Senator the Hon Helen Coonan

Minister for Communications,

Information Technology

and the Arts

Government Broadband Initiatives in Australia

Opening Session

Korea-Australia-NZ Broadband Summit

Seoul , Korea

Thursday 9 June 2005

 

• Dr Chin Dae-je [Korean Minister of Information & Communication]
• David Smol [Ministry of Economic Development – New Zealand]
• distinguished guests
• ladies and gentlemen.

Good morning - it is a pleasure to be here at this very special gathering.

Over the next two days Korea and Australia have the opportunity to strengthen old ties and generate new ones.

It is also a pleasure to have New Zealand joining us and expanding the scope of this important Summit.

As liberal democracies in the Asia-Pacific region, Korea and Australia cooperate closely on significant issues like regional security, and we have strong links in our trade and investment.

Trade between our two nations was worth $14.1 billion or 10.8 trillion won last year. Korea is Australia’s fourth largest trading partner, and we are Korea’s seventh largest trading partner.

The bilateral relationship is important to both countries.

Not only are the fortunes of our two economies closely linked – they are equally strong. Both economies have been growing at above the OECD average over the last five years.

But there is no room for complacency. The challenge is to find the next areas of growth. I believe that ICT and broadband have a key role in delivering this growth for both countries.

Events such as this and multilateral initiatives such as APECTel, which I was fortunate enough to attend with Minister Chin last week, provide us with an excellent opportunity to deepen and broaden our engagement in the ICT area.

We share common goals in seeking to make the most of broadband and ICT. While our strengths and challenges may be different, we are fortunate that they complement each other well.

At the inaugural Broadband Summit held on the Gold Coast in 2003, it became clear that ICT is an area of unrealised potential in the Korea-Australia relationship, and that both countries are committed to changing this.

Korea ’s world-leading position in ICT is undeniable. I note, with a degree of envy, that in the recent IT Outlook 2004 report, Korea was ranked first amongst all OECD member economies in the contribution that the IT sector makes to the national economy.

This is an impressive statistic and I look forward to hearing about the strategies that have taken Korea to the top of the world in broadband and ICT.

However there are indications are that ICT is also a major contributor to Australia’s economic prosperity.

A recent Australian Government study found that technology, including ICT, had contributed up to 85 per cent of productivity growth in the manufacturing sector and up to 75 percent in the services sector over the last two decades.

This supports the proposition that diffusion of ICT across the economy will be integral to Australia continuing its recent strong economic performance.

Australian broadband uptake

Of course the diffusion of ICT would not be possible without a healthy, innovate telecommunications market and widespread adoption of broadband technologies. This is something that I know is of interest to both the Korean and the Australian Governments.

We both understand that broadband holds great social and economic benefits for our citizens, our businesses and our communities.

Our respective governments recognise that the real power of broadband lies in its potential to transform how people work, learn, conduct business and access entertainment.

While we have some way to go to matching the impressive take-up of broadband here in Korea - Australia is climbing the global rankings for broadband take-up.

According to the reputable Nielsen//NetRatings survey, Australia now has the sixth highest take-up rate amongst the nations surveyed.

The survey shows that almost 52 per cent of Australian homes - about 4.4 million Australians - are using broadband to access the Internet.

Today this is being delivered predominantly through ADSL and cable, with smaller numbers using satellite.

But this is changing as new innovative wireless broadband networks are rolled out across Australia, including the world’s first wide-scale deployment of Arraycomm’s iBurst technology. A technology which is also being trialled here in Korea.

Telecommunications Competition

The OECD has on many occasions argued that policies which liberalise markets and lower barriers to entry to encourage competition, are among the best ways to encourage the rollout of new technologies.

The diversity in our telecommunications market and the continued rollout of broadband networks is a direct result of the pro-competitive and technology-neutral approach that the Government has adopted.

In light of the rapid changes in technology we believe that this approach will ultimately best benefit Australian businesses, Australian consumers, and Australia’s telecommunications industry.

