Broadband: 98 or 99

With an election due before the end of the year.

The government & opposition have unveiled their positions on broadband roll out.

The opposition wants to roll fibre to the node (phone exchanges) generally and to use public monies to do to. This would give high speed broadband to 98% of the population, they say.

The government policy is to roll fibre to the node in the five biggest state capitals (Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney). It would mix systems & technologies* to roll out some kind of higher speed broadband to rural areas. The total coverage would be 99% of the population. This would be funded by a mix of public & private monies. The government says it would be cheap for the public purse and be delivered earlier.

The opposition says the government’s proposal would introduce two tied broadband. One speed for the biggest cities, another speed for the rest.

How do I see this? Well let me explain my outlook. I’m in Canberra (the national capital), a city of about 300,000. A major city, but not one of the big five. My parents & brother farm, so definitely are rural. Australia's mobile coverage is 97% of the population. This is a mix of GSM and (soon to be replaced) CDMA technologies. At 97%, they don’t have mobile coverage.

So are they in the 98th percentile and get coverage either way? Are they in the 99th percentile and get coverage only in the government plan? Or maybe the 100% percentile and won’t get coverage either way?

I think we need to mandate a minimum service level for 100% coverage.

Ultimately, we need to ensure that that last percentile can get some kind of useable service.

After all, haven’t people been saying we, as a nation, should be trying to encourage people out of the state capitals and north to where the water is. It should also be noted that one of Australia’s most disadvantage groups, its indigenous people would be over represented this last percentile.

The government option looks better to me. Its got greater coverage, sooner and you can always roll fibre out to more nodes later.


Gnoll110

* I assume non satellite ones.

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