Broadband for Australia’s future has become a key election issue with discussion and debate figuring highly in the lead up to the Polls. As many of us already know, a high tech Broadband nationwide network is crucial for Australia’s future prosperity and growth, not only nationally, moreover on a global scale. Opposition leader Kevin Rudd appears to be on the mark, to a certain extent, with his understanding of the importance of Broadband for Australians, and the dire need for a high tech Broadband Network. While John Howard seems to be lacking vision and is way off the mark when suggesting that Australia’s current Broadband network is adequate and that 12Mbps speeds in the future will be fast enough for all Australians. Well I beg to differ and so do many other Industry experts, media reporters and professionals.
Australia’s ICT practitioners have the opportunity to really shape the future of the world – to be not just competitors, but leaders. We have an advantage in innovation and have always punched well above our weight in this area. If we lead the world in penetration of symmetric hyperspeed broadband, it stands to reason that our innovations will lead the world in ways and means of using that kind of infrastructure. So investment in processes, technologies, and content for that kind of infrastructure must place Australia at the forefront and give us our best chance of being a supplier of innovation to the world instead of being a net importer. It is critical that, regardless of who wins the next election, Australia’s broadband infrastructure is capable of meeting our needs for at least the next three to five decades,
By future standards, 12Mbps will be a walking track rather than the six-lane highway we need it to be.
Read the entire ‘Opportunity to be world players’ at AustralianIT.com.au
