Stuart Corner
Thursday, 31 July 2008 15:04
IT Policy -
Government Tech Policy
Page 1 of 2
The ACCC says it is obsolete, Telstra wants to kill it, the basic service delivers a mere 64kbps but NSW Farmers are demanding that Telstra keeps its ISDN service operating in rural Australia.
The NSW Farmers' Association has called on the Federal Government to insist on Telstra maintaining ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) 'broadband' services "until there is an appropriate replacement service available that does not represent a step backwards in service."
According to NSW Farmers' Association president, Jock Laurie, "Telstra currently plans to withdraw ISDN at the end of the year, forcing rural Australian's onto Next G broadband. [but our] Annual Conference has agreed that Telstra should not close ISDN in areas where adequate and comparable replacements are not available."
ISDN is presently a 'declared service' which means that if Telstra supplies to end users , it must make it available on fair terms to other services providers. Its status as a declared service is subject to review by the ACCC and that process has put the issue of its availability into the spotlight.
ISDN, and along with it the Digital Data Access Service (DDAS) ceased to be declared services in metro areas on 30 June 2006. They were due to lose declared status in regional and rural areas on 30 June 2008, but after a review the ACCC extended declaration in regional areas until 30 June 2009. It said both were becoming outdated, legacy technologies whose use had declined in regional areas but that extending declaration for a year would provide an appropriate transition period for users to migrate to alternative technologies or services."
The farmers are not alone in demanding the continuation of ISDN services in regional and rural Australia beyond that date. In a submission to the ACCC's declaration enquiry, Primus Telecom said that ISDN services would remain essential for several years for rural businesses wanting to use videoconferencing services.
"The DDAS and ISDN services are not legacy services. They are critical to competition for the supply of corporate and government sectors and they are extremely important within the competitive landscape," Primus said.
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