[Greens-Media] TasGreens_State Government Must Act On Bass Strait Backhaul Monopoly_N McKim MP

[greens at parliament.tas.gov.au]

STATE GOVERNMENT MUST ACT ON BASS STRAIT BACKHAUL MONOPOLY
Tasmanian Greens MP Nick McKim 
Deputy Leader
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Contact: State Parliamentary Offices of the Tasmanian Greens, (03) 6233
8300
www.tas.greens.org.au
The Tasmanian Greens today said that low connectivity rates and slow
broadband speed are holding back social and economic development in
Tasmania, and blamed the State government for failing to create a
competitive environment for data transmission across Bass Strait.

Greens Deputy Leader Nick McKim MP, who described Tasmania's low
connectivity rates and broadband speed as a disgrace, said that the
state government's incompetence means that the fibre laid across Bass
Strait with the Bassslink cable, now owned by Singapore government
entity CitySpring, is not currently able to compete with the monopoly
enjoyed by Telstra on data transmission across Bass Strait.

"A highly connected community is crucial to this state's future, and
should be a core aim of the state government, yet its failure to ensure
competition across Bass Strait means that connectivity rates and
investment in broadband infrastructure are stalling," Mr McKim said. 

"Information is this century's global currency, and Tasmania's online
communities risk becoming paupers rather than sharing in the riches." 

"Broadband infrastructure will underpin Tasmania's social and economic
future, but unfortunately the state government's incompetence is
discouraging much needed investment in this area."

Mr McKim said that the fibre optic cable laid with Basslink must be
opened up to carry data as a first step towards improving the situation,
and proposed that:

*         The State government and Aurora Energy immediately prioritise
negotiations with CitySpring to enable the Basslink fibre cable to
compete with Telstra in backhaul services across Bass Strait; 

*         The Federal government act to improve backhaul competition
across Bass Strait after Senator Stephen Conroy's cancellation of the
OPEL plan;

*         The State government explain why the commercialisation of the
Basslink fibre has taken so long, and disclose the details of the
current commercial arrangements with CitySpring;

*         The ACCC step in and ensure that backhaul pricing across Bass
Strait is set in line with other areas in Australia.

"Telstra's monopoly on backhaul across Bass Strait must be broken, and
the best and quickest way to do that would be to open up the Basslink
fibre to competition. It is scandalous that this has not yet occurred,
and he fault can only be laid at the feet of a government which has
failed to seize the opportunities available to it."

 "Tasmania's connectivity rates are already the worst in the country,
and I wish that just once this government would focus on 21st century
issues such a broadband, rather than last century ideas like pulp
mills."

"It is just not acceptable that it costs more to get data half way
around the world than it does to get it across Bass Strait, and with an
easy solution available the government must act swiftly."

 "Under Jim Bacon this government missed a once-in-a-generation
opportunity to get fibre to the door in the gas distribution trenches,
and now Paul Lennon is compounding this error by failing to create
backhaul competition across Bass Strait." 

"Unless the government gets its act together, Tasmania will miss out on
new broadband technologies because the cost of getting data across Bass
Strait will discourage investment."

"We have major ISP companies failing to offer services like ADSL2 in
Tasmania, and limiting download capacity, all due to the horrendously
high cost of backhaul across Bass Strait which results from Telstra's
monopoly pricing."

Mr McKim said that he believed that the state Government is currently
paying around $2m per annum to CitySpring, which means that there is no
incentive for that company to open up the fibre to commercial data
traffic.

"The state government owes it to Tasmania's online community to disclose
exactly what the contractual situation is with CitySpring, so we can
understand exactly what has caused the delay in resolving this issue."

Mr McKim also said that the OPEL proposal would have resulted in more
fibre across Bass Strait, and called on Federal Minister Senator Stephen
Conroy to act to address the problem.

"OPEL was going to improve the situation by increasing competition
across Bass Strait, and as Senator Conroy has canned that option he
should now let Tasmanians know exactly what he is going to do to bail
the incompetent state government out of the mess they have got Tasmanian
broadband consumers into."