John Hampshire
Industry commentator

"One issue is that this system can quickly use up all the bandwidth that's available locally - 6Mbps per client has been claimed for the new service - shutting out some users entirely or severely degrading the quality of service for connected users."

"WiMAX is likely to crash entirely if there are other signals trying to occupy its allocated spectrum."

Source: WiMAX a bridge too far or Static on the Broadband network (www.theage.com.au)
By John Hampshire
The Age, 25 June 2007 and Livewire, 5 July 2007

Cr Robbie Dare
Mayor - Diamantina Shire^*, QLD

"I'd rather see the money not spent here on this patched up show that they want to put in here and this $400 million which is coming out of the Future Fund which is going to be spent on telecommunications and we'll be pushing for Barnaby to ... save that money and put the right system in here which is fibre-to-the-node," he said.

"We need fibre optic and it will resolve all our problems."

Source: Diamantina Mayor wants fibre broadband option (www.abc.com.au)
ABC News, 29 June 2007

* Located in outback Queensland, Diamantina Shire (www.diamantina.qld.gov.au) consists of two main towns Birdsville and Bedourie, with a third town of Betoota.

Chris Berg and Alan Moran
Institute of Public Affairs

"FAR from a success of public policy, the $1 billion rural broadband subsidy won by Optus and Elders demonstrates once again the failure of the competition regulation….the latest Optus proposal to roll out broadband to rural areas is one that will be bankrolled by the taxpayer."

Source: On telecoms, regulator chuting blanks (theage.com.au)
By Chris Berg and Alan Moran, Institute of Public Affairs (www.ipa.org.au)
The Age, 28 June 2007

WiMAX Spectrum Owners Alliance (WiSOA)

"While the ambitions of the Australian government are noble, its plan is so radically uneconomical that it is almost reprehensible. This gross misuse of taxpayer funds will result in a network that is obsolete before being built, suitable only for distracting kangaroos and dingoes as they hamper across the wild Australian outback."

Source: Australia pledges US$1.5b to build obsolete network
WiMAX Day*, 21 June 2007

*WiMAX Day is published by the WiMAX Spectrum Owners Alliance (WiSOA) which is the first global organisation composed exclusively of owners of WiMAX spectrum.

Hakan Eriksson
Ericsson Chief Technology Officer

... Ericsson chief technology officer Hakan Eriksson, who is currently on a business trip to Australia, said the WiMax technology to be used on the network was likely to be overshadowed by high speed packet access technology (HSPA).

"The main difference between HSPA and WiMax is HSPA is the mainstream technology across the world,"

"When we look into the market share between the competing technologies around the world, we think that HSPA is going to have some 95 per cent market share, whereas WiMax could be on five per cent market share."

"When you go into a minority technology such as WiMax, you will suffer from higher costs."

"My advice is always to go for a mainstream technology, because you will always enjoy the larger volumes and get lower prices."

Source: Rural broadband network could be the 'beta' of wireless internet AAP (www.aap.com.au)
By Nick Lucchinelli
AAP NewsWire, 20 June 2007

• Read the full article: Rural broadband network could be the 'beta' of wireless Internet (www.cnet.com.au)

Tim Dunlop

"... their new plan is quite rightly described as two-tier. The bush will get a worse service than metropolitan areas."

"... the entire exercise smells of the sort of political fix for which John Howard has become infamous: ignore an issue until political pressure becomes too great; announce a back-of-the-envelope plan that makes it look like you are being "responsive" and "in touch" (see also, Water Plan); put off key details and promises of future funding until some indeterminate point in the future (see also nuclear power and climate change); use the opportunity to target marginal electorates; organise an media blitz that reduces to one single point of differentiation (we give 99% coverage; Labor only gives 98%!); move on and hope no-one notices.

The only other thing to be done at this stage is a round of taxpayer funded advertising using our money to explain to us how grateful we should be for the government’s new plan. And how far away can that be?"

Source: The narrow focus of government broadband (blogs.news.com.au)
Blogocracy blog, 19 June 2007

George McLaughlin

"... One Broadband Advisory Group Member, George McLaughlin, said it was certain that wi-max could not match FTTN.

"Mr McLaughlin, the former head of the Australian Academic and Research Network, said offering 12 megabits per second was not sufficient in the longer term..."

Source: Labor slams poll-driven broadband plan afr.com (www.afr.com)
By David Crowe and Tracy Lee
Australian Financial Review, 19 June 2007

Tony Windsor
Independent Federal Member for New England (NSW)

"The government said, and gave a guarantee on [Telstra's] sale, that there would be equity of access and service in terms of telephone and broadband services - that was their commitment,"

"They didn't say, 'Oh, by the way, at some time in the future this is undeliverable'."

Source: Windsor says govt broke promise to bush (www.smh.com.au)
The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 June 2007

"What I, and more importantly the people of small and remote communities will want to know is, will this broadband announcement pass the Yetman test or will they have to put their hands in their pocket to get services that were supposedly guaranteed in the legislation that saw Telstra fully privatised.

Country people should be alert AND alarmed by their treatment as second class citizens when it comes to telecommunications services and hold their representatives to their guarantees,"

Source: One day decrying city-country divide, next day accepting it again (www.tonywindsor.com.au)
Media release, 18 June 2007