The National Broadband Debate: Capacity is the Sleeper - We Need Pipes
and Policies Now
The Internet Industry Association today warned that unless we address
our international capacity issues, Australian’s use of high speed
broadband networks could become cost-prohibitive.
“Promises from political parties to deliver faster services, while very
welcome, may have the perverse effect of bringing our international
capacity constraints to a head sooner rather than later” said IIA chief
executive, Peter Coroneos.
“There’s no point having a fast car if you can’t afford the fuel.
Broadband is the same.”
“The IIA has championed the need for faster broadband services,
including setting national targets for 2010.”
“But it is becoming evident the more we look at this, that without
better competition and investment in international links, emerging uses
of the internet may remain out of reach, even though we’ll have the
speed to access them.”
“After speed, capacity is the next big issue. It will determine the
affordability of services. In turn, this will determine the uptake and
usage of advanced broadband based services such health, advanced
education, financial services, video communications, software on demand,
environmental analysis, media and entertainment to name a few.”
Mr Coroneos explained that Australia was worse off than other advanced
economies. “By virtue of our isolation, the limited number of cables
connecting us to the global internet and the proportion of content we
source from overseas, we face much higher costs in international
traffic. Other nations are much better serviced which is why ‘data caps’
and ‘excess usage’ charges are almost uniquely Australian.”
“These restrictions, which we fully understand are the result of current
conditions, are ultimately anathema to being a connected Australia.”
“Productivity enhancing information services in a 21st century knowledge
based economy and our cultural, social and economic engagement in the
global internet will suffer if we don’t get the capacity question
right,” he said.
“Our current data situation is like having only three or four airlines
servicing our international routes, or three or four shipping services
moving imports and exports. We might have abundant domestic transport
systems, but if the bottleneck is on overseas access, we’ll remain
isolated.”
Much of the problem stems from the fact that most of the content
Australians currently access is currently from overseas. For example,
most English language internet content is not found here.
“We need policies to encourage building more high-capacity undersea data
pipes to major international hubs.”
“We also need policies to encourage more content to be hosted in
Australia. Our ‘balance of data’ deficit is a significant determinant of
the price we pay for international access. Most Australians would not
realise this.”
ISPs Not to Blame
Evidence from IIA’s quarterly Broadband Index (produced in conjunction
with Spectrum Strategy Consultants) is showing a worrying trend - that
the major component of the total cost of broadband to users is actually
the data component. This is more the case with higher end users, who are
experiencing now what all internet users may inevitably face.
In Australia the high cost of international traffic results in two
scenarios that most broadband users will be aware of:
i) big bills for people who exceed their caps; or
ii) users being choked back to dial-up speeds.
Neither of these two scenarios is compatible with the vision of a nation
embracing the information age.
The situation is likely to get worse as more Australians move to faster
broadband.
The IIA is at pains to point out that it is not the fault of ISPs that
this is happening.
“Australia is facing constraints in its international capacity - this
means that the cost of international transit must be passed on to
consumers or ISPs will go broke. The underlying supply issues that
determine ISPs’ costs need to be addressed.”
Next Steps
In response to emerging concerns over this issue, the Association will
move to establish a high level industry taskforce to examine Australia’s
internet capacity constraints.
The taskforce will be charged with making recommendations for policy
reform to ensure that we head off a national “data crunch”.
“We’ll be looking at what can be done at the political level to secure
Australia’s place as an advanced information economy.”
Ends.
For further comment please contact
Peter Coroneos
Chief Executive
Internet Industry Association (IIA)
PO Box 3986 MANUKA ACT
AUSTRALIA 2603
Mobile: 0419 552 872
Phone: +61 2 6232 6900
Fax: +61 2 6232 6513
www.iia.net.au
CFCamp is coming to Perth and it looks like it will be a great event to, as Adobe puts it, “Celebrate the release of Adobe ColdFusion 8″. Ben Forta was expected to make an appearance, but apparently he pulled out.
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