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Kim Beasley’s idea of a national high speed broadband network is one of merit and requires further investigation. In other countries the basic ADSL is between 1.5mbps and 8mbps and speeds below are almost unheard of or considerably cheaper than what we pay for lower speed broadband in Australia.

Beasley’s idea for a national high speed network will mean between the exchanges or points of present will require the “backbone” to be upgraded to handle the new network. With some forward thinking the back bones could also be upgraded to allow the exchanges to communicate via IP telephony protocol. This would effectively mean that the costs of provision of standard telephone calls could provided cheaper and more effectively as the calls would also travel on this high speed internet back bone.

The other thing about telephony utilizing a back bone similar like this is that calls would be able to be easily re-routed should a cable be accidentally dug up. Kim Beasley’s vision will mean upgraded internet and telephony access to the bush especially if the back bones to exchanges are converted to dual purpose high speed IP network upgrade for the use of voice traffic as well as internet data.

The opportunities for business to take advantage of high speed internet are endless and cause growth in Australia’s economy and spark another technology boom in Australia. I cannot see how it will take away from the bush as it can only promote cheaper more cost effective telephone communications conversation to VOIP on the telecommunications backbone. The interesting thing is that VOIP is already being used by many of the major telecommunications providers (even Telstra itself on a network level) linking their networks to the Telstra voice network and transferring voice communication via the internet. Changing to an IP network for both voice and data liking the exchanges would mean more infrastructure could be freed up and assigned to other services.

This is a policy that could provide a brighter future in the long term for Australia, however, to produce it and get results I fear it might take more than the 2 Billion in the rural fund and requires independent funding on top of such. However, with new technologies rolling out and costs of technology coming down the IP network hardware is becoming cheaper. Once a network like this type I have described has been rolled out the opportunities are endless.

One Australian owned and operated company Soul Converged Communications has already rolled out a network like the one mentioned in this article, it has the second largest data and voice network in Australia, covering 98% of the nation's population. It is an IP based network of the type discussed in this article purpose built to distribute continuous Digital Television pictures and sound (DVB) across metropolitan, regional and remote areas of Australia. Each DVB Broadcast service is distributed on Soul's carrier network at data rates of 22Mbps. Moving digital images and sound across vast distances called for a better solution than available from existing carrier networks. Soul needed a network that could deliver sustained, high bandwidths with minimum latency, jitter and packet loss. The company has a national IP network to rival that of the incumbent provider's legacy network infrastructure as the the network is today carrying over a billion voice and data minutes with network availability over 99.99% and with interconnection with the Telstra network at all 66 Call Collection Areas (CCA's) across the country the network can pick up and terminate calls (locally) to over 98% of Australia considerably reducing the costs of long distance telephony. So much so the NSW Government through its government owned utility businesses have partnered with Soul to provide cheaper services to NSW State Government offices around NSW on a purpose built Government network, comprising dedicated Government Network Access Points (GNAPs) interconnected with fibre and microwave services. Government agencies can now receive the benefits of a truly converged network supporting video, voice and data.
Kim Beasley’s vision will put what big business is paying big dollars for into our homes cheaply and economically, it will allow off site working, parents of children to work from home should the need arise. The Small Office Home Office will take off and become a more legitimate type of small business and make it easy for corporations to decentralize and move out into the country. The flow on effects on this in a perfect world could mean young people staying in their rural towns to study, access to health professionals and services increasing, more rural information technology jobs and more jobs that would normally be based in the cities moving out into the rural Australia.
The Nationals and Liberals should be embracing this policy as speed is seen as a factor in stifling the efficiency and effectiveness of Australian e-commerce according to a DFAT publication “Driving Forces on the New Silk Road” commissioned by the then Minister for Trade Tim Fischer. Unfortunately, all the government has resorted to is automatically saying it’s a bad idea because their particular party didn’t think of it themselves when all they had to do is look and see what another Australian company has already done. Launching a national super high speed IP network linking the exchanges might be the only way the government might get a decent price for T3 as household VOIP providers and wireless internet providers combine their services to eat away at the fixed line services of Telstra and provide 9c non timed national calls.

I suppose if we want this network at the next election it will be your call?