Vic Govt report: Huge, unsated appetite for fast broadband

 

Access report finds 220,000 Victorians want speeds of over 50 Mbps.

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The Victorian Government has revealed estimates that peg the pent-up demand for broadband services above 50 Mbps in the state at some 220,000 customers - or 14 percent of its total market.

The figure is taken from a yet-to-be-released benchmarking report prepared by consultancy Access Economics.

Victorian Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development's director of science and technology policy, Matthew Dummett, told delegates of the NBN conference at CeBIT in Sydney that "NBN-grade superfast broadband demand will outstrip supply, leading to overall unmet demand."

He cited the Access figures of 220,000 customers as the current level of pent-up demand for superfast broadband in the state.

"That certainly makes some of the forecasts in the NBN implementation study look quite reasonable - in fact, quite conservative," Dummett said.

"The main driver in unmet demand will be from regional Victoria."

The report identified "about 10,000 customers" in Victoria who were currently using "what would be an NBN-style service". It predicted that figure would be one million by 2015.

The report also found demand for 3G data services in the state would grow from 1.5 million customers today to an expected five million customers by 2015, but that the use of dongles to access mobile data on PCs would "level off" after strong growth in the past few years.

Dummett also outlined other areas of unmet demand today. He said there were as many as 300,000 customers currently on ADSL1 that would move up to ADSL2 if it were available to them.

The research report was commissioned by Multimedia Victoria.

A previous iteration of the report ran between 2003 and 2007, although the coming report had a significantly expanded scope due to developments in broadband services over the period.


"wolfpac i strongly suggest you check out primus' pricing for NBN services before posting your FUD. They're even cheaper than I expected and certainly commercially viable. FINALLY the country will ..."
By xaduurv
 
 
 
Comments: 6
umbria
May 24, 2010 4:57 PM
"... 300,000 customers currently on ADSL1 that would move up to ADSL2 if it were available to them."

Read: if Telstra charged the same wholesale price for ADSL2 ports in Zone 2/3/4 as it does for Zone 1. This is not just a regional issue. Examples abound where metro exchanges (e.g. in Newcastle and Canberra) are still wholesaled as Zone 2 despite been encircled by Zone 1 exchanges. Typically, as soon as a competitor installs a DSLAM, Telstra drops the exchange price group to Zone 1 to undermine the competitor's profit margin.
anonymous
May 24, 2010 6:33 PM

Aw, that can't be right, umbria. Aren't Telstra always keen to tell us about their award-winning Corporate Social Responsibility?
wolfpac
May 25, 2010 12:24 AM
what about the price....will we finaly get unlimeted internet download like the USA,Canada,UK, and any other country...All i hear is what good the nbn will be..I'm asking the price and what will it be for use the users for the GRAND Scam this NBN...yes i want high speed BUT I don't want it where it will cast me my soul just to have high speed internet. this country is STEALING from the people.
peterh_oz
May 25, 2010 9:22 AM
@wolfpac: when you find a way to build huge cross-ocean cables to bring the mostly-US-hosted data to Australia, please let us all know. I'm sure we'd all love to buy that data from you at $10/month unmetered wholesale!
Mabelode
May 25, 2010 9:35 AM
It would (will?) be nice when I can video conference and collaborate with zero latency so I don't need to commute to work every day. Would probably relieve pressure on our groaning public transport system as well.
xaduurv
May 25, 2010 12:40 PM
wolfpac i strongly suggest you check out primus' pricing for NBN services before posting your FUD. They're even cheaper than I expected and certainly commercially viable. FINALLY the country will no longer be held to ransom by Hellstra.
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