Zero Beat
June 21st, 2010, 07:13 AM
The Australian government just found the infrastructure for its A$43 billion national broadband project and eliminated its largest competitor in one fell swoop -- pending shareholder and regulator approval, Telstra will receive A$11 billion of that money in exchange for its entire landline network. Telstra will decommission its monopoly of copper cables to make room for the government's fiber and migrate its customers to the resulting 100Mbps National Broadband Network (NBN) as those light-bearing threads roll out. While Telstra might become a smaller player in the internet and cable business without a land network of its own, it may get even larger in the wireless space -- the company says it's received "written confirmation from the Prime Minister" that it can bid on a chunk of precious LTE spectrum should the deal go through. Press release after the break.
Link (http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/20/australia-to-pay-telstra-a-11-billion-for-entire-copper-network/)
And another little nugget of info:
n what he's calling "the single biggest infrastructure decision" in the country's history," Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's announced an A$43 billion (US $30.6 billion) project to create a nationwide high speed broadband network. The goal's to get 90 percent of homes and business up to 100Mbps speeds with fiber optic connection, with a less impressive 12Mbps wireless / satellite for the rest. Up to 49 percent of the funds will be from the private sector; the government will initially invest A$4.7b, while A$20b will come from a national infrastructure fund and the sale of bonds. The venture's expected to take seven to eight years, and Rudd said the government intends to sell off its stake after five years. Sure, it's not 1Gbps by 2012, but hey, they might end up beating us at the "nationwide broadband" game.
Link (http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/20/australia-to-pay-telstra-a-11-billion-for-entire-copper-network/)
And another little nugget of info:
n what he's calling "the single biggest infrastructure decision" in the country's history," Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's announced an A$43 billion (US $30.6 billion) project to create a nationwide high speed broadband network. The goal's to get 90 percent of homes and business up to 100Mbps speeds with fiber optic connection, with a less impressive 12Mbps wireless / satellite for the rest. Up to 49 percent of the funds will be from the private sector; the government will initially invest A$4.7b, while A$20b will come from a national infrastructure fund and the sale of bonds. The venture's expected to take seven to eight years, and Rudd said the government intends to sell off its stake after five years. Sure, it's not 1Gbps by 2012, but hey, they might end up beating us at the "nationwide broadband" game.