NBN Providing Wireless for Regional Areas

In "What reporting of the Brunswick NBN survey didn’t tell you" (Commsday, 5 March 2013), Geoff Long looks at a study of early NBN first-release sites carried out by Melbourne and Swinburne Universities (Broadbanding Brunswick: High-speed Broadband and Household Media Ecologies: A Report on Household Take-up and Adoption of the National Broadband Network in a First Release Site, Dr Bjorn Nansen, Dr Michael Arnold, Dr Rowan Wilken, Dr Martin Gibbs, Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, 2013). While the researchers study concentrated on take-up of the NBN Long suggests there should be more research on why 20% of households have no Internet access at all, which is a good question. However, it was not clear to me from the study report if households where residents had one or more  smart phones or tablet computers with broadband wireless built in where counted as connected. If not, then the number of connected households would be greatly under-reported. The popularity of wireless devices might make the concept of "household" connection largely irrelevant, much as mobile phones has lessened the need for a home fixed telephone lines. Previously the number of telephone lines per 1,000 population was used as a measure of the communications access of a country, but this is now largely irrelivant.

 Long also suggests that the study shows that there is no urgency for urban areas to upgrade to fibre. This seems a reasonable conclusion: in urban areas which have good access to Internet via ADSL or cable, this is not a compelling case for fibre. In fact the latest take-up rates for NBN nationally show that of the 34,500 subscribers, 70% are via satellite or terrestrial wireless in regional and remoe areas, with fibre in urban areas being the minority. Also the issue of take-up in the city is not really an issue as the NBN will have an effective fixed line monopoly: the plan is to eventually remove the copper cable, so that if you want a fixed line it will have to be NBN fibre.

NBN to pay for fibre in new developments

Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy,has issued a statement on "Fibre in New Developments" (9 December 2010), saying that the NBN will pay for fibre installation in new major property developments from 1 January 2011. Developers have to install and pay for the pits and pipes to NBN specifications, but the NBN will then arrange for and pay for the fibre in them.

Available are:

1. Ministerial media release
2. Policy Statement - Fibre in New Developments - 9 December 2010 (PDF, 56KB)
3. Fact sheet
4. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
5. New Developments, NBN Co, 9 December 2010

More details are provided by NBN Co:

Starting from 1 January 2011, broadacre developments and infill developments with 100 premises or more will have fibre infrastructure installed by NBN Co. ...

NBN Co will cover the cost of fibre infrastructure in newly approved developments with 100 or more premises and developers will be responsible for installing pit and pipe infrastructure.

Developments with less than 100 premises will need to request telecommunications infrastructure installation from other telecommunications providers. These developments may receive copper, wireless or fibre infrastructure. Once the National Broadband Network rollout has reached a region and is ready for service, NBN Co will provide fibre infrastructure to new developments with less than 100 premises and will also provide fibre infrastructure to those developments within NBN Co’s fibre footprint which had received copper or wireless services. . ...

Starting from 1 January 2011 developers with developments of 100 premises or more can return to this web page to register requests for fibre infrastructure via an online form. ...

From: New Developments, NBN Co, 9 December 2010