[LINK] Victoria getting statewide broadband fibre

[Jan Whitaker]

The Age today:
http://theage.com.au/news/Technology/Victoria-set-to-become-the-switchedon-state/2005/06/01/1117568263236.html
Note mention of fibre to the home. Anyone believe that?

Victoria set to become the switched-on state
June 2, 2005

All will have access to super-fast broadband, writes technology editor 
Garry Barker.

Victoria is set to become Australia's most advanced IT state as over the 
next three years Telstra rolls out a $120 million fibre optic network that 
will bring true broadband communication to every town and hamlet from the 
Murray to the ocean.

"This compares with the Snowy Mountains scheme in its economic potential," 
says Michael Consolo, Telstra's manager for government business in 
Victoria. "It is a huge construction project and its impact on Victoria 
will be enormous."

Thousands of kilometres of fibre-optic cable will be laid across the state. 
More than 700 telephone exchanges, 600 of them in regional Victoria, will 
be upgraded to handle the volumes of data the network will carry.

More than 1650 state schools, nearly 400 police stations and 2000-odd state 
and local government offices, a total of 4000 sites, will be connected - in 
the first stage. After that widespread connections to businesses and homes 
are expected.

"Suddenly, fibre to the home (FTTH) becomes a possibility," says George 
Fong, Ballarat's Information and Communications Technology co-ordinator. 
"The (State) Government has used itself as the vehicle to spike an 
infrastructure roll-out."

Victoria had produced traction where the Federal Government's Networking 
the Nation program had failed because it had not been able to convince 
infrastructure builders such as Telstra how they could get a return on 
their investment in reasonable time, he said.

The total project is expected to cost at least $120 million. The state is 
contributing $89 million over four years, but that is the contract figure, 
not the build price. Telstra will bear the cost of building the network and 
will recoup its outlay from the traffic it will carry.

All connections will have a minimum data speed of 4 megabits per second, 
about 16 times faster than the average domestic broadband speed now 
available in metropolitan Melbourne.

It is a standard for schools that Education Services Minister Jacinta Allan 
says is matched in the world only by Singapore. It means that even the 
10-pupil school in Donald in western Victoria, will have access to 
multi-point video conferencing, domestically and internationally, 
multimedia project exchange and other high bandwidth activities.

And the police, even in remotest Wood's Point, will have similar facilities 
and a much higher level of security.

"John Brumby has been driving an innovation economy in Victoria," Allan 
said. "Our schools need to support that by making sure students have the 
skills needed in that economy."

Some of the structure is already in place. High-speed internet access 
already exists to Victorian regional health alliances, such as Loddon 
Valley and GRAHNet in the west of the state.

Roll-out will be progressive with, Mr Fong suggests, "low-hanging fruit" 
such as Ballarat and Bendigo getting early attention, along with "one or 
two hard ones, such as Ouyen to show they can do it".

With government sites connected, extending the network to businesses and 
then homes, even in remote regions, is an obvious next step. "The 
opportunities for industry generally are enormous," Mr Consolo said.

But cost will be a factor for the private sector, Mr Fong suggests. 
"Termination of fibre into homes and small businesses is still expensive," 
he says.

"We need to know about cost and what services will be delivered." Such as, 
perhaps, TV or video on demand.

Planning of the project, co-ordinated by MultiMedia Victoria, has taken 
four years and involved many Government agencies, principally Education, 
Police and Health.

"We are laying down a technological spine throughout Victoria," says Allan.

While the Government was principally interested in its own administrative, 
police, educational and health services, the flow-on to businesses and 
communities was obvious, she said.

"If, previously, you were in a small country town and you wanted to get 
(optical fibre grade services) you would have had to pay for the lot," she 
said. "Now, with 700 telephone exchanges being upgraded to handle these 
speeds, it will be possible for just the tail to be the cost to the business."

Allan said that as part of the project every Victorian state school would 
be equipped with its own wireless local area network to expand access to 
the internet and school intranets.

The system would have considerable impact on classroom practices and 
curriculums and would require greater support for teachers, for some of 
whom the move into a 21st century technological environment presented a 
challenge, Allan said.

A mentoring group of 28 technically advanced schools had been set up to 
boost teacher training in preparation for the roll-out.

The new Telstra network will replace the Education Department's VicOne 
system provided by AAPT under a contract that expired in September last 
year. Victoria Police extended its supplier's contract by 12 months so that 
an all-of-government contract could be opened for tender. This was won by 
Telstra, although Optus has a $20 million contract to provide about half 
the Government's mobile services and a large part of the fixed voice 
installations.

The Telstra fibre network will be synchronous, that is, speeds down from 
the internet and back to it will be equal, unlike most current commercial 
connections where download speeds are generally much faster than uploads.

For users such as doctors, this opens the door to high-quality video 
conferencing, exchange of X-ray and MRI images, real-time surgical 
consultations and other benefits.


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