Expert advises Australias broadband network will be set back by building times

Australia may still be years behind the broadband speeds offered by other countries around the world even though the Government says the National Broadband Network will put its internet speed up with the current global leaders according to an internet expert.

Having been the internet chief regulator of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is based in the US, for the last ten years, Australian born Paul Twomey has now moved into the role of chief of the Australian Government’s National Office of the Information Economy.

The possibility of heading the National Broadband Network owned by the Federal Government, which is value at around $43 billion, is also something that Dr Twomey has spoken about.

In a recent interview Dr Twomey noted that the forerunners of advanced internet technologies were predominantly Asian countries at the moment.

He advised “The leading ‘fibre to the premises’ countries mainly are Japan [and] Korea. The Singaporese put out a tender for gigabit to a home in February. [The broadband network] would certainly take Australia back up those ratings but you’ve got to remember the Government says this is going to take eight years to build so we’re a certain period behind.”

Interest in the running of Australia’s National Broadband Network was something that Dr Twomey would not talk about although he did advise that the project appeared “terribly exciting.”

He said “[There is] lots of speculation, I can’t comment on that at all. There’s no job as far as I know. I’m looking at a number of things … I’ve got a couple of options I might look at in the United States as well.”

This greatest problem faced by the Government regarding the super-fast broadband network at the moment would be the simultaneous implementation and construction of this huge infrastructure said Dr Twomey.

He advised “If you look at what the Japanese have been doing in the last 10 years, they focussed a lot on infrastructure in the first half of this decade. Their focus now is upon smart ICT [information communication and technology] to solve what they call society’s problems. I think the challenge the Government’s going to have is how does it roll out a network and also do what the Japanese are doing now, which is focussing on the applications and the services, and what do you use the network for?”

Source – www.abc.net.au