National Broadband Network

In an historic announcement on 7 April 2009 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stated the Australian Government is committed to spending eight years and $43 billion on building and delivering a high speed National Broadband Network (NBN).

This network will deliver broadband speeds of 100Mbps to 90 percent of the population via a fibre optic cable infrastructure, with the remaining 10 percent of the population being served by a high speed wireless network. In many cases, these speeds are more than 100 times faster than current delivery systems.

The end result for Australia will be a platform that is world class and will place our nation at the forefront of the digital revolution. Given the current economic climate, perhaps one of the most inspiring aspects of this massive project will be the creation of thousands of jobs for Australians in designing, building, managing and supporting this network.

NECA, through its Communications and Technology Advisory Group, is committed to working with the government and potential NBN stakeholders to raise the profile of the services and skills portfolio of the NECA membership and pass on opportunities to the membership.

The profile of our membership places us ideally to engage in many aspects of this project across very broad product and service offerings. Many of our members already work at the communications infrastructure level on a daily basis and are very experienced with fibre optic systems and networks. The massive size of the project will require project management and governance of an extremely high calibre, something else the NECA membership has in spades.

Digital TV switchover

The TV advertising campaign has begun for the move towards the switching off of the analogue TV network in favour of a completely digital TV system. From 2010, these analogue broadcasts will be progressively switched off around the country, starting with the Mildura/Sunraysia region of Victoria/New South Wales at the start of 2010 and concluding with all capital cities in 2013.

There are moves towards accrediting individuals involved in the installation of antennae systems. To date, this industry has been unregulated, creating a very low barrier to entry for those aspiring to undertake this work. By implementing a registration system similar to that of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) cabler registration system, the hope is that the quality of installations will be improved. One of the key areas where NECA members will be able to offer value throughout the digital TV transition is in the provision of antennae and cabling services. The registration system will also provide additional business opportunities for companies looking to expand their business offering to customers.

Smart Families and Smart Homes

With all of the digital inputs planned for our premises in the form of digital broadcast and high speed broadband, what are we going to do with all this bandwidth, speed and service?

NECA has been participating in the development of the Smart Wired project, convened by the Copper Development Centre (CDC). The take-up of Smart Wired in homes is currently around 30 percent and there is strong evidence to suggest this number will continue to grow, particularly with the NBN and digital TV developments. At a Smart Wired meeting in March 2009, we learned how some of the NECA members are forming successful business relationships with builders, developers and carriers to deliver Smart Wiringâ into homes.

To date the usage of Smart Wired has mainly been associated with voice, data and entertainment. There are also opportunities for the same platform to be used in conjunction with green initiatives such as smart metering and energy management.

NECA will continue providing input to the Smart Wired meetings and shall look for ongoing and increased roles for NECA membership in these exciting projects.