Bush ISPs face uncertain NBN future

James Riley
Monday, 05 October 2009 10:26

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

In particular, Goonan says there is a case to be made for microwave links to be used to provide intra-regional backhaul services in the bush. And he is concerned that both Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and NBN Co executive chair Mike Quigley are too enamoured with expensive satellite solutions that will kill wireless in many communities.

"For that last 10 per cent of the population which has been slated for 12mbps, (we think Government) under-estimates what could be provided by wireless in lieu of satellite – which for some reason seems to be the preference at this stage," Goonan told iTWire.

"Wireless can’t provide services to all of that the last 10 per cent. But it can reach the great majority," he said.

"And I have concerns also that Government is only looking at fibre for the back haul blackspots program," he said. "That’s a great concern, because the cost of trenching fibre is significant, and you can do intra-region backhaul with high-speed microwave and get 400mbps."

Services like Yless4U were encouraged under programs like the Higher Bandwidth Incentive Scheme (HiBIS) set up under former minister Richard Alston, or Helen Coonan’s Broadband Connect or the more recent Australian Broadband Guarantee.

Each scheme provided a connection subsidy to encourage infrastructure investment in the bush – where the market had failed to provide adequate incentives for companies to service regional and remote communities.

Goonan says the Yless4U service was already capable of providing customers with more than 12mbps but was limited by the cost of backhaul services – despite providing its own microwave backhaul all the way into the Canberra regional cross-connect facility.

While the company will continue to service its existing area, Yless4U has not been able to qualify for Australian Broadband Guarantee support since 2007 and has changed it business model to focus on consulting in the roll out wireless broadband into other parts of Australia – using Yless4U as a technology model.