Opel funding may be at risk: IDC

THE $900 million in Federal funding for the Opel consortium to build telecommunications infrastructure in the bush may be at risk of being cut because of Telstra’s plan to switch on its ADSL2+ network, according to research group IDC.

The group says that inflationary pressures, and the Rudd Government’s commitment to trimming Federal budgets, means the Commonwealth might decide against going ahead with the funding plan.

It says that the Telstra decision to switch on ADSL2+ in 900 exchanges nationwide means that rural and regional telecommunications will be substantially improved regardless of the Opel funding plans.

“We believe that the announcement from Telstra to activate their remaining ADSL2+ ready exchanges as a result of Ministerial assurance and the Government’s requirement to cull more than $10 billion dollars of funding are related,” said IDC telecommunications program manager David Cannon.

“As a result the Opel Pty Ltd funding will potentially be a casualty of larger macro economic inflation management processes,” he said.

“The activation of the ADSL2+ exchanges gives regional and rural communities metro-like broadband services and will counterbalance any negative public sentiment should the Opel funding be withdrawn,” said Cannon.

Opel is a joint-venture between Optus and Elders.

But with Optus already saying will not build its 3G network to cover 96 per cent of the population – instead rolling out only to major metropolitan and regional areas – and Vodafone apparently under pressure to reassess its own 3G plans, IDC says a lack of competition in the bush will mean continued higher prices for regional and rural Australia.

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Telstra clears way for ADSL2 rollout

COMMUNICATIONS Minister Stephen Conroy has had a major victory, clearing the path for Telstra to roll-out ADSL2+ broadband services to an additional 900 exchanges across Australia.

In a joint announcement with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Senator Conroy said the roll-out would give an additional 2.4 million households access to next-generation high-speed broadband.

Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo said the speed of the carrier's ADSL service would lift from 8Mbps to 20Mbps in 900 exchanges around Australia over the next eight months.

The Telstra announcement is great news for broadband in Australia. The company said it would proceed with the roll-out following assurances from Senator Conroy about the regulatory treatment of the initiative.

Telstra had previously baulked at rolling out ADSL2+ to exchanges because it said it did not have regulatory certainty about whether it would be forced to open up the investment to other carriers.

Until now, the company has only offered ADSL2+ at exchanges where other carriers had already installed their own ADSL2+ infrastructure.

The Telstra ADSL2+ investment means fast broadband with download speeds of up to 20 Mbps will now be available in more cities and towns throughout Australia.

“The Chairman of the ACCC, Mr Graeme Samuel, advised me that the ACCC has made a number of consistent public statements relating to the regulation of wholesale access to ADSL services,” Senator Conroy said.

“As a result of this advice, I concluded that there is a high degree of regulatory certainty in relation to the ACCC's approach to wholesale ADSL2+ services,” he said.

“I am delighted that I could provide this assurance to Telstra and that, as a result, a large number of Australian homes and businesses will have access to improved broadband services.”

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Opel pays $65m for Wimax spectrum

JOINT-venture regional broadband provider OPEL has shelled out US$65 million to acquire Austar’s 2.3GHz and 3.5GHz spectrum to set up its national WiMAX voice and internet service.

OPEL is the joint-venture company between Optus and Elders which won $958 million in Federal funding last year to assist the construction on a broadband network covering rural and regional Australia.

Access to the Austar licensed spectrum will allow the OPEL Venturers to build a state-of-the-art WiMAX network which will keep pace with the developments in international standards.

The OPEL network will ensure that regional Australians have access to a broad range of world's best broadband access technologies including WiMAX and ADSL2+.

The OPEL venture has been incredibly quiet since it was awarded the Federal funding last year. Even the $65 million acquisition of critical spectrum from Austar went unannounced (it was left to Austar to trumpet the sale.)

The awarding of the funding has been fraught with controversy and is now the subject of a Federal Court case between Telstra and Government.

