ICT Minister Senator Helen Coonan promises 99 percent of the population will have access to fast, affordable broadband by June 2009, as part of a new legislative initiative called Australia Connected.
OPEL, a new joint venture between Optus and Elders, had been awarded a total of $958 million as part of the initiative, to deliver a mix of fibre optic, ADSL2+ and wireless broadband platforms to rural and regional areas.<\/P>
“OPEL will use a new 12 Mbps state of the art wireless (WiMAX) technology ensuring that regional Australia gets a network that will be world’s best practice.<\/P>
“In addition to WiMAX, a further 426 exchanges, representing more than three million premises, will be enabled with very fast ADSL2+ broadband for the first time. The switch on of the 426 exchanges to ADSL2+ will commence immediately across 426 outer metropolitan, regional and rural areas,” Senator Coonan said.<\/P>
In parallel with the deployment of this new network, Coonan also announced a new commercial fibre optic rollout via a competitive bids process and subsequent enabling legislation. <\/P>
“To facilitate this process, the Government will establish an Expert Taskforce to ensure an open and transparent process for assessment of bids to build a fibre-to-the-node network,” she said.<\/P>
The Government will also provide a broadband subsidy of $2750 per household to Australians living in the most remote areas, a consumer help centre called BroadbandNow, and will preserve the $2billion Communications Fund for future regional network upgrades.<\/P>
“Unlike Labor’s poorly detailed and economically risk plan, this new super fast national network is fully costed, Australia-wide and will reach many Australian homes and small businesses within a matter of months,” Senator Coonan said.<\/P>
But according to the opposition, the Federal Government’s broadband plan is simply a quick fix before the election, whereas Labor’s plan will deliver “true broadband” to 98 per cent of Australians, at minimum speeds 40 times faster than they currently get.<\/P>
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