Trans-sector report presented to Minister Conroy
A report presented to Minister Conroy by industry analyst Paul Budde supports the trans-sector approach the Australia Government has taken to its proposed $43 billion National Broadband Network.
It has become clear that it will be difficult to develop an FttH business model based solely on the revenue model that is linked to access to the current level of telecoms and Internet services. However it has long been accepted that the Internet can also deliver health, education, digital media and smart grid applications.
Aside from a number of ongoing smaller pilots not much progress has been made in relation to applications. This is due to the current copper-based telecoms infrastructure and the regulatory environment, which dates back to mainly telephony-based services.
While some question the business model, at the same time there is little opposition to the premise that, as an infrastructure proposition, FttH is the future.
Trans-sector thinking is needed to break through this barrier. We need to see FttH investments as infrastructure investments in e-health and tele-education as well as for telecoms purposes. With new revenues coming in from these sectors the business model for an FttH infrastructure will start looking much healthier.
Together with a group of international experts Paul Budde has written a report on trans-sector thinking. This has now been presented to the governments of four countries: USA, Australia, Netherlands and New Zealand.
All these four governments acknowledge the importance of the trans-sector concept and are looking at this approach within the context of their own country. They will almost certainly all choose a different way forward, but that means they can all learn from each other.
Australia is the clear leader and, when presenting the report to the various Ministers, Australia is used as the international benchmark. This leadership has also been recognised by the other governments.
See: Australia – Trans-sector thinking leading to smart communities
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