The funding had consisted of $600 million Broadband Connect Infrastructure Program funding which the joint venture bid for. But it also included an additional $358 million in additional funding to extend the regional network that Telstra has cried foul over – saying it wasn’t given a chance to bid for the extended network.

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Pipe readies submarine cable

ASX-listed telco Pipe Networks is readying plans to announce its ambitious submarine cable project linking Australia with the Pacific communications hub Guam.

Called Project Runway, the $200 million plan aims to massively boost Australia’s international capacity – a move that will ultimately reduce broadband costs to consumers in Australia.

The Pipe Pacific Cable 1 (PPC-1) will use Guam as its offshore landing point because the US island is a major hub, with high capacity links to the US west coast, Japan and other parts of Asia.

Brisbane-based Pipe yesterday suspended trading of its shares on the Australian Stock Exchange pending a major announcement regarding the Sydney-Guam fibre link.

“The reason for the trading halt is that the company is preparing to make an important announcement relating to Project Runway, a planned international fibre-optic cable between Sydney and Guam, which is likely to affect the company's share price but cannot be released immediately,” Pipe’s company secretary Malcolm Thompson wrote to the ASX.

The Pipe Networks board last month gave its formal approval to the legal and financial structure of Project Runway. It also said the company was now in a position to execute some outstanding sales agreements, with which it now had “sufficient customer commitments to proceed with Project Runway.”

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Optus appoints Huawei

OPTUS has appointed Huawei and Nokia Siemens as its vendors of choice in its accelerated roll out of its nationwide 3G/ HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) network.

The company said it would use a combination of 900MHz and 2100MHz frequency ranges, and when complete the network will cover 96 per cent of the population – replicating the Optus 2G network. The 900MHz range will be used primarily in rural and regional Australia.

Optus chief executive Paul O’Sullivan said the company had completed its network upgrade in all capital cities to 3G/HSPA. The first phase of the extended upgrade is also complete, with areas in Newcastle and Wollongong already in service.

“Through our national deployment, more Australians will have access to a competitive, high quality, high speed network and will be able to choose from our array of product plans and flexible pricing,” Mr O'Sullivan said.

“Our 3G/HSPA network currently reaches 60 percent of the population, will reach around 80 percent of the population by June 2008 and is set for completion by December 2008 - 18 months ahead of schedule,” he said.


Mr O'Sullivan said Optus had adopted a multi-vendor strategy for mobile network deployments to drive better competitive and technical outcomes.

“As a result, we have awarded Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks to deliver the radio network infrastructure required for this extensive roll out,” he said.

Optus customers using the 3G/HSPA network will have access to improved speeds, of up to 3.6Mbps, on Optus Wireless Broadband modems and enabled mobile phones. They will see significant improvement in time to download and upload videos, music, maps and user generated content on their laptops and phones.

“The 900MHz range for 3G/HSPA is perfectly suited to the Australian landscape. Using this frequency, radio signals have a greater range – giving better quality and wider coverage across sparsely populated rural and remote areas,” Mr O'Sullivan said.

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WiMAX: 80m subscribers in 5 years

THE number of subscribers to WiMAX mobile broadband services will start to boom in 2010, and will exceed 80 million globally by 2013, according to Junior Research.

The report says that more than 50 Mobile WiMAX 802.11e trials and network contracts had been announced in this year, and that the WiMAX market was active in all geographies.

Juniper Research’ report author Howard Wilcox says the value of Mobile WiMAX services revenues would grow to US$23 billion ($26.1 billion)

The ‘Mobile WiMAX: Global Opportunities, Strategies & Forecasts, 2007-2013’ found that the US, Japan and South Korea would be the three largest markets for WiMAX.

Australia is already becoming a WiMAX player – and per capita could become one of the biggest users, with large-scale plans already in motion to roll-out WiMAX nationwide as part of the previous Government broadband schemes.

Mr Wilcox said there were several wildcard factors could increase the size of the WiMAX market, including the emergence of low cost laptops, and adding broadband capability to devices like MP3 players, and games consoles.

