Opel: phantom company, phantom network?

Stuart Corner
Monday, 21 January 2008 04:56

Opinion and Analysis

When asked by iTWire if he could give a timeframe for Opel coming into being, Ferris replied: "I cannot. There are a number of conditions [to be met]. It has no staff and I am not officially allowed to refer to it in any way shape for form."

When she announced Opel as the winner of the Broadband Connect Funding in June 2007 Coonan said she expected the first services to come online in September. And in that month she did claim to have "launched an OPEL ADSL2+ exchange that will deliver speeds of up to 20Mbps in Woy Woy on the New South Wales Central Coast."

More likely, I suspect this was an Optus DSLAM installation co-opted by the minister to promote Opel which she had been spruiking enthusiastically ever since it was announced.

Well, it is now more than six months since Opel was awarded its contract. Coonan announced on 9 September that "the funding agreement for a new national high speed broadband network has been signed with Opel Networks...Opel has already commenced work on establishing its new scalable, state-of-the-art WiMAX, ADSL2+ and fibre wholesale network that is targeted for completion by June 2009."

Surely Opel would be willing to respond to Burgess' baiting about phantoms with something concrete? So I emailed corporate affairs head Melissa Favero, "Where are these 'Opel' services? Where is Opel today? What I am really hoping for is an opportunity to interview someone on this, but I rather expect that person will be as elusive as 'The Ghost Who Walks'."

I got precisely what I expected: nothing. A statement from "an Optus spokesperson" saying: "Optus and Elders are working constructively with Government to deliver competitive broadband services to regional and rural Australia. The project is on track. The highlight to date is the purchase of spectrum in the 2.3 and 3.5GHz range from Austar which Optus and Elders announced in January 2008. The network is to utilise both public spectrum and licensed spectrum.

It's now been seven months since Opel got the nod for its $1 billion government handout, and there is nothing to show. Even this latest "highlight" seems to have been an Austar initiative to sell its spectrum.