Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 19 June 2007 06:43
IT Policy -
Regulation
Page 1 of 2
Telstra has hit out strongly against the Government's decision to fund the Optus/Elders Broadband Connect Infrastructure plan to the tune of almost $1 billion, claiming that its proposed WiMAX technology in unproven, unsuitable and a duplication of Telstra's own Next G network.
Telstra Country Wide group managing director, Geoff Booth, said: "Many rural customers will be served by a wireless technology that is unproven, unsuitable for rural areas and vastly inferior to Telstra's Next G network. Even if the technology does what they say it will, which is doubtful, taxpayers will have spent $1 billion extending broadband access from the 98.8 percent of the population now served by the Next G network to 99% - an improvement of just 0.2 percent or on average around $23,000 per additional person or potentially over $50,000 per additional household."
However the rates presently charged by Telstra for data services on its Next G network would make it prohibitively expensive as a consumer broadband access service.
Booth said the Government had "ignored the original intent of the program, which was to extend broadband access to underserved areas rather than duplicate existing service" simply to subsidise a competitor to Telstra. "The Australian Government has just sent the clearest possible signal that it places more value on subsidising foreign owned competitors than on delivering improved services to the bush," said Booth.
iTWire reported earlier that the ALP has called on the auditor general to investigate claims that selected bidders were made aware of the possibility of additional Broadband Connect Infrastructure Funding beyond the initial $600 million, and Booth claimed that Telstra was one of those left in the dark. He said the Government had "ignored Telstra's bid altogether, refusing approaches to meet on the matter and not once asking for any further information or clarification on what Telstra could have achieved with the original $600 million or the additional $358 million of funding."
