Australian Competition and Consumer chief Graeme Samuel told a telecommunications conference in Sydney yesterday that far from suffering drought conditions, broadband in Australia was booming.
Mr Samuel said Telstra claims that Australia was lagging the world in broadband take-up were disingenuous, pointing to Bureau of Statistics numbers that say more than 1.8 million broadband customers were added from March 2005 to September 2006 – growth of more an 50 per cent in 18 months.
He argues that too much is made of OECD figures that say Australia ranks 17th out of 30 developed countries for broadband take up.
The same survey found that Australia’s rate of growth in broadband subscribers is the second fastest in the OECD, suggesting it is now moving up the rankings, Mr Samuel said.
Increased market competition had spurred carriers – including Telstra – to roll-out ADSL2+ services, which were now available to about 46 per cent of households.
“In addition, mobile broadband is now available to 98 per cent of the population,” Mr Samuel said.
“This suggests broadband is booming,” Mr Samuel said. “But despite this, Telstra argues we are in a ‘broadband drought’.”
Addressing the annual Australian Telecommunications User Group (ATUG) conference in Sydney, Mr Samuel also chastised Telstra over its claims that regulatory uncertainty made it difficult for the company to invest in higher-speed broadband services.
Telstra has said regulatory problems meant it was unable to roll-out ADSL2+ technology to exchanges that did not already have an ADSL2+ competitors’ equipment installed.
“Telstra argues that without regulatory certainty, it cannot offer ADSL2+ in exchanges where its competitors do not already offer this service,” Mr Samuel said.
“However there is a very easy way for Telstra to receive absolute regulatory certainty – by asking for an exemption from regulation for ADSL2+,” he said.
“Let me be perfectly clear: if the ACCC is satisfied that an exemption should be granted, it will not force Telstra to give access to its competitors to this particular service.”
“You can't get much more certainty than that,” Mr Samuel said.
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