After a process of reform throughout the 1990’s – the Australian telecommunications market was fully liberalised in 1997.

There is clear evidence of real benefits to the Australian economy from these reforms.

Economic modelling shows that:

• The Australian economy is $10 billion larger than it would have been without these reforms;
• Around 29,000 jobs have been created in the economy as a result of the reforms;
• Australian small businesses have enjoyed benefits from lower costs and improved services in excess of $2.1 billion.

A National Broadband Strategy

Since the first Broadband Summit the Australian Government has developed a National Broadband Strategy to improve access to broadband for people all around Australia.

Equity of access is a public policy issue for Government in both Australia and Korea. So too is improving access and use of broadband in the health and education sectors.

But given the geographic differences, while our goals may be similar, the approaches will inevitably be different.

South Korea ’s population is two and a half times the population of Australia, but in an area 1/78 th the size.

The National Broadband Strategy emphasises effective market competition, complemented by $142.8 million of targeted funding initiatives and subsidies to stimulate investment.

As a result of this strategy, the majority of Australian schools now have access to broadband at two megabits per second or above and even our remotest students have improved satellite services.

A major element of this strategy is the $107.8 million Higher Bandwidth Incentive Scheme (HiBIS). This program delivers subsidies to service providers providing broadband to rural Australians. This is one of the most successful programs we have initiated.

Not only has it delivered affordable services to remote Australia, it has also delivered competition for the first time.

Since the program launched last year – more than 400 communities have received ADSL services as a result of HiBIS and there are now 32 registered HiBIS service providers, providing broadband over a variety of technologies including ADSL, satellite, wireless and cable.

There are also programs, including Broadband for GPs and Pharmacists, to ensure our health professionals are connected to broadband and to enable the development of a national electronic health records system.

The Australian Research and Education Network (AREN) program has ensured that all metropolitan Universities have 10 gigabits per second connections and all regional universities are now have links of at least one gigabit per second. It has also connected Australia’s research institutions into international high speed research networks.

Broadband into the future

Of course, delivering services today is important, but we must always keep an eye towards the future.

We can look to the future of broadband services through the window of the Australian Government’s $60 million Advanced Networks Program, which has developed multi-gigabit optic fibre networks linking researchers around the country.

These networks have allowed the trial of leading edge broadband applications – including a great example in the e-health field called the Virtual Critical Care Unit, developed by CeNTIE and the CSIRO.

This technology allows city-based medical specialists to assist in the treatment of emergency patients in a remote hospital via a high capacity broadband IP link that transmits DVD-quality video, sound and digital images.

This enables quality and specialist health care to be delivered where and when it is needed.

Dean Economou is here from the CSIRO and I am sure he would be very happy to discuss this technology and indeed other innovations with those of you who are interested.

The Advanced Network Program has also enabled the establishment of an advanced 3G mobile testbed in Adelaide called M.Net.

One of the many applications that this group have been involved in developing includes a location-based mobile service, which allows a mobile phone user to quickly discover where and when public transport is available.

Horden Wiltshire from m.Net is also here with us and is the person to speak to about this and other innovative mobile applications from Australia.

Given the equally advanced state of mobile and wireless broadband in Australia and Korea – a key outcome of the Summit could be the investigation of collaborative research into mobile applications and technologies

There has been significant collaboration already between Australian and Korean researchers.

The CSIRO and Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) have established a number of joint research projects including one in digital animation; the Australian Photonics CRC and Korean Institute of Information Technology are collaborating on ubiquitous sensor networks and CDMA-based fibre networks.

I’m confident that we can uncover new areas for collaboration over the next two days and a number of other Australian research organisations are participating in the Summit, including our ICT Centre of Excellence - National ICT Australia (NICTA).

Going digital

Convergence is no longer a buzzword – it is becoming commercial reality and nowhere is this more evident in the way that our television services are being delivered.

