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Broadband for what? Driving demand

Date: 

The purpose of the seminar was to share ideas and information about demand drivers for broadband in Australia, and how to manage and deal with a possible glut of capacity over the next few years; including investment issues.

Issues included:

  • Where are the technical and price bottlenecks between the hungry end user and the bulging fibre backbones? In the customer access networks? In the national networks? In the international links? Or in the Australian business psyche?
  • How can broadband capacity be packaged, traded and sold, especially in a glut? Do we need to use new commercial models? And how safe is it to invest?
  • How do we compare, in strategies and productivity, with world leaders such as Korea, Singapore, and even the United States, and what can we learn from overseas experience?
  • Too much capacity? Microsoft, Sun, Gartner, are saying we urgently need more, and companies such as Nextgen, Nava Networks and Amcom are building it.
  • But what about the under-used HFC networks of Optus and Telstra, which cost in excess of $2 billion to build? What are the strategies to use these assets? Does the government need to intervene somehow, or promote broadband for all?
  • What services and applications will build the broadband market: Video, music, movies, multimedia Internet, interactive TV, videoconferencing, data, personal communication?

Seminar Program

Professor Mark Armstrong, Director, Network Insight Group (Chair)

Session 1: What are the numbers and trends?

Lynn Canalese, Telecomms Analyst, JP Morgan
Chris Leptos, Partner, Accenture
Lucy Firth, consultant to ITU
Phil Singleton, outlining SPAN’s Broadband Xchange initiative

Session 2: Demand Drivers

Caroline Williams, Director of Marketing, Excite@Home
Robert James, Consultant
Roger Amos, Chairman, ICE practice, KPMG

Session 3: Packaging, selling and investing

Peter Leonard, Partner, Gilbert + Tobin
Paul Fletcher, Director Regulatory, CWO
Jane Forster, Partner, Clayton Utz

Session 4: Managing the capacity, current and future

Stephe Wilks, Managing Director, XYZed
Chris North, Director, Unwired Australia Pty Ltd
Greg Willis, Executive Director, Broadband & Online, Telstra

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