Fast Broadband to be Rolled Out to 900 Australian Locations

Fast broadband technology using ADSL2+ is to be rolled out by Telstra to an additional 900 local exchanges serving 2.4 million households, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, have announced.

The Australian Government congratulated Telstra on its decision to provide higher broadband speeds to its customers. Fast broadband with download speeds of up to 20 megabits per second (Mbps) will now be available in more cities and towns throughout Australia.

Telstra's decision to enable new exchanges with ADSL2+ broadband services follows an assurance that it had an appropriate level of regulatory certainty. This advice was provided to the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

"The Chairman of the ACCC, Mr. Graeme Samuel, advised me that the ACCC has made a number of consistent public statements relating to the regulation of wholesale access to ADSL services," Senator Conroy said.

"As a result of this advice, I concluded that there is a high degree of regulatory certainty in relation to the ACCC's approach to wholesale ADSL2+ services ... "I am delighted that I could provide this assurance to Telstra and that, as a result, a large number of Australian homes and businesses will have access to improved broadband services," Conroy continued.

The rollout of ADSL2+ to Telstra exchanges is a major step forward in making high-speed broadband accessible to a significant part of the Australian population.

However, technical issues, such as the distance people live from a telephone exchange will affect broadband connection speeds.

That is why the Australian Government is committed to the National Broadband Network that will deliver fiber to the node technology to 98 per cent of Australian homes and businesses, enabling access to broadband services with minimum connection speeds of 12 megabits per second.

"I look forward to working with the telecommunications industry to achieve this outcome," said Senator Conroy.