The stand-out successes of ten years of Australian telecommunications deregulation have been mobile telephones and the Internet.
The stand-out successes of ten years of Australian telecommunications deregulation have been mobile telephones and the Internet.
According to the International Telecommunications Union, the number of Internet-connected Australian computers grew by more than 50 per cent annually from 1993 to 2000, while annual mobile phone subscriptions grew by about 45 per cent.
The Australian Communi-cations Authority (ACA) reports that during 2000-2001, mobile connections out-numbered fixed-line connections for the first time. There are now more than 600 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offering Internet access to 806 different Australian urban centres and localities.
The Internet helped to boost fixed-line telecommunications traffic, underpinning a respectable 10 per cent growth in total revenues.
Nationwide, mobile phone revenue grew an average of 30 percent, increasing its share of total revenue from 3 per cent in 1993, to 23 per cent in 2000. Little wonder the telecommunications sector has attracted so much commercial interest.
Behind this remarkable success story, however, lies a trail of destruction, including the collapse of One.Tel and Global Crossing, Pracom’s $62 million and Telstra’s billion dollar write-downs, and Lucent’s $US3.25 billion dollar loss.
Despite the risks, telecommunications carriers have paid hundreds of billions of dollars to purchase radio spectrum (the air space needed for transmission) licences in preparation for the 3G mobile Internet roll-out. A lot of faith is being pinned on mobile Internet services to fill these airwaves.
The market for mobile data services, such as SMS, is growing annually by more than 1,000 per cent in some cases. This growth is based on bandwidth capacity of just 9.6 kbps, a fraction of typical fixed-line capacity of 56 kbps.
3G could offer bandwidth rates of between 144 kbps and 2 Mbps – enough to deliver video-on-demand, music, news and other multi-media services currently not available via the fixed-line network.
However, this tantalising 3G technology brings with it substantial risk to carriers, regulatory authorities and the wider community.
3G will re-open the HDTV- datacasting debate, only this time the Federal Government may not be able to control the outcome. More regulatory interference may constrain future innovative Australian firms, leaving media and entertainment industries vulnerable to open com-petition via the Internet.
One of the world’s leading econo-metricians, Professor Hausman, will explain his views during a free public seminar “The Future of Tele-communications: The Effect of Broad-band and 3G Mobile”, led by the Communication Economics and Electronic Markets Research Centre at Curtin University of Technology’s BankWest Theatrette (in the John Curtin Gallery, Bentley campus), on March 25 from 12pm to 2pm.
He will discuss how combining mobility with Internet access into the next generation will change competition and the role of government regulation.
According to the International Telecommunications Union, the number of Internet-connected Australian computers grew by more than 50 per cent annually from 1993 to 2000, while annual mobile phone subscriptions grew by about 45 per cent.
The Australian Communi-cations Authority (ACA) reports that during 2000-2001, mobile connections out-numbered fixed-line connections for the first time. There are now more than 600 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offering Internet access to 806 different Australian urban centres and localities.
The Internet helped to boost fixed-line telecommunications traffic, underpinning a respectable 10 per cent growth in total revenues.
Nationwide, mobile phone revenue grew an average of 30 percent, increasing its share of total revenue from 3 per cent in 1993, to 23 per cent in 2000. Little wonder the telecommunications sector has attracted so much commercial interest.
Behind this remarkable success story, however, lies a trail of destruction, including the collapse of One.Tel and Global Crossing, Pracom’s $62 million and Telstra’s billion dollar write-downs, and Lucent’s $US3.25 billion dollar loss.
Despite the risks, telecommunications carriers have paid hundreds of billions of dollars to purchase radio spectrum (the air space needed for transmission) licences in preparation for the 3G mobile Internet roll-out. A lot of faith is being pinned on mobile Internet services to fill these airwaves.
The market for mobile data services, such as SMS, is growing annually by more than 1,000 per cent in some cases. This growth is based on bandwidth capacity of just 9.6 kbps, a fraction of typical fixed-line capacity of 56 kbps.
3G could offer bandwidth rates of between 144 kbps and 2 Mbps – enough to deliver video-on-demand, music, news and other multi-media services currently not available via the fixed-line network.
However, this tantalising 3G technology brings with it substantial risk to carriers, regulatory authorities and the wider community.
3G will re-open the HDTV- datacasting debate, only this time the Federal Government may not be able to control the outcome. More regulatory interference may constrain future innovative Australian firms, leaving media and entertainment industries vulnerable to open com-petition via the Internet.
One of the world’s leading econo-metricians, Professor Hausman, will explain his views during a free public seminar “The Future of Tele-communications: The Effect of Broad-band and 3G Mobile”, led by the Communication Economics and Electronic Markets Research Centre at Curtin University of Technology’s BankWest Theatrette (in the John Curtin Gallery, Bentley campus), on March 25 from 12pm to 2pm.
He will discuss how combining mobility with Internet access into the next generation will change competition and the role of government regulation.