“Mobile WiMAX will be a device-based technology, whether handsets, laptops, datacards, or other types of consumer device such as media players,” Mr Wilcox said.

“The twin challenges are for vendors to produce the right devices at the right time and price, and for Mobile WiMAX service providers to differentiate their offerings from existing mobile operators,” he said.

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Cabinet approves $1b schools plan

FEDERAL Cabinet has signed off on a $1 billion plan to give every student in years nine to 12 their own computer at school, with the first $100 million in funding to become available in March.

The plan is one of the first election commitments to be put through the Cabinet process, and means that schools can start applying now for funding of up to $1 million each.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said an national audit of schools’ computer resources and broadband facilities would be conducted to determine those in most need.

Though funding is available to all schools – public and private – the first round money will go to those found to be in most urgent need.

Mr Rudd said schools can elect to spend the funding on a range of digital equipment – from computers, interactive whiteboards, networking equipment, digital projects and improved broadband connectivity.

Deputy Prime Minister and education Minister Julia Gillard has also outlined broad plans to improve teacher training in ICT skills to ensure they are equipped to teach in computer-equipped classrooms.

Under its National Secondary School Computer Fund commitment during the election, Labor noted that ICT “is also now becoming critical to most jobs in most industries,” for mining, to agriculture, manufacturing and services.

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We’ll proceed without Telstra: Tanner

THE Rudd Government was unfazed by Telstra blunt rejection of plans to build a national broadband network based on joint public-private funding and ownership.

Newly sworn-in Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner has told ABC Television the Labor Government would proceed with the $4.7 billion plan for the national network with or without Telstra.

And the Government’s new Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy, said Labor remained committed to building a national fibre-to-the-node network.

Senator Conroy said government hoped to complete the tender process to select partners to build the network by the middle of next year.

“It will be open access, promote competition and put downward pressure on consumer prices,” Senator Conroy said. “We will hold an open and transparent process to determine who will build the network with our ambition being to complete the process by the end of June next year,”

“We expect that there will be much public commentary, jockeying and lobbying from parties as they work to convince the Government that they are best placed to build the new network and seek the terms that are most favourable to them.”

Labor promised in March that it would contribute $4.7 billion in public money toward a public-private national “open access’’ network. Government will issue tenders next year seeking proposals from the private sector to build the network.

But Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo last week last week rejected the plan, saying the company would only participate in projects that “we own and control.”

Mr Tanner said the Government’s plans were not contingent on Telstra taking part.

“The policy we put forward some months ago is a position that still stands. We are going to proceed,” Mr Tanner said.

“It is Telstra’s choice as to what role they want to play or not,” he said.

Government would wait until seen private sector proposals as part of the tender process before deciding how to structure the network.

Mr Tanner said the policy had been kept as flexible as possible so that the private sector could develop new ideas for implementing a cost effective and technologically efficient network.

“We are going to proceed with the position that we put to the Australian people,” Mr Tanner told the ABC Inside Business program.

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ICT get a boost in new Cabinet

THE technology industry has been given a major profile boost in Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s first Cabinet, with the appointment of two senior Ministers with responsibility for ICT-critical issues.

Stephen Conroy was appointed as Minister to the newly-named portfolio of Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy. Senator Conroy has been shadow IT and communications spokesman since 2004, and had been expected to retain those responsibilities – largely because of the incredible complexities of telecommunications regulation (and Telstra-related regulatory issues).

Senator Conroy was a driving force behind Labor’s bold A$4.7 billion national broadband pledge, made in March.

Less expected was the appointment of fellow Victorian Senator Kim Carr as Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. Senator Carr had been shadow Industry Minister, but Mr Rudd bolstered the portfolio with the addition of Innovation.

Senator Carr will oversee the implementation of industry assistance programs – which will play a huge role in the development of indigenous software companies.

The appointments have been welcomed by the industry.

“We are pleased that the Prime Minister-elect, Kevin Rudd, has acknowledged technology as the driving force of our nation’s economic prosperity and reinforced this stance by including the ICT portfolio in Cabinet,” said the Australian Computer Society’s out-going national President Philip Argy.

