The future is broad
The future is broad
April 1, 2005: Analysts have predicted that Australia will have a fully-fledged broadband market by next year, with two and a half million people with access to it, presenting a golden opportunity for all kinds of companies to take advantage of the infrastructure to make money.
According to research carried out by Ovum, broadband subscribers grew 121 percent over the last year to a told of 1.5 million subscribers, and household penetration is 21 percent and rising, which makes the broadband penetration in Australia comparable to Europe.
Paul Budde, who is an independent telecommunications analyst, compared the current rolling out of broadband in Australia to building a road for cars and buses to run on.He believes that once the infrastructure is build then it will provide a new arena for businesses to flourish.
"All kind of businesses will make use of video content to deliver their goods, or persuade people to download services to their homes. Some information will be free, but much of the information will be provided for at a cost.
"Advertises will be more eager to commit their adverts on-line too, because this extension to a normal online service will provide so many more opportunities for businesses to sell their products.
"Outsourcing will be easier, because staff in places such as India will be able to access applications more quickly and easily because the software will be available on-line and will not have to be set-up via the hardware. The difference between the Internet as it is now is that services will be far more interactive."
Another example he gave relates to banks. Budde says that people will be able to talk to staff at the bank via video facilities online instead of having to visit the bank in person.
Although Australia is three or four years behind the rest of the world, with Hong Kong already having 70 percent of its households with broadband, South Korea on 71 percent and Australian on 21 percent, Budde believes that we are catching up fast.
He says that these advanced services are already in use in some countries, such as Hong Kong and South Korea, so there is no reason why this success will not happen in Australia too.
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