Long Term Evolution not so far away

Stuart Corner
Friday, 04 April 2008 08:56

Opinion and Analysis

The word "wholesale" was never mentioned. But, if what Bäckström is saying about LTE is correct, the ideal solution in terms of getting broadband services to sparsely populated Australia at minimal cost might have been one 3G cellular network able to have access to all the available spectrum (ie Telstra's Optus', and Vodafone's) operated by a separate entity and wholesaled by all four carriers, and others, in competition. Remember both Telstra, with Hutchison and Vodafone with Optus already have arrangements in place for a degree of infrastructure sharing.

Perhaps the Government should have used the threat of giving Optus a $200m leg up so it could compete against Next G to persuade Telstra to offer wholesale access to Next G in rural Australia.