Australia learns the lessons of big Broadband rollout

Australia has joined the group of countries that want to build broadband fast, as they announced today:

The Rudd Government today announced the establishment of a new company to build and operate a new super fast National Broadband Network.

This new super fast National Broadband Network, built in partnership with private sector, will be the single largest nation building infrastructure project in Australian history.

This new National Broadband Network will:

- Connect 90 percent of all Australian homes, schools and workplaces with broadband services with speeds up to 100 megabits per second - 100 times faster than those currently used by many households and businesses
- Connect all other premises in Australia with next generation wireless and satellite technologies that will be deliver broadband speeds of 12 megabits per second
- Directly support up to 25,000 local jobs every year, on average, over the 8 year life of the project

Under the Rudd Government’s new national broadband network every house, school and business in Australia will get access to affordable fast broadband.

Very sensible approach, and is a job creation scheme to boot.

Its sensible because all the evidence is that unless a country's broadband buildout is determined in some way by a national force, the high speed infrastructure just won't be built. The chart above, using data from the ITIF shows the countries with the highest mean broadband speeds now, and all the leaders have used government intervention in some form or other to drive the market. Competition just can't cut it as the sums are so large, and returns so uncertain, that it is resulting in piecemeal development. France volte-faced in 2005/6,oving from competition to control. Australia is next. In a way, Ofcom waving a green flag to BT is a tacit admission of this as well.