“Innovation is a pivotal force in building our national economy and energising our industry. Our prosperity is dependent on productivity gains underpinned by innovation in information and communications technologies,” Mr Argy said.

Lindsay Tanner’s appointment as Finance Minister in the Rudd Cabinet has also been welcomed. Mr Tanner has been a Shadow Communications Minister and is very familiar with the industry.

As a technology buyer, the federal government wields, tremendous influence through the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), which falls within the Department of Finance.

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Google confirms wireless spectrum bid

SEARCH leader Google has confirmed it will participate in the US Federal Communications Commission’s spectrum auction – underlining the company’s interest in entering the wireless voice and data device markets.

As part of the US’ mandated transition to digital television, the 700 MHz spectrum auction – which begins January 24, 2008 – will free up spectrum airwaves for more efficient wireless internet service for consumers.

Bidding for the spectrum will start at a reserve price of US$4.6 billion (A$5.2 billion). Google announced it will enter the auction without the assistance of a partner. Some industry observers had thought the company would partner with a telecommunications firm for the auction.

The auction stipulates that part of the spectrum be used for open access purposes – under which the winning bidder is compelled to give customers the right to download any application they want on their mobile device and the right to use any device they want on the network.

“We believe it's important to put our money where our principles are,” Google chairman and chief executive Eric Schmidt said. “Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in today's wireless world.”

“No matter which bidder ultimately prevails, the real winners of this auction are American consumers who likely will see more choices than ever before in how they access the internet,” Mr Schmidt said.

The 700MHz spectrum is attractive to communications companies as it wavelength travels long distances and easily penetrates obstacles like concrete walls. This means the spectrum requires fewer communications towers and is therefore cheaper.

Regardless, a national wireless network would be expected to cost the owners an additional US$7 billion.

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AIIA welcomes change of Government

POLICY implemented in the next three to five years will largely determine how successfully the nation engages with the global information economy, according the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA).

The top priority for the Rudd Labor government should be to give the ICT industry and the wider community “clear plans and a concrete timetable” for the nationwide broadband roll-out, AIIA chief executive Sheryle Moon said.

Welcoming the change, Ms Moon said the AIIA looked forward to working with the new government during what will be a “pivotal” three years.

“The leadership and policy delivered to the industry over the next three to five years will to a large degree define our future stake in the international information economy as well as our ability to successfully meet Australia’s most pressing domestic issues.” Ms Moon said.

In other areas the AIIA said that the government has presented strong policies addressing a number of significant industry concerns.

“In particular, we look forward to working with the new government to address ICT workforce pressures and reinvigorate the R&D sector,” said said.

However, more will be required if ICT is to maintain a viable contribution to the economy and wider issues affecting Australia.

“The ALP’s Innovation Future for Australian Industry … recognises many of the imperatives that must be addressed if the ICT industry is to maintain a vibrant contribution to Australia and its interests,” said Ms Moon.

“The challenges it identifies are significant, however, and the clock is ticking,” she said.

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USO should cover broadband: ACS

THE Australian Computer Society has called on Government to include minimum broadband service standards under the terms of its Universal Service Obligation (USO) requirements.

The ACS said in a submission to the Department of Communications, IT and the Arts’ (DCITA) review of the USO that expanding the requirements to include broadband would help reverse the “digital divide”.

The USO is a set of requirements imposed on telecommunications carriers to ensure anyone who wants a phone service has access to it, regardless of where they live. It also covers services like ensure adequate numbers of payphones and emergency numbers like 000.

The ACS said the USO review should consider the way mobile communications is developing as a universal information platform with significant potential for remote internet access.

Regardless of which party wins the upcoming federal election, Australia needed a USO that encompassed broadband and mobile technologies, according to ACS Telecommunications Board director, Professor Reg Coutts.

“Australia faces a growing digital divide, which is being exacerbated by the huge disparity between the quality of telecommunications services provided in our cities and those available in rural and remote parts of the country,” Prof Coutts said.

