The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
The Australian Computer Society has welcomed comments on the need for investment into broadband infrastructure from the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator the Helen Coonan and Shadow Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Senator Stephen Conroy (see these iTWire stories: government, opposition, Stuart Corner's commentary).
"The important point is that equitable and affordable access to broadband is achieved – how that’s achieved is of secondary importance in our view," said ACS CEO Dennis Furini.
The ACS's position is that the provision of affordable high speed broadband is essential if the Australian population are to be globally competitive.
"We are pleased that both sides of politics maintain a focus on broadband access as a critical national issue and we commend them for moving the issue of broadband infrastructure up the agenda," added Furini.
The ACS wants to see a minimum of 30Gbps to every Australian household by 2015: "Without a consistent, reliable, high speed national broadband infrastructure that employs the latest technologies, Australia’s economic growth will suffer," he said.
"We urge both sides of politics to consider minimising the inevitable city/rural digital divide and to ensure that both rural and urban broadband services are affordable and that they are economically viable in the medium to long term. Importantly, a comprehensive state of the art e-security framework for Australia must be undertaken as a complementary component of introducing ubiquitous broadband infrastructure."
David Bass
| ComOps, a leading Australian provider of business software products and services, has won a competitive tender to deploy its Salvus safety, r…
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