Internode Halts Regional Broadband Rollout

March 15, 2007: The push for broadband in regional areas has hit another snag this week, with Internode dropping its regional rollout in the wake of the Government’s cancellation of its Broadband Connect initiative.

Thanks to government subsidies, Internode has been rolling out broadband infrastructure in regional areas. However, the Department of Communications Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA) has announced that it will be dropping the Broadband Connect scheme from April 2007 in favour of its new Broadband Guarantee.

"During the past few years, Internode has delivered broadband services in regional Australia by using the Broadband Connect subsidy program to ensure a predictable return on its investment," Internode managing director Simon Hackett told Computerworld. As a result of the switch in plans, Hackett says that Internode has been forced to suspend the rollout and new service installations due to the program being terminated two months earlier than planned.

According to Hackett, DCITA’s new scheme also has “substantial flaws” that must be addressed before it could become a “viable mechanism with which [Internode] could re-start delivering services.”

The situation is a blow for regional areas, already languishing in bandwidth backwaters, and casts somewhat of a shadow on the $162.5 million Broadband Guarantee program, launched just last week by ICT Minister Senator Helen Coonan.

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