Media Statement - 18th October 2007
Labor today released maps which reveal the truth about the coverage of the Government’s $958 million fixed wireless broadband network.
These maps show that the Howard Government has assumed the earth is flat and has ignored critical issues such as topography in their own electorate-by-electorate broadband coverage maps released on June 17.
Labor’s maps reveal the truth about the Government’s broadband sham plan.
In Hume the coverage is 43% of the Government’s claimed area, and in McEwen the coverage is 53% of that claimed by the Government.
The Howard Government’s broadband plan is based on lies and the Minister for Communications should come clean.
A Rudd Labor Government would use the $2 billion Communications Fund to build an $8billion national broadband network that will deliver improved broadband access for 100 per cent of Australian homes and small businesses.
This will include a fibre-to-the node network that will deliver minimum speeds of 12 Mbps to 98 per cent of Australians and improved services to the remaining 2 per cent using the best-available new satellite, wireless and microwave technology.
Using the Communications Fund to build a network that will provide broadband access to all Australians including those in rural and regional areas is in keeping with the purpose of the establishment of the fund.
We are proud of the fact that we are investing in national infrastructure that will benefit all Australians regardless of where they live.
The Howard Government has neglected Australia’s telecommunications infrastructure over 11 long years which has left us lagging behind the rest of the world. They have wasted $1 billion of taxpayers money on a second-rate wireless service that has so many black spot holes in its coverage that it looks like Swiss cheese.
DISCLAIMER
The
purpose of the maps under 'downloads' on this page is to identify the misinformation the Government have
released on the coverage provided by fixed wireless WiMAX broadband.
Existing broadband services and OPEL’s proposed ADSL services have been ignored.
The maps showing likely coverage of the Howard Government’s OPEL broadband proposal were generated:
- Using topographic information provided by Geoscience Australia.
- Based on the use of the shared 5.8 GHz transmission spectrum, where there is a 4 W power limitation.
- Based on various case studies of fixed wireless WiMAX transmissions that demonstrate that the connection speed of the broadband service depletes over increasing distance. The results of the studies (see appendix) show that to achieve a 6 megabit per second broadband connection means that the consumer must be located at a distance less than 10 km from the transmission tower.
- Using transmission tower placement based on information provided in the Government’s maps that were released by the Minister for Communications on 18 June 2007. There are two types of towers on these maps: existing and new. The exact location of existing towers shown on the Government maps were identified using information from the ACMA radio-communications registry. The locations of new towers are indicative, and they were placed according to the information given in the Government’s published maps.
The “strong likely coverage” listed in the legend of the new map that includes topology refers to likely broadband connection speeds greater than 6 megabits per second.
The maps do not take into account any non-topographic line of sight issues, e.g. where a large tree or building may block line of sight between a customer and a transmission tower. Such issues will further reduce the actual coverage.
APPENDIX
The maximum distance
over which it is likely that a 6 megabit per second broadband connection can be
attained was determined as 10 km.
This number was determined from a number of case studies of fixed wireless WiMAX case studies from around the world (see below).
The graph below shows the results of the studies. Each “+” symbol represents the connection speed/distance obtained in a particular study.
The line of best fit demonstrates that in order to achieve a broadband connection speed of 6 megabits per second you need to be located less than 10 km of an exchange.
Note than no case study reported connection speeds of 12 megabits per second, which is what the Howard Government continue to claim.
key: + represents the results of an individual case study.
CASE STUDIES
Internode reported 20km with 3.5Ghz: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=764316&r=12079755#r12079755
Hervey Bay reported 30Mbps at 10-15km on 3.5Ghz: http://www.commsday.com/comment/reply/133
Natcom in NZ claim 4Mbps at 22km distance on a 5.8 GHz system: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/juha/189
Norwegian outfit chart distance versus throughput shows 6 Mbps at 10km at 3.5 Ghz: http://www.telenor.no/broadwan/BROADWAN_CD/Presentations/Braten_BROADWANWorkshopNov2005.pdf
An Isle of Man setup reported 30km at 5.8 GHz with 2W but there is no mention of throughput: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/features/121891/whats-next-for-wireless/page4.html
Telabria in Kent in UK reported 4.5km at 5.8 GHz on 2W power: http://www.muniwireless.com/article/articleview/4827
Xittel in Canada claim 4Mbps for unlicensed spectrum to 15km: http://www.broadbandproperties.com/2006issues/dec06issues/Xittel_dec.pdf
Covad in US report 5Mbps at 8km on 5.8 Ghz: http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=77071