In 2001, the Australian Government commenced the process of converting analogue terrestrial television signals to digital. We have been making steady progress in this area and consumer take-up is growing.

This process also provides for the introduction of datacasting services - new digital-only services that are different, but complementary to traditional broadcasting services.

The major pay television providers, Foxtel and Austar have also digitised their services and now offer a range of new high quality and interactive digital services including video-on-demand to their customers.

And, the emergence of new higher speed ADSL 2 broadband services has a number of Australian providers investigating the delivery of digital television and other media content over IP TV.

The diversity of platforms is exciting both for the industry and for consumers. Content created for both broadband and digital television allows viewers to have their choice of either watching a show as a scheduled program or watching it whenever the viewer wants - on demand, through a broadband connection.

An example of this is the digital multichannel service launched by one of the Australian Government-owned national broadcasters – ABC. This new channel, known as ABC2, is utilising a large amount of content that was also created for delivery over broadband networks.

Also in the digital arena, we are keen to make progress with digital video broadcasting to handheld devices (DVB-H), enabling the provision of new and innovative digital services to be portable.

We are expecting a trial to commence in Sydney this year and are very excited about what it holds in store.

I understand that Korean customers already have access to such technology and I am interested to learn more about the Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) platform - as this may have major implications for Australia’s consideration of digital radio.

Of particular interest is the development of new coding standards that could be implemented as part of the global Eureka system for digital audio services.

Impressively, this new coding technology has the potential to halve the bandwidth required to deliver digital radio services.

Digital content

New digital platforms are nothing without new and exciting digital content.

The digital content industry in Australia is enjoying a high international profile, and our world-leading digital production companies like Animal Logic have worked on many internationally recognised films including TheMatrix trilogy, Moulin Rouge and Hero.

I believe there are particular opportunities for collaboration between the Australian digital post production sector and the increasingly impressive Korean film industry.

Recognising this opportunity to collaborate on film and digital content, I note that the CEO of the Australian Film Commission, Kim Dalton is on his second trip to Korea in less than 9 months.

Digital content in Australia in all its guises is an industry worth an estimated $19 billion in Australia and as the platforms for digital content increase – this figure will grow rapidly.

The Australian Government is committed to developing a digital content strategy because we recognise that digital content and applications will become increasingly economically important.

There is a high degree of focus by the Australian industry on the development of new and exciting broadband and mobile content to take advantage of the emergence of new digital platforms.

The Australian Government is actively encouraging this development and is supporting the Digital Content Industry Action Agenda to build long term sustainability and competitive advantage in the digital content sector.

I’m pleased that the Chair of the Action Agenda’s leaders group and CEO of MediaZoo, Tom Kennedy is here to help promote the developments in the Australian digital content sector.

The Action Agenda is expected to report later this year, and I am looking forward to what it will offer - not just for Australia but for our international partners too.

International partners

Australia and Korea are forging a strong relationship in dealing with international ICT issues.

For example, following the first Broadband Summit we signed a Memorandum of Understanding to counter spam on the Internet and have subsequently worked together through APEC Tel and other forums to coerce other countries into joining the fight against spam.

Clearly, we are united in our quests for security and efficiency in ICT, and the time has come for us to take the next important steps in advancing our industry links.

The particular strengths of Australia’s ICT industry lie in our applications, content and systems software – complementing the Korean strengths in broadband networks, IT and telecommunications products and manufacturing.

Complementary links

The Australian Government is keen to strengthen our international links and we are fostering the environment needed for sustained growth, like a strong economy, a stable political system and taxation reform.

In ICT specifically, we have made an unprecedented commitment to creating a climate that encourages innovation - developing skills, generating new ideas and turning them into commercial success.

The complementary strengths of Australia and Korea suggests great potential for collaboration which is supported by the number of innovative Australian application developers that are represented at this Summit.

These include a multimedia compression company, PIXe; Bravura, a provider of software for the superannuation industry and an e-Health applications developer in