Stuart Corner
Friday, 04 April 2008 08:56
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
In Australian cities where there are four HSPDA networks, 3 - which is the least attractive in that it has the smallest coverage area - has long been the price leader with it X-Series offerings, but now its prices for straight data service are getting very close to those of ADSL services, ie the j
ust announced 3GB for $29 per month: which bears out what Bäckström is saying.
So if you are Optus and you are already planning to spend upwards of $500 million rolling out HSDPA throughout most of your GSM network (as it
announced in January 2007 ) why would you want to use WiMAX? It might deliver similar data speeds at similar costs but it won't be any use to all your city based customers when they go bush, unless they buy new access devices. And it's a whole different ball game in terms of technology that you have to support: different expertise needed, more training expenses, additional spare parts inventory etc, etc.
Shortly after Optus announced in January 2007 its 3G network expansion plans it followed up with an offer to further extend the coverage to 98 percent of the population. "If the Government accepts the 'Optus Broadband Plus' proposal, Optus would extend its network to cover another 500,000 square kilometres using approximately 750 base stations," Optus said.
"The extension would cost an estimated $370 million, with $200 million of the cost to be funded by the Government's Broadband Connect program and $170 million to be funded by Optus. Under Optus Broadband Plus, Optus would use the additional network facilities to deliver fixed equivalent broadband services in the 500,000 square kilometre extension area. Regular 3G mobile services would also be offered."
Paul Fletcher, Optus director of corporate and regulatory affairs said: "If the Government supports our funding application to further extend our 3G mobile network under Optus Broadband Plus, Australia can lock in a competitive market structure over a much larger footprint than has ever been achieved before." Yes but giving Optus a $370m free kick against Telstra and Vodafone is hardly fair dinkum.
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