When Group Managing Director of Telstra Wholesale Kate McKenzie addressed the Broadband Futures Conference earlier today her position was clear - we need to get the regulatory settings right to attract the investment needed to build a National Broadband Network and we need to learn from what our peers are doing overseas.

“At this point in time – about four weeks into the Federal Government’s 12 week Request for Proposal process to build Australia’s high-speed NBN – we are faced with some hard calls and hard decisions as a company and as a nation regarding what happens next in our industry,” Kate said.

“There is no “one size fits all” approach to building a National Broadband Network. There are a lot of factors at play and it is important when looking at what our industry peers are doing overseas that any comparisons are put into perspective.”

Kate cautioned that any comparisons between National Broadband Network models in different countries take into factors such as population density.

Many have been quick to compare Singapore and Australia following the announcement that Sing-Tel has won part of the new FTTH build in that country. This is like comparing chalk and cheese.

Singapore has a population density of 6,489 persons per square kilometre – most of which live in high density apartments – compared to Australia that has a population density of only 2.6 persons per square kilometre. Hardly comparable when planning a nation-wide roll-out of communications infrastructure.

In the US a “hands-off” approach by the Federal Communications Commission has led to increased investment and competition between the cable comms companies (the Sing-Tel Optus’s of North America) and the Telcos (Verizon, AT&T).

At the other end of the scale, separation has been a disaster for the UK and New Zealand. While the experience is not exactly the same for both countries, the cost of compliance was considerable and separation has put them behind the rest of the world on broadband.

“The NBN has the potential to herald an exciting new era of competition, choice and innovation,” Kate said.

“The markets where next generation networks are going ahead are those in which regulators have recognised the need to have rules that encourage investment and competition.”

Learn more:

• Transcript - Be careful what you wish for (PDF - 60.8KB)
  Presentation by Kate McKenzie, GMD, Telstra Wholesale to the CommsDay Congress - Broadband Futures,  Melbourne.
  30 September 2008