Telstra today revealed it had brought high-speed broadband to an additional 907 communities across Australia four months ahead of schedule with the ADSL2+ upgrade program fully funded by Telstra shareholders.

Telstra’s head of Public Policy & Communications, Dr Phil Burgess, said the ADSL2+ upgrade of 907 telephone exchanges serving 2.4 million homes and businesses announced in February is now complete. This means millions of extra Australian families, businesses, non-profit organisations and government agencies across every state and territory could now enjoy the benefits of high-speed broadband.

He said today’s announcement was further proof that the decision by the Federal Communications Minister to end the OPEL contract – which had failed to deliver a single service after nine months – was an entirely sensible one. Australia has more broadband availability through ADSL and Next G™ wireless than OPEL ever proposed.

Dr Phil also outlined the "sheer incompetency" of the OPEL scheme which failed to deliver anything while Telstra had now delivered both the Next G™ network and this mass upgrade of ADSL with the ADSL2+ initiative.

“In just 64 days we’ve delivered high-speed broadband to more than 900 telephone exchanges which is nearly three times the number planned for in the flawed OPEL plan that would have squandered close to a billion taxpayer dollars,” Dr Phil said.

“The ADSL2+ upgrade of 907 telephone exchanges serving 2.4 million homes and businesses announced in February is now complete. This means millions of additional Australian families, businesses, non-profit organisations and government agencies across every state and territory can now enjoy the benefits of high-speed broadband,” Dr Phil said.

“For the first time, families and businesses in these communities can get access to much higher broadband speeds from BigPond® – opening up new opportunities for health, education, productivity improvements and entertainment,” Dr Phil said. “With around 80 per cent of the exchanges located outside the major metro areas, this is an important step forward for telecommunications in regional and rural Australia.”

More than 1400 exchanges in Telstra’s network, serving 16.6 million people, have now been upgraded to high-speed broadband via ADSL2+ providing download speeds of up to 20Mbps. These speeds are up to 350 times faster than a standard 56kbps dial-up connection, and up to 78 times faster than a standard 256kbps ADSL connection. Actual speeds are affected by a range of factors including the customers’ distance from the exchange, and connection is subject to a service qualification test.

“ADSL2+ provides the bandwidth families need so they can simultaneously use several devices at home – one parent can download work files, another can plan the family holiday online, while the kids are also online researching for school projects,” Dr Phil said.

Telstra was able to complete the upgrade after the Government, for the first time, made clear it did not consider a compelling case had been made for regulating third-party access to the service – an assurance sought by Telstra for more than one year.

“The importance of the Government’s position became clear when, despite their stated position, several of Telstra’s competitors demanded regulation of the new services rather than make their own investment,” Dr Phil said.

Speech notes:

•  Telstra’s ADSL2+ coverage announcement: ahead of schedule (PDF - 40KB)

Media Release:

• Telstra completes ADSL2+ upgrades four months ahead of schedule (www.telstra.com.au)