Restrictive digital broadcasting laws are forcing Australia to fo...

from Telstra Corp., Internet consulting firm, venture capital company and U.S. IIA said country faced several problems holding up growth of broadband. Telstra is dealing with several asynchronous ADSL challenges, Chief Technology Officer Hugh Bradlow said: (1) Compatibility “rules of the road” had to be developed with regulators. (2) Demand isn’t high because Australians love their inexpensive dial-up service. ADSL appears to be perceived as “the” technology of future, he said, but it’s just start of journey. In any case, Bradlow said, Australia’s broadband deployment isn’t being held back by price. LCH Holdings Dir. Luke Carruthers said Australia could do better than it was doing in deploying large-scale broadband. Telstra is responsible for building proper infrastructure, he said, but it’s beholden to its stockholders. Some blame for slow broadband deployment also rests on govt., he said. Moreover, Carruthers said, Australian culture doesn’t support innovation like U.S. or Israel. Australian financial markets traditionally haven’t backed broadband technology, he said, although that’s beginning to change. Bandwidth is pricey, said www.consult CEO Ramin Mazbani, and it’s necessary to figure out how to pay for it. Moreover, he said, in expanding broadband access, industry must keep in mind what technology is supposed to help users do: Not everyone cares about being online. “Let’s get real about what’s going on,” Mazbani said. USIIA Exec Dir. Dave McClure said discussion really was about residential broadband deployment, not office access, In U.S., broadband demand is “elastic,” based on price. There are also technical problems for deploying broadband. Moreover, he said, U.S. govt. policy mandating universal telephone service means that industry had to go to extraordinary lengths to provide phone lines economically to houses. That was done by multiplexing, he said, which is great for telephony but will have to be completely revamped to deliver residential broadband. Carruthers said that in Australia, large part of broadband problem arises from way other telecom companies are forced to interact with Telstra. While situation can be improved, that’s not end of story, he said. Industry must be able to provide broadband services that improve quality of peoples’ lives, which involves copyright protection, licensing and other issues, not just reshaping regulatory controls, he said.