MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE ARTS

THE HON DARYL WILLIAMS AM QC MP

The telecommunications competition regime
opening the way for innovative services like iBurst

Launch of iBurst service

6.15 pm, Tuesday, date: 16 March 2004

Thank you Jim [Jim Cooney, CEO of Personal Broadband Australia]

Introduction

Today we are here to celebrate the introduction of a wireless broadband service that could change the way we experience the Internet.
It is a service that delivers diversity, flexibility and greater choice to consumers.
This service, as you've heard, is the iBurst network.

Users of the iBurst service can maintain an online connection to the Internet or to their own offices while they are on the move.
The connection is fast and always on.
There is no need for a 'line of sight'.
And the iBurst network of six base stations covers more than 100 square kilometres.

The iBurst network is the first commercially available network of its kind in the world.
And it is very much a product of Australia's open and fiercely competitive telecommunications regime.

Competition

The Australian Government takes considerable pride in the evolution of this regime, which grew out of the 1997 deregulation of the telecommunications industry. The Government has always believed that encouraging competition is the best way to ensure that Australians have access to high-quality, low-cost telecommunications services.
Today we have a thriving telecommunications sector that is attracting new businesses and delivering innovative technology in ever more affordable ways.

In less than seven years we have moved from a monopoly to a market with more than 600 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and more than 90 licensed carriers.
New technologies are expanding the range of services on offer to consumers through ISPs and carriers.
And consumers are eagerly adopting them.

Principles of the competition regime

It has always been the government's aim to provide the framework, the economic conditions and the policy settings that will make entry into the telecommunications sector a viable proposition for service providers.

Open access and competitive neutrality has encouraged more carriers and service providers to vie for market share.
Technological neutrality has seen those service providers utilise the full range of platforms to deliver broadband to customers.
And spectrum auctions and trading have assisted new wireless services to be developed and brought on to the market.

Personal Broadband Australia saw the potential to mount a business case based on an innovative use of the 1.9 GHz band, the part of the spectrum used for iBurst.

The Australian Communications Authority was one of the first regulators in the world to offer paired and unpaired spectrum as part of its 3G spectrum auctions.
This resulted in Australia proving to be the perfect location to launch this innovative service on the world stage.

This ground-breaking and competitive service in many ways typifies what the Australian Government's ICT and telecommunications policy has been designed to facilitate.
That is, improved economic and social outcomes from investments in, and effective use of, information and communication technologies.
It is a perfect example of what can be achieved when government and industry are flexible and open to opportunities.

Broadband market

There is no doubt that, as Australians become more comfortable with the Internet, they are beginning to understand the great potential of high bandwith connections.
The rate of take up is accelerating as service providers lower their prices and increase their data transfer allowances.
There are now more than five million Internet subscribers in Australia.
About 650,000 of them have embraced broadband.

There are compelling reasons to make the switch from dial-up to broadband.
Accenture recently estimated that next-generation broadband, if it becomes as ubiquitous as the telephone, could produce 12 to 30 billion dollars per year in economic benefits for Australia.
Research is already showing that businesses that have embraced broadband are growing faster and doing more of their overall business online than their competitors.

The broadband market that Personal Broadband Australia is entering is a rapidly expanding one.
It is a more mature market, where early predictions for growth are now being realised.
This growth is driven by necessity as consumers become increasingly more reliant on applications that demand high-speed downloads.

National Broadband Strategy

The Government recognises the importance of broadband connectivity if Australia is to maximise the benefits of ICT and drive improved productivity and economic growth.

That's why we supplement our pro-competitive regime with targeted funding programs, leadership and coordination.

Most recently, we have taken a leading role in the drafting of a National Broadband Strategy, which I officially launched earlier this month.

Under this strategy, the Government is investing $142.8 million over four years in initiatives that will accelerate the roll-out and take-up of broadband services.
The funding will help deliver improved broadband services to small businesses, communities, the health, education and research sectors, advanced industries and Australians in regional, rural and remote areas.

The strategy identifies a number of priority areas.
These include improving the public's understanding of the potential of broadband and ensuring that people have the skills to take advantage of that potential.
We are also encouraging the development of compelling, world-class digital content, the protection of critical information infrastructure, and examining the effects of urban development and land planning on the delivery of services.

A major element of the National Broadband Strategy is the $107.8 million Higher Bandwidth Incentive Scheme (HiBIS).
Under the scheme Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are being given a financial incentive to make high-bandwidth services available to regional Australians at prices comparable to those paid in metropolitan areas.

Another important element of the strategy is a $23.7 million Coordinated Communications Infrastructure Fund (CCIF) that will improve broadband infrastructure in crucial areas such as health and education.
And an $8.3 million demand aggregation broker program will consolidate demand for broadband services at a regional level, making the roll-out of infrastructure viable for industry.

ICT and the economy

Australia is well positioned to secure a meaningful role for itself in the global information economy.
Not only do we have a strong record of embracing new technologies, but our economic, political and social climate are all conducive to further growth and future prosperity.
Australia's strong investment in information and communications technology has helped it maintain one of the fastest economic growth rates in the OECD in recent years.
OECD research shows that, on average, ICT investment was responsible for a quarter of Australia's GDP growth between 1995 and 2001.

The Government believes that broadband technology will continue to drive business and consumer demand and usher in greater social and economic benefits in years to come.

The realisation of these ambitions is in the hands of companies like Personal Broadband Australia.
Congratulations to the Personal Broadband Australia consortium on the deployment of its wide area broadband wireless network.

IBurst adds a significant new layer to our national broadband infrastructure and introduces a new dimension to an already competitive and technologically diverse sector.
Its innovative technology will stimulate international investment in Australia's telecommunications infrastructure.

IBurst technology has the mobility and data rate to deliver world-class services to consumers and to enhance the productivity of today's information-needy "knowledge workers".