Stuart Corner
Friday, 29 September 2006 18:56
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
Telstra and its CEO Sol Trujillo have been copping stick big time in the media of late but latest assault: a report claiming imminent capacity problems on the new 3G network is way off the mark.
Under the headline "Telstra warns of capacity crunch" The Australian reported that "Telstra has revealed looming capacity problems on its 3G network as it offers customers data and video services such as television on mobile phones."
And it quoted Jane van Beelen, deputy director of regulatory issues at Telstra, telling the Senate inquiry into media ownership laws, that "If the take-up of video services over 3G meets projections there will be a need to address this issue [of capacity]"
" Once demand gets to a certain point there will be need for additional capacity to be able to manage and provide services at the right quality," she said.
Well surprise, surprise. You have only a finite bandwidth and there is a limit to the amount of information you can convey over it. And video takes lots of bandwidth so if everyone wants to watch TV on their cellphones you need lots of bandwidth.
