Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Australian Communications minister, Stephen Conroy, has named six experts to assist in drawing up an RFP for its $4.7b next generation network and to assist in evaluating RFPs.
At the same time he has set a very aggressive timetable to get underway a project that will underpin Australian telecommunications services for years to come. The Panel will receive submissions from industry and the public to assist in the development of the RFP documentation by 30 March 2008.
No timetable has been given for production of the RFP and responses to it, but subsequent to receipt of responses the panel will have eight weeks to prepare a report making recommendations on its preferred proposals, and Conroy said he hoped to have construction of the network underway before the end of the year.
The Panel will be chaired by the secretary of the Department Of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (BCDE), Patricia Scott and will comprise: John Wylie, Lazard Carnegie Wylie CEO; Tony Mitchell, Allphones chairman; Laureate Professor Rod Tucker, University of Melbourne.; professor emeritus of communications, Reg Coutts, University of Adelaide; Tony Shaw, former Australian Communications Authority chairman and Dr Ken Henry Treasury secretary.
The Panel will be supported by BCDE with support from other key departments and specialist advisors in on regulation and technical, legal and financial and commercial issues. The ACCC will provide advice on pricing and competition issues and deliver a written report to the panel. Further detail on the role of the ACCC will be set out in the RFP.
Conroy said the government would invite submissions from interested parties on the appropriate policy and regulatory framework and he promised that: "The government will ... ensure that people who may not have access to the new fibre network will have access to the best new fixed line, wireless or satellite technology."
Conroy also announced an additional $95 million in funding for the Australian Broadband Guarantee program in 2008-09, saying: "At the same time as it issues the RFP, the government will also call for comments on policy and funding initiatives to improve access to affordable broadband in these remote areas into the future."
Conroy added: "The minister for education is progressing the Government's complementary 'Fibre Connections to the Schools' initiative. As a first step, this process will involve an audit of broadband access in all Australian secondary schools.
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
How to Make Business Discovery Work for Your Business
Business Discovery takes its cues from consumer apps. Like Google, it encourages us- ers to hunt for and explore data without worrying about or even noticing the underly- ing technology. Their entire experience is working within an intuitive interface to get real-time, self-service results with only minimal training. ...more
Try an easy-to-use set of web-enabled
tools for business-class productivity services. Office 365 provides
anywhere-access to email, important documents, contacts, and calendars
on almost any device.
