[LINK] IT matters of interest in the 2011/2012 Federal Budget

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

http://www.zdnet.com.au/budget-2011-nbn-cleans-up-on-funding-339314758.htm


The Federal Government will invest a further $35.6 million in funding for 
programs around the roll-out of the National Broadband Network as part of 
this year's Federal Budget and has said that it believes it will spend 
$3.09 billion on the project in the next financial year off budget.

$34.4 million over five years will go directly to the Department of 
Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. Part of that funding 
will go to support the finalisation of the $11 billion deal between 
Telstra and the government that will see Telstra lease its ducts and pipes 
to NBN Co, decommission its copper network and move customers onto the NBN.

The funding will also go to DBCDE to establish the new Universal Service 
Obligation company (USO Co), as well as the establishment of an 
information service for consumers and small businesses to inform them 
about the roll-out of the NBN and support their migration to the new fibre 
network.

This portion of the funding will also cover the interim satellite service 
operations as part of the USO obligations and will go to fund specialists 
who will determine whether a particular premise is adequately served by 
non-NBN fibre-providers before NBN Co rolls out the network to that 
premise.

Meanwhile $1.2 million over the next five years will go to the Department 
of Finance and Deregulation to oversee the new USO Co entity.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority will receive an 
additional $7.2 million over the next four years so the authoirty can 
develop and implement network standards and codes for the NBN.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will receive 
$5.6 million to ensure there is adequate competition on the NBN, and to 
monitor the backhaul provided to NBN Co points of interconnect by other 
wholesalers to ensure prices remain the same across Australia.

The parliament will also require an additional $2.1 million in funding 
over the next four years to support the new Joint Committee on the 
National Broadband Network established after the 2010 Federal Election, 
and chaired by Independent MP Rob Oakeshott. The committee's first meeting 
will be on Monday.

The Attorney-General's department has also allocated $4 million over four 
years for legal aid commissions and community legal services organisations 
to utilise the NBN to provide legal assistance to people in regional and 
rural areas of Australia. The aim of the initiative is to reduce the 
amount of litigation by providing people with better access to legal 
services in order to resolve legal problems before they reach the courts.

The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations has, 
however, canned the Vocational Education Broadband Network. The program 
was designed to provide vocational education and training institutions 
with high speed broadband services, however the government has said that 
the NBN will provide this function instead. The government expects to save 
$78.4 million over three years by cancelling this project.

Funding for the construction and roll-out of the National Broadband 
Network itself is not included in the budget, however the government 
expects to inject $3.09 billion into the project in the next financial 
year, and a total of $20.6 billion over the next 4 years. The government's 
total investment in the project has been put at $27.5 billion.

Spectrum auction funding

In preparation of the auction of the 700MHz and the 2.5GHz spectrum bands 
as a result of the digital dividend, the government will spend $8.3 
million over the next three years in order to plan, value the spectrum, 
develop licensing framework and prepare for the auction itself.



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