intent that Australia will not allow its communications networks to hinder the potential for new services and businesses over the coming decades."

High definition and two-way video applications will be a primary driver for higher bandwidth requirements, according to Strategy Analytics. “While it may be difficult to create a demand profile necessitating a residential 100Mbps service today, looking five or ten years down the road, and at technologies already on roadmaps, it is clear that the functional limitations of DSL will be reached in short order,” said author Ben Piper.