"Alan Parkington" <patriot@iheartaustralia.com.au> wrote in message
news:ru1Jj.5515$n8.4280@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> From
> http://business.theage.com.au/telstr...0403-238r.html
>
> SIR Humphrey famously remarked in Yes Minister after Jim Hacker sought his
> advice: "Minister, if you really want to tell them that, you can, but it
> would be a very brave decision on your part."
>
> Well, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has been brave and canned the
> billion-dollar contract with Opel, the Optus-Elders joint venture that
> planned to deliver broadband in rural areas using fixed and wireless
> technologies.
>
> The contract was awarded in the middle of last year by former minister
> Helen Coonan on departmental advice that Opel's ambitious plans, involving
> unproven WiMAX radio technology, could solve the problems of rural
> broadband access.
>
> That Conroy has cancelled the contract should come as no surprise. It was
> awarded even before Opel had wireless spectrum and the network plans and
> coverage claimed can only be described as extraordinary.
>
> Quite how Opel could have submitted a business plan that warranted $1
> billon in government subsidy when it didn't have spectrum and the
> necessary radio plans remains a mystery. It was only in January that Opel
> secured spectrum after paying Austar $65 million for wireless licences
> that are not suited to widespread rural coverage.
>
> In return for $1 billion, Opel promised to match the funding, largely in
> kind, which meant Elders shop fronts and existing Optus mobile phone sites
> and towers. And it was questionable how much of the money was to be spent
> on delivering new rather than duplicate infrastructure, as part of the
> Opel funding seemed destined to replicate Telstra links that Optus now
> rents for commercial mobile phone services in rural areas.
>
> With Telstra keeping the pressure on by pursuing the tender award through
> the courts, Conroy could no longer ignore Opel's fanciful claims,
> especially as they started to confront benchmarks for rolling out the
> network. Based on a departmental assessment in January, it appears Opel
> could only deliver 75% of their promised radio coverage.
>
> Nor, given that the expert broadband panel has begun work on awarding the
> $4.7 billion subsidy for a national fibre-optic high-speed network, could
> Conroy ignore the overlap between the Opel network and his own rural
> broadband plans.
>
> But while Conroy might feel pleased that his earlier criticisms of Opel
> have been vindicated, he will have his own policy demons to confront as
> his expert group's work progresses. If the Opel plan was based on a
> fiction, that WiMAX operating at high frequencies could serve rural areas,
> his own broadband plans based on a competitive tender are also badly
> flawed.
>
> Only Telstra can build a national network within the subsidy on offer.
> Quite how Conroy confronts the obvious contradictions and problems in his
> own policy will test the mettle of the Sir Humphreys in his own department
> and demonstrate just how brave the minister really is.