WCA March 2014

Telecom news

pipes” but would need access to the physical copper as part of planned changes to the rollout. NBN had argued in favour of rental on grounds that outright purchase would saddle it with more than $1 billion in annual maintenance costs for the network – and potentially millions more in technology system upgrades. (“Telcos Oppose Renting Telstra Copper for NBN,” (3 rd December). This analysis, prepared by former NBN executives as part of a brief to communications minister Malcolm Turnbull, was presented to the company’s board following the federal election in September. As noted by Mr Hutchinson, the rental recommendation provoked the Competitive Carriers’ Coalition – an industry group made up of Vodafone, iiNet and other Internet service providers – to declare it “highly alarming” that NBN had disregarded bipartisan political commitment to the dismantling of Telstra’s monopoly in the telecommunications market. Matt Healy, chairman of the coalition, asserted that NBN has a once-in- a-generation opportunity to break with the “structurally uncompetitive arrangements that have bedevilled” the Australian communications industry and consumers for 30 years. Any proposal that NBN buy “so-called managed services” from Telstra would, he said, “represent an abrogation of [NBN’s] responsibilities to deliver these profound structural changes.” In Mr Healy’s view, failure to take control of the copper itself would in effect make NBN a reseller of Telstra’s services, allowing that company to retain its control position in the market. The extent of that control and the cost of Telstra’s copper network figure prominently in the current renegotiation of the $11.2 billion contract between the companies. Ø As reported in the Australian (13 th December), delays centring on NBN have forced Mr Turnbull, the communications minister, to go back on the government’s signature campaign promise to deliver download speeds of at least 25 megabits per second for most homes in Australia by late 2016. About 43 per cent of premises are now set to enjoy those speeds.

Accurate data on indicators like network access, service affordability and connection speeds is increasingly recognised as essential to every nation’s plans for economic growth and social development. Delegates to the 2013 World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS), held 4 th to 6 th December in Mexico City, endorsed the need to strengthen and adapt the way data on information and communication technologies (ICT) is collected to better meet the needs of today’s fast-evolving environment. Organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the annual event is considered the single most important meeting of ICT data experts from around the world. The 300-plus delegates to the symposium, hosted this time by the Mexican telecommunications regulator, included government ministers, industry CEOs, and heads of national and international statistics agencies. In his opening remarks to the conference, Luis Lucatero, the WTIS chair and Mexico’s chief of regulatory policy, identified “information asymmetry” as the biggest enemy of investment. An ICT regulator is, he said, “like an architect, building a strong and robust market that ultimately serves as a platform for national growth across all business sectors.” The opening day of the conference also featured three high-level debates centred on post-2015 development frameworks, the role of monitoring in building tomorrow’s information society, and strategies for enhancing multi-stakeholder dialogue and national coordination in data collection. Following the lead of the ITU, a Geneva-based UN agency, the delegates pledged their efforts to extend ICT data collection capabilities through new partnerships between the tech industry and government agencies. Two side events reflected this impetus. One presented Costa Rica’s national approach to data collection in partnership with ICT operators; the other, the development and implementation by Iran of a new data measurement system. Ø The ITU secretary-general, Hamadoun I Touré, declared in his closing address that the ICT sector is evolving faster than any sector in human history. As reported on CIOL.com , the Indian technology business website, Dr Touré stressed the urgent challenge of measuring the rapid evolution of the sector, and of ensuring that ICT data, statistics and indicators are “internationally harmonised and internationally comparable.” (“World Leaders Call for More Timely, Harmonized Data on Global ICT Access and Affordability,” 7 th December). Only by doing this, the ITU head cautioned, “can we paint a clear, impartial and — most importantly — universal picture that will enable us to make meaningful comparisons and track the evolution of the ICT ecosystem.” International Telecommunication Union urges better data collection on ICT, the ‘fastest-evolving sector in human history’

To rent or to buy: Telstra’s ‘physical copper’ is a source of dissension in the run-up to a national broadband network for Australia In December, the Australian Financial Review disclosed that competitors of Telstra, the largest Australian carrier, had opposed a proposal by NBN Co

to rent, rather than buy, access to Telstra’s copper network to facilitate the rollout of the fibre-to-the-node network preferred by the government. NBN is the government-owned corporation tasked with the design, building and operation of a national broadband network. James Hutchinson, who covers technology from Sydney, reported that NBN currently rents access to Telstra’s “underground pits and

BigStockPhoto.com • Photographer: Krishnacreations

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Wire & Cable ASIA –March/April 2014

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