Bush ISPs face uncertain NBN future

James Riley
Monday, 05 October 2009 10:26

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

Tiny wireless internet providers servicing the bush face an uncertain future as regional subsidy programs are cut and the NBN Company considers satellite options, the founder of pioneering rural outfit Yless4U Anthony Goonan says.

Most of the community-based rural ISPs had been made commercially viable through successive Federal investment incentive schemes, but risked being crushed by the NBN roll-out.

Goonan, who was last week invited to give evidence before the Senate committee investigating the NBN initiative, said these services faced an anxious wait to understand what technology the NBN Company planned to roll into their areas.

Yless4U services communities and hamlets in the commuter border areas of New South Wales and the ACT – some within 20 kilometres of the national Parliament. It service areas includes the rural towns of Bungendore and Braidwood.

Until Government releases geographic overlays that demonstrate what technology will service which areas, the bush ISPs will not know whether their business remains viable.

"It's just too early to say what the impact (of the NBN) will be on the smaller players. It simply depends of where the operation is and what technology (NBN Co uses) in that geography," Goonan said.

While supportive of the NBN initiative, Goonan says he is concerned that wireless technologies are being overlooked, despite being the most cost effective means of servicing the majority of the 10 per cent of the Australian population that will not be connected to fibre.

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