- Expert says NBN Co is just a waste of money
- Survey reveals 71 percent of Australians use laptop, tablet or smartphone
- Chief Technology Officer fights back against NBN phase out claims
Quantum Market Research analyst David Chalke, a prominent social analyst, has argued that the rise of mobile internet through tablets and smart phones threatens to make the $36bn National Broadband Network (NBN) project a huge waste of taxpayers’ money.
The Herald Sun has reported that Chalke said NBN Co was “missing the boat”.
Chalke has based his claims from the results of the Australia SCAN social trend survey, showing 71 per cent of the 2000 Australian respondents owned a laptop, smartphone or tablet.
"Everything is going to be wireless by the time they’ve dug up the roads and stuffed the pipes,” he said.
“It will be too late, it’s all going to be mobile and wireless in the future,” he told Herald Sun.
Chief Technology Officer refutes NBN phase out claims NBN Co chief technology officer Gary McLaren has countered Chalke’s claims, saying that Australians prefer fixed lines for downloads and video streaming.
McLaren has cited the latest survey from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) which reveals that 93 percent of Australians use fixed-line connections to download content.
“The proportion of mobile handset downloads over mobile networks is estimated to make up just 1.4 percent of total internet downloads in Australia,” he said.
“Other wireless broadband technologies account for just 6.6 percent.”
“Fixed lines remain the engine-room of downloads in this country and around the world. As data-heavy applications such as video become more prevalent there will be an increasing need for robust fixed connections such as the NBN.”
McLaren has argued that enhanced fixed lines such as the NBN are here to ease the limitations of mobile internet.
“The eternal problems associated with spectrum scarcity – such as mobile congestion and a hefty price premium placed on using such a limited resource – are not going to go away,” he added.
- Almost half of all Australian internet connections are mobile wireless broadband
- Fixed internet connections decline but remain as preferred zone for downloads
The latest broadband study from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has revealed that the total number of mobile wireless broadband subscribers (excluding mobile handsets) in Australia rose from 4.9 million to 5.6 million between June and December 2011, beating the number of fixed lines including DSL, cable and fibre subscriptions at 5.5 million.
Additionally, in that same time frame, mobile wireless broadband had taken up 90 percent of the new internet connections, making up 47 percent of the total Internet customer base in Australia.
Despite the mobile broadband subscriptions taking up almost half of all internet connections in the country, Australian internet subscribers still prefer downloads through fixed connections.
As shown in the study, fixed downloads took a leap by 26.4 percent from 254,947 terabytes (TB) in the six months to June 2011 to 322,280TB in the six months to December 2011. Fixed downloads has risen from 91 percent of the overall to 93 percent, while mobile downloads, formerly 9 percent, now represent only 7 percent of the overall.
Meanwhile, subscribers accessing the internet at speed range of 1.5Mbps to 8Mbps increased to 5.1 million, followed by the 8Mbps to 24Mbps speed range at almost 4.0 million subscribers.
Get more info here: Austalian Bureau of Statistics
Despite being banned from bidding on contracts for Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN), Huawei Technologies, China’s largest maker of telephone equipment, would still look at potential opportunities related to the project.
The Federal Government has recently declared that Huawei would not win any supply contracts in the country’s $38 billion NBN project due to cyber security concerns.
Nonetheless, Huawei’s local board chairman John Lord said the company will now look at possible ventures in the broader market related to the NBN project.
“Our argument will always be that there is core parts of the national infrastructure that companies like us would not expect to be in,” Lord told ABC television on Sunday.
“We would still argue that there’s parts of the NBN that are perhaps suitable.”
The decision to ban the Chinese telecommunications giant came after warning from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation that Huawei’s links to Chinese Communist Party and People’s Liberation Army would jeopardise national security.
PM Gillard backs Huawei ban
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard supports the decision to ban Huawei, arguing that the move was not against trade rules.
“We’ve made decisions in the national interest. We’ve made decisions that we have the ability to make,” Gillard said. “Any suggestion that this is somehow in breach of our trade obligations is simply untrue.”
“And I know China itself takes a view about its own telecommunication system and roll out, that it’s got a special approach to whether there should be foreign investment in that.”
Gillard’s statement came after China’s Foreign Ministry’s plea to provide “a market environment for Chinese companies that is fair and free from discrimination”.
Hong Lei’s spokesman said: “We hope the relevant authorities of Australia will provide a market environment for Chinese companies that is fair and free from discrimination, instead of wearing colored lenses and obstructing Chinese companies’ normal operation in Australia in the name of so-called security.”
Decision will not hurt Australia and Chinese relations
Australia’s Treasurer Wayne Swan has affirmed that the Huawei NBN ban would not hurt the country’s relations with China. Foreign Minister Bob Carr, on the other hand, has urged Huawei to continue expanding in Australia.
“We have no indication that any other projects have been looked at,” Huawei spokesman Luke Coleman told Reuters. “In fact the government has encouraged us to continue to grow our business here in Australia,” he added.