“The USO was written at a time when a standard fixed line service was all anyone needed, but times have changed.”

Prof Coutts said the long debate over Telstra’s privatisation had delayed “any meaningful action” on broadband for several years, and that the issue needed to be addressed in the next six to 12 months for Australia to maintain global competitiveness.

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Farmers attack Labor broadband plan

THE nation’s peak farming lobby has attacked Federal Labor’s plan to use money from the $2 billion Communications Fund to help pay for its national broadband plans.

National Farmers Federation(NFF) president David Crombie said the Communications Fund had been put in place to “future proof” the bush and should not be used for a one-off upgrade of broadband services.

The Communications Fund was established with proceeds from the T3 sale of Telstra shares. It was intended by Government to be a “locked-box” perpetual fund, with annual interest payments from the fund to be directed to rural upgrades.

“Labor’s policy fails to recognise that there is much more to telecommunications than just broadband, especially in the bush where phone and mobile services are critical to everyday life,” Mr Crombie said.

“Right now, future-proofing rural telecommunications is enshrined in legislation – funded by the $2 billion Communications Fund – guaranteeing future rural service upgrades,” he said

“From interest accrued on this dedicated perpetual Fund, rural telecommunications, including broadband and mobile services, are guaranteed funding for upgrades in the future.”

“The sole purpose of the Communications Fund is to finance solutions to telecommunications inadequacies across regional, rural and remote Australia on a regular basis into the future,” Mr Crombie said.

He said in “a couple of years” when the satellite, wireless and microwave technology became obsolete, there was no Labor plan to continue investment in the bush.

“Rural Australia will be left behind because Labor failed to plan for the future.”

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Boom looms for mobile broadband

THE global trade association for the mobile industry, the GSM Association (GSMA), says there is a vast untapped worldwide market for an additional 70 million mobile broadband-capable notebooks.

The association published results of a survey conducted with Microsoft that shows a market worth US$50 billion (A$56 billion) in 2008 for notebook PCs in the high growth, mass market US$500 – US$1,000 price-range with built-in mobile broadband.

GSMA says the results suggest PC makers had not yet hit the configuration/price sweet spot in the mobile broadband market, and that there remains a lot of latent demand.

It reveals a gap of up to 46.5 million units between recent industry analyst forecasts and the new analysis, suggesting that PC manufacturers have yet to deliver the right mobile broadband PCs - bundled with pre-configured mobile connectivity - to appeal to mass market PC buyers.

The market research, by Pyramid Research, involved more than 12,000 consumer interviews across 13 countries, with input from notebook manufacturers, component companies and chip set suppliers as well as more than 200 field trials.

“With the right form factor, price and ‘out-of-the-box’ connectivity, the research has unearthed substantial demand for mobile broadband embedded notebooks that is not yet being met,” said GSMA chief executive officer Rob Conway.

“Now that we understand the market potential and consumers’ requirements, we are pleased to communicate the findings to the broader industry eco-system,” Mr Conway said.

Leading PC manufacturers, including Asus, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, Lenovo, Twinhead and Vestel have welcomed the research report and expressed interest in working with mobile operators and the GSMA to fulfil this market demand.

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Govt broadband a sham: Thinktank

A conservative thinktank with close links to the Liberal Party has attacked Government’s WiMAX broadband plans, saying network coverage will be less than 50 per cent of the area government has claimed.

The Institute of Public Affairs has released a report that redraws the network coverage maps with a more conservative estimate of WiMAX range capabilities and taking into account topographical features. Its conclusions are grim.

The Mebourne-based Institute of Public Affairs is described by the web site sourcewatch.org as being closely associated with the Liberal Party, with its executive director having been pre-selected by the party in a number of elections.

IPR Research Fellow Chris Berg says the estimates of WiMAX range were overly optimistic when government was considering regional broadband proposals. The awarding of a $950 million in government subsidies to the Optus Elders joint venture Opel were overly optimistic as a result.

Originally, Government claimed WiMAX range could be as high as 70 kilometres – wildly optimistic. It later wound this claim back to 20 kilometres, which IPR says is still far too generous and does not take into account topography.

“When the maps of WiMAX coverage that were paraded around by the Communications Minister after the Opel announcement are redrawn with a more realistic range, the difference is stark,” Mr Berg says.

“A more likely range for the WiMAX deployments would be in the region of five to ten kilometres. To be uncharitable, when considering environmental and topographical factors, a maximum range of as little as one or two kilometres is entirely possible,” he said.

The IPA report also notes that: “The need for a fibre-optic network in Australia is manifestly clear.”

Labor Communications spokesman Stephen Conroy seized on the IPR report, and called on Government to come clean on the real coverage of its broadband plan.

“Only Federal Labor has a plan to drag Australia out of the digital dark ages, ensuring all Australians – including those in rural and regional areas – have improved broadband services at an affordable price,” Senator Conroy said.

“Federal Labor’s network will be open access, creating a competitive framework to drive consumer prices down,” he said.

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Conroy lashes bush broadband plans

THE only promise Federal plans for broadband in the bush will deliver will be “city-comparable prices” for second rate services, shadow communications minister Stephen Conroy says.

Under current plans, Senator Conroy says that by mid-2009 Australia could have wasted $1 billion of taxpayer funds on a sub-standard, two-tier broadband network.

Writing in The Australian newspaper, Senator Conroy attacked the government’s broadband plans, in particular its awarding $958 million in support to the Optus-Elders bush phone joint-venture.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan had misled regional Australians about the likely speed of the OPEL wireless services, Senator Conroy said, quoting speeds only attainable with optimum conditions and without factoring the vast distances and difficult topographies of some remote areas.

The Wimax solution was an inferior option. Senator Conroy also attacked the Minister over the handling of the Broadband Connect tender won by OPEL. He said only OPEL – and not other bidders like Telstra – had been informed that money beyond the $600 million earmarked for the project could be written into bids.

Labor is proposing spending $4.9 billion on a fibre to the node network that would provide superior speeds to both city and regional customers. He said the FTTN proposal would not only give the bush comparable pricing, but comparable services as well.

“Labor has spent the past five months travelling around Australia talking about broadband. Australians in rural and regional areas know the Government is locking them into a sub-standard, second-class system,” Senator Conroy said.

“Far from abandoning broadband in rural and regional Australia, Labor is committed to turning around the poor quality of telecommunications for all Australians, including those in the bush,” he said.

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Aarnet boosts remote schooling

THE Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet), the public sector broadband research group, is working with the National Museum in Canberra and NSW Department of Education on delivering live, two-way video-conferencing to remote schools.

The project aims to deliver Talkback Classroom forums held by the Museum.

Talkback Classroom is a regular forum held at the Museum where teams of three students investigate current issues and participate in a live interview with a leading decision maker.

This week Foreign Minister Alexander Downer will be interviewed by students on the Australian/Korean Energy Forum.

The session includes students from up to 100 regional and rural NSW schools participating via live-streaming videoconference across the AARNet3 national backbone – connected to the NSW Department of Education and Training network.

AARNet chief executive Chris Hancock said the latest “AARNet3 is a high-speed, high-capacity network specifically designed to give Australian schools and universities access to services, information and opportunities they have never had before, removing geographical constraints.”

“The National Museum’s Talkback Classroom project is a perfect example of how AARNet3 gives students in remote areas access to the same tools as those in city areas,” Mr Hancock said.

AARNet is the not-for-profit company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network. The shareholders are 37 universities and the CSIRO.

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Australia lags on Broadband: OECD

THE latest OECD report card on broadband access has found Australia lags other developed nations with slow internet speeds and high access costs.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development found Australia’s download speeds were the second slowest of any OECD club member – slower than Hungary and Turkey, and only marginally faster than last-placed Slovak Republic.

The OECD Communications Outlook 2007 report also found a bundle of typical telecommunications services – including fixed-line, mobile and local and long distance calls – were far more expensive in Australia than comparable economies in the OECD.

In particular, the report found typical communications bundles used by small businesses were especially costly.

Although Telstra’s internet download speeds have improved since the data for the report was compiled in 2006 (top speeds have jumped for 1.5Mbps to about 24Mbps), countries like Japan and South Korea are now offering customers speeds of up to 100Mbps.

The report found that overall investment continued to rise and consumers were generally paying less for their communications services among OECD countries.

It found that 60 per cent of the OECD’s 256 million internet subscribers had access to broadband connections at the end of 2005.

The move to introduce broadband services has presented challenges for incumbent communications service providers.

“(Broadband) offers an additional revenue stream for telecoms operators to make up for their declining revenues from voice communications, which still make up the bulk of their revenue,” the OECD report said.

“Broadband remains one of the main growth areas for telecoms firms and one of their key challenges, looking ahead, will be to decide how much and how soon they should invest in next-generation networks, such as fibre-optics, rather than continue their investments in traditional copper networks,” it said.

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Nationals dig in over CDMA closure

FEDERAL Nationals leader Mark Vaile has moved to reassure regional phone users that Telstra will not be allowed to switch off its CDMA mobile phone network until its coverage is matched by the new Next G service.

Mr Vaile told a meeting of Queensland Nationals in Brisbane that Telstra would not be allowed to access any Federal funding to upgrade its Next G network in regional areas.

Although Government has committed funding to regional communications, including $958 million in new money for the bush, and the $2 billion “future proofing” fund.

“I want to emphasise that we will not be using money from the Communications Fund to bring Telstra's Next G network up to scratch,” Mr Vaile said.

“We will simply not allow Telstra to switch off the existing CDMA network until you are satisfied with the coverage and reliability of its replacement,” he said.

“They don't just have to convince the Government: they have to convince you, the consumers.”

The Nationals appear fully intent on ensuring Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo meets commitments made in the Nationals party room in Canberra that the next-generation Next G mobile phone coverage would be as good or better in regional Australia than the CDMA network it replaces.

The Nationals secured the commitment from Mr Trujillo prior to the party agreeing to the T3 sale of Telstra shares.

The CDMA network is scheduled to be switched off early next year. The Government has the power to force Telstra to maintain CDMA until its Next G service is comparable.

The CDMA is the only mobile network that covers much of regional, rural and remote Australia, and is relied on by many communities in heartland Nationals territories.

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Israeli WiMAX goes bush with Allegro

QUEENSLAND-based Allegro Networks says it will have Australia’s first business-grade WiMAX broadband network operational within 90 days.

The company said it had selected Nasdaq-listed Israeli WiMAX vendor Alvarion as its technology partner after the completion of months of technical and commercial trials with several vendors.

Alvarion was also the WiMAX technology of choice in the recently announced plans of OPEL, the Optus/Elders joint venture rolling out services in regional and rural Australia.

The Allegro announcement, coupled with the Federal Government’s backing of the OPEL business plan, suddenly makes Australia one of the biggest backers of the WiMAX standard in the world. And it will shortly be one of the biggest users.

Allegro will build the network utilising licensed 3.4 GHz spectrum, in the process achieving market leadership in the business grade WiMAX broadband market, ahead of the likes of Unwired, Austar and Opel.

The high-speed Allegro WiMAX network will provide converged voice and data services to thousands of businesses in the outer metro and growth corridors across south-east Queensland.

Alvarion’s BreezeMAX will be used for the deployment.

“WiMAX has a key role in establishing a robust, affordable, and efficient broadband network in Australia,” said Allegro chairman Ted Pretty.

“In broadband terms, regional Australia starts closer to the city than people think. In Brisbane it is about 10km away from the CBD. These businesses … can’t wait until 2009 or 2013 to receive advanced services,” he said.

“Alvarion was the one company able to meet our deadlines while maintaining the required quality of service (QoS). We chose Alvarion for its proven WiMAX network and the first base stations are to be delivered imminently,” Mr Pretty said.

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