Alston Glosses Bandwidth Report

Date: 05 April 2000

"At the TELCAM industry forum in Sydney last year, Senator Alston acknowledged that the provision of high-speed affordable bandwidth was a key challenge for government, an acknowledgment that I welcomed at the time.

"Today, the Minister has sought to slide a damning report under the public radar, releasing the nearly 300 page report, together with a glossed-over version of the findings of the bandwidth inquiry in a one page media statement.

"The Minister claims in his media statement that:

"A ground breaking national study has found that Australia is well placed to remain at the forefront of international developments in electronic commerce, the internet and electronic services". (SOURCE: Richard Alston, media statement "National Bandwidth Inquiry Report released" 5/4/2000)

"However, an examination of the detail of the report shows that there are serious problems in the pricing and accessibility of bandwidth, particularly in rural and regional areas of Australia," Mr Smith said.

"The report found that:

· "Evidence suggests that there are problems with making data services available in a timely and affordable manner in practice, particularly outside the central business districts of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane";

· "Some rural and remote routes do not currently have sufficient capacity or it is often not provided in a timely manner";

· "There is insufficient objective information about the actual state of supply of data services (including provisioning times and quality of service) in Australia on which to assess carrier performance in relation to the provision of retail bandwidth products supplied to end-users";

· "Backbone bandwidth capacity ownership is highly concentrated. This market concentration may limit the amount of capacity that is actually supplied to the market through active or passive 'rationing' of that capacity by its owners";

· "There are problems in practice with the translation of the potential trunk capacity on the optic fibre network into actual capacity available for data services, particularly in regional Australia. This lack of customer access to bandwidth on a timely basis would seem to flow from problems in the customer access network and from the provisioning priorities within carriers' systems";

· "The more limited development of competition in some regional and remote areas may mean the relative price disparities between those areas and the more competitive capital city and major regional routes may increase";

· "Australian prices for leased lines and switched data services appear to be generally higher than prices for comparable services in comparable markets in the United States and Europe";

· "The effect of the inequitable charging arrangement with the US is that Australian Internet Service providers' costs are currently between $133m to $177m per annum higher than they should be".

"As well, the report found that "there is a risk that Australia's ultimate performance in the global information economy will be adversely affected" if these issues are not addressed quickly.

"These findings could not be further from the Minister's makeover today.

"As the report suggests, if the Government fails to meet the challenge of providing affordable, quality and timely access to bandwidth, Australians living in regional, rural and remote areas will not be able to participate fully in the information economy.

"The provision of high-speed affordable bandwidth is a key challenge for Government, and the Minister's attempt to slide the concerns raised in the report under the radar is truly a key failure of the Howard Government's approach to the future of communications services in Australia," Mr Smith said.

For further information

Contact:	Patrick Bindon
Union:	ALP Federal
Phone:	0418 694 878

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