Senator the Hon Helen Coonan

Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts

A high performance alternative for regional and remote Australia

Address for IPSTAR Second Generation Service Launch

American Club, Sydney

Wednesday, 16th November 2005

Introduction

I am very pleased to be here today for the launch of the IP Star Second Generation Satellite Service in Australia .

The Government is committed to competition in the telecommunications market. Since we deregulated the telecommunications market we have seen more than 100 telecommunications carriers join the sector. And I pleased to be here today to welcome one more innovative service for Australian telecommunications consumers.

We like to see more competition and choice of telecommunications services in this country, particularly low-cost, flexible and high performance alternatives such as the IP Star service.

IP Star will deliver a range of services in Australia including Voice over IP, high speed broadband and video conferencing.

The major beneficiaries of these new services will be Australians living in rural and remote areas – those people outside the reach of current broadband networks.

Rural and regional consumers will also benefit from IP Star's potential to significantly reduce latency levels compared to existing satellite services.

This will mean improved scope for the use of real-time applications such as Voice over IP. The availability of IP Star services in the broadband market has the potential to significantly raise the benchmark for all broadband services offered in Australia .

Broadband Connect

I welcome IP Star's request to become a registered provider of the Government's $878 million Broadband Connect program.

I will be releasing a discussion paper on the design of Broadband Connect tomorrow.

Under Broadband Connect, IP Star could provide a broadband service to premises in rural and remote areas at a price comparable to those paif in metro areas but for less than half the subsidy currently offered by the Government under HiBIS.

I look forward to IP Star playing a key role in the Broadband Connect program to help ensure that all Australians can access a fast, reliable and affordable broadband service.

Australians embracing broadband

Australians in all regions are becoming increasingly aware of the different broadband applications available today and the higher speeds that are on offer.

For example, the IP Star satellite can provide speeds of up to 4 megabits per second for individual users.

So consumer expectations are rising and services like IP Star's broadband application will go a long way toward not only meeting these expectations, but exceeding them.

Not only are Australians becoming more aware of the various broadband applications available, they are connecting to these services at a rapid rate.

The latest OECD figures from a couple of weeks ago, show that Australia is now ranked 8th in terms of the speed of broadband take-up.

In fact, in the past 12 months more than 1 million Australian households have connected to broadband.

So more than half of Australia 's 2.1 million active broadband services were connected in the last year alone.

Regional take-up

In regional areas, take up has grown even faster than in metro areas.

In the past year, around 800 regional and rural towns have been connected to terrestrial broadband services, such as ADSL and wireless, as a direct result of the Government's regional broadband subsidy program.

We are closing the gap between metro and regional broadband take-up.

Two years ago broadband take-up in regional areas was just five per cent while in metro areas it was 11 per cent. Today regional take-up is running at 19 per cent and in metro areas it is 21 per cent.

I'm looking forward to IP Star helping to close that gap completely.

Conclusion

IP Star is a significant new entrant in the Australian broadband market and I welcome to this country.

I look forward to Australian consumers, particularly those in rural and remote areas benefiting from your impressive ranges of telecommunications services.

Thank you.