Big bill to take fast net to the back of beyond

By RICHARD BRADDELL

Telecommunications services to remote parts of Australia do not come cheap, says Auckland consultancy Network Strategies in a study done for the Australian Government.

Asked to find the best way of providing services that could be upgraded to take high-speed internet, Network Strategies found that the annual cost of a subscriber line to remote areas could be as low as $A1500 ($1940).

It said the cost should not exceed $A3000 but could go as high as $A5500 if the most expensive technology was used.

The cost of setting up the new services ranged between $A5000 and $A10,000 when the cheaper options were used.

Network Strategies director Suella Hansen said the Australian conditions could not be compared to rural areas of New Zealand, as they spanned much wider distances, were less mountainous and had different weather.

But the figures were of interest in the debate about the cost of rural services in New Zealand and the potential for new technologies to service them.

Mobile CDMA and GSM digital cellular technologies were the cheapest, except where the service area was widely dispersed over distances exceeding 600km - in which case they were the most expensive.

In two sample areas, high capacity remote concentrator radio technology was cheapest at $A1500, while satellite was in the middle of the pack, regardless of service area, at $A3200.

Network Strategies' brief included finding the most cost-effective way of servicing of the rickety bush network in Australia to eliminate present restrictions on call time limits.

Ms Hansen said the technologies selected all had the capacity to offer broadband.

Potentially better alternatives were not considered because they would not be commercially available in time to meet the Australian Government's 2002 starting date.

The $A49,000 study is similar to one Network Strategies did for the Northern Territory Government.

Ms Hansen said the consultancy had undertaken a number of similar contracts in Asia and Europe.

Network Strategies was mostly an exporter, she said.

"Very little of our business is in New Zealand."