Broadband acceptance on the rise: IDC

Australian companies expect to increase their spending on broadband and IP services this year and are more satisfied with IP service providers, according to an IDC report released Monday.

The survey - which had over 200 responses - found that 49.5 percent of the respondents had deployed DSL services this year, up from 25 percent in 2002. It also found that Telstra had a 50 percent share of the broadband business services market, followed by Optus with 8.2 percent and AAPT with 7.1 percent. iPrimus follows with a 1.5 percent share and the rest share in remaining 23 percent of the market, IDC senior research analyst Landry Fevre said.

Communications managers interviewed for the survey listed first class network, quality of service and customer service capabilities as key criteria when evaluating broadband and IP services infrastructure investments, he said.

IDC predicted that service providers can expect a surge of interest in VoIP, as interest levels in trialing this technology had steadily increased since last year's survey. 'Given the opportunity for disillusionment, carriers and integrators must carefully manage customer expectations for risk and reward an integrated communications strategy can provide.

'IDC suggests service providers and integrators must be geared with pragmatic tools such as best practice procedures, case studies, ROI, TCO and network assessment tools to measure companies' VoIP readiness,' he said.

Upcoming research from IDC will focus on the Australian broadband market, IP VPN services, and deployment of IP telephony solutions in Australia, the company said.