Now that the final of MasterChef is over and any hope of the Wallabies winning the Tri-Nations has dissipated, Australians are starting to focus on the upcoming Federal Election, scheduled for August 21^st 2010. The election cycle is short, with a new Government elected every three years and currently the two leading parties, Labor and the Liberal-led coalition, are running neck and neck in the polls.

This is a very important election from an ICT perspective, with the key issue being the future of Australia’s broadband network, upon which the hopes and aspirations of many local and international vendors rely. Irish vendors should take note of the opportunities resulting from this project – the current Federal Government has committed A$43BN to the project, the largest ICT infrastructure project spend in Australian history.

The National Broadband Network (NBN) is a Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network which will bring speeds of up to 100Mbps to 93% of Australian homes and businesses. The project was formally announced in April 2009 by the current Federal Government and is to be built by NBNCo, an organisation set up by the Government itself, as none of the bids by private enterprise were deemed acceptable.

The project has begun to be rolled out in Tasmania and is scheduled to take roughly eight years to complete. The Liberal opposition has argued that the NBN will be too expensive, is currently under-budgeted and has promised to scrap the NBN if elected but has not clearly outlined an alternative plan for infrastructure as of yet.

While there has been plenty of controversy and confusion over the NBN, along with plenty of technical arguments over the best way to roll out the network, most ICT commentators argue that high-speed broadband is critical to Australia’s business future and that the issue needs to be resolved quickly. So where are the opportunities? Most commentators highlight three key areas in which exciting new applications will emerge: health, education and entertainment.

There are other significant ICT issues at stake in this election – the future of Australia’s e-health records system and a A$2.4BN school laptop project for instance – but the most fundamental issue to resolve in this election will be the future of Australia’s national broadband network.

Share

Related posts:

1. Applied medical research in CIT gets national exposure
2. Irish Business Network Event, Zurich, Jan 27th
3. Free for all SMEs – Networking through "Enterprise Europe Network"
4. National SME Public Procurement Engagement Programme (UK): Regional Workshop Series