Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 06 February 2008 10:08
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
Telstra has finally ‘done a deal’ with the new Federal Government to
switch on ADSL 2+ in over 900 telephone exchanges across Australia,
giving more Australians access to high speed broadband than ever before
– without the regulatory threats Telstra has so dearly wanted to avoid.
Telstra says that up to 2.4 million consumers in every state and territory will soon have access to ADSL 2+ broadband, provided they live within the range of ADSL2+ services.
Over 900 telephone exchanges will have ADSL2+ activated, some within just a few days, others within a 200 day timeframe, seemingly eliminating the notion that all of Telstra’s exchanges had already been upgraded in preparation for the day when Telstra got its way on the regulatory issues of disallowing third parties access to the service.
Specifically, Telstra says they were “able to announce the upgrade after the Government made clear it did not consider a compelling case had been made for regulating third-party access to the service – an assurance sought by Telstra for more than one year”.
However iTWire's telecommunications expert, Stuart Corner, says Telstra's 'spin' on the whole issue is
'breathtaking', and he clearly isn't impressed.
The announcement was made today by Telstra CEO, Sol Trujillo, in Canberra with the Prime Minister, the Hon Kevin Rudd MP, and the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy.
Trujillo said that: “The Government’s decision means that more than a million extra Australian families, businesses, non-profit organisations and government agencies will soon be able to enjoy the benefits of high-speed broadband in education, productivity improvements, entertainment and health-care”.
Research firm Ovum has commented that: “For over a year, Telstra has refused to turn on ADSL2+ services outside the footprint of its competitors networks, for fear that the ACCC would force Telstra to provide access to ADSL2+ resellers in areas where Telstra held a monopoly. But after a written guarantee from the new Labor government that this would not happen, Telstra has announced it will activate ADSL2+ services across 900 exchanges covering 2.4m households”.
Continued on page 2.
