Telecommunications in Australia – A new era

[Sean Lew]

With the Australian government promising the build an advance National BroadBand Network (NBN) at an estimated cost of AUD$43 billion, this is an exciting era for Australians. Australia is a country unlike most, its land mass is massive and its one of the least populated country per sq km in the world and this poses a major issue for telecommunication. Even though a large part of the population lives in metropolitan areas, there is a sizable amount of people who are living in rural areas which still requires similar kinds of services. The NBN aims to deliver 100 mbps network to 90 percent of the population and 12 mbps to the remaining ten percent of locations via wireless technologies.

What is even smarter is that the Australian Government has forced the structural separation of Telstra (Australia’s largest telco) and I believe this is for the benefit of the NBN. $43 billion to build a 100 mbps network from scratch across Australia seems pretty little to me and by leveraging the existing infrastructure Telstra has will not only reduce the amount of work that needs to be done and speed things up, it also allows access to talents and expertise in building such kinds of network.

Opportunities from this network will be unimaginable. IP TV, ultra fast downloads, movies, music, high quality VOIP services, video conference, integrated connection with home, office and mobile and many more. The economic impact of the NBN will improve economic growth, quality of life, education, healthcare, environment, and workforce development and many others. Things like improved health communications, smart metering, real time entertainment, quality education to rural areas via telepressence and business communication and technologies like VOIP, video conference and SaaS will all be possible with the NBN network.

This program if successfully completed and delivers its promised speeds, it will have a positive impact on social, financial and the economic growth of Australia. I am really excited to see the NBN unfold and will surely be something I will keep my eyes out on. Good Luck NBN company!



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