Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 07 August 2007 11:34
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 4
The G9 in its submission to the Expert Taskforce on FTTN has invoked comparisons with Singapore where a similar process is underway. However there are major differences.
The Expert Taskforce has set up to determine the process by which Australia will get a wide scale FTTN network and then to assess proposals from potential builders. In its submission, the G9 has stressed in no uncertain terms the importance of the job in hand.
"The task that has been assigned to the Expert Taskforce is of critical significance to the Australian telecommunications industry and to the welfare of all Australians, now and well into the future. Given the increasing importance of telecommunications to the economy, to the delivery of essential services such as education and health and to all aspects of daily social interaction, the terms on which any high speed broadband network is constructed, and the entity that ultimately controls the network, will have wide ramifications, not just for the telecommunications industry, but for all Australian consumers and businesses...If a mistake is made in selecting the entity that will own the high speed broadband network, the type of network that will be constructed, and the manner in which that entity and the relevant network is regulated, the adverse ramifications will be very significant. In addition, decisions of this nature, once made, are difficult if not impossible to ever reverse. The effect of a mistake will be irrevocable."
Absolutely! And in warning against haste in making a decision the submission makes comparison with Singapore where the plans for a nationwide high speed broadband network were announced in March 2006 with a timetable to award contracts in December 2007.
There are other more fundamental differences. In Singapore the process was initiated by a Government with a clear vision, clear goals and very conscious of the importance of the project.
