Internet Australia has given its support to an ACCC decision to undertake a communications sector market study, with IA chief Laurie Patton saying that it is time for a serious look at how Australia is preparing for the country’s “communications needs in an emerging digitally-enabled global economy”.
“The ACCC has identified some very serious issues, such as the huge expected demand for data in coming years and the creation of new technologies and delivery platforms,” Patton says.
Announcing the market study last month, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims said that Australia is witnessing a significant change in the way communications occur, and that “rapidly evolving technological developments, structural change within the sector, product innovation, and changing consumer preferences are all contributing to this change”.
Sims said the market study will consider “how these and other changes affect competition, the efficient operation of markets, and investment incentives".
{loadposition peter}“The study will examine options to address any issues identified, and it will also consider the potential to improve economic regulation where warranted, he said.
On issues in the market, Patton says IA has previously called into question the National Broadband Network strategy based on Telstra’s ageing copper wires.
“Without pre-empting what the ACCC might conclude, it is our view that under the Government's current directions the NBN will not be fit-for-purpose within 10 to 15 years. So it can only be hoped that the study will result in a much needed re-think about the communications infrastructure required for Australia to actually become an innovation nation,” Patton says.
IA also notes that 2016 is the National Year of Digital Inclusion, “an initiative to ensure that everyone has access to the Internet and the skills to use it”.
“We are not just talking about economic issues. Universal access to the communication tools of the 21st Century is vital to our social development as well,” Patton observes.
“People with disabilities and those living in rural, regional and remote Australia are telling us that they have for many years been left behind when it comes to broadband access. This has been inextricably linked to a lack of competition in these areas, something which the NBN project was intended to address by providing a ubiquitous broadband platform on which all RSPs (retail service providers) could compete on equal terms."
On the NBN, IA recently called on the Government to review the performance of the national broadband network, citing concerns about the rate of subscriber take-up and a lack of accurate information about broadband performance, and Patton notes that, in a separate announcement, the ACCC has proposed a broadband performance monitoring and reporting program.
“It was recently revealed that while it has now ‘passed’ three million premises only about one million have bothered to connect to the NBN,” Patton says, repeating a previous statement that “perhaps one of the reasons why NBN is having trouble securing customers is that people are uncertain as to the sort of Internet speeds they are likely to receive, especially given that there have been reports of people moving from their old ADSL service to the NBN and finding their Internet running slower”.
“IA has consistently argued in favour of fibre rather than re-using ageing copper and HFC (Pay-TV) networks,” Patton says.
“One of the benefits of a monitoring and reporting scheme is that it would once and for all establish the speed differentials between the copper-based FTTN network and the technically superior FTTP network. No doubt this issue will be considered by the ACCC in its Communications Sector Market Study.”