Rural broadband finally gets some bandwidth

Stan Beer
Monday, 23 August 2010 10:49

Opinion and Analysis

Anyone who thought that Australian politics was boring before last weekend is probably now having second thoughts. Whichever party gets to form government, however, one thing is certain: rural and regional Australia are finally going to get decent broadband. The question remains what sort?

The three notionally conservative independents from the bush have all indicated that communications and broadband are at or near the top of their list of their concerns. Two of the three are supporters of the Labour Government's NBN.

The new Greens member for Melbourne is likewise an NBN supporter, as is whichever person wins the Tasmanian seat still in play.

Thus, we have a situation in which taxpayer funded broadband for the bush is now an unavoidable central issue. This is probably going to have a rather curious effect on the ensuing rollout of the NBN or whatever broadband upgrade scheme is adopted if the NBN is scrapped.

For the time being, the already relatively well connected city dwellers of Australia - the vast majority of the population - are going to have to make do with their existing ADSL2+, cable or wireless broadband.

Meanwhile, the new Federal Government - whatever the flavour - is going to the throw everything but the kitchen sink at upgrading services to the bush as soon as possible.

Whether that means FttH (fibre to the home) in some cases, improved wireless services, satellite services, a combination of these, or whatever, something is going to happen, so expect the promises to come thick and fast from both sides.

In case anyone doubts this, just remember how potent the NBN rollout has been in shoring up support for the Labour Government in Tasmania.

So, if you happen to be a city dweller like this writer, and you were expecting to see ditch diggers laying fibre down your street anytime soon, the chances are that at least for the next term of Parliament it's not going to happen.

However, if you live half way up a mountain in the seat of McEwan, too far away from a Telstra exchange to get ADSL2+, then decent broadband should be coming your way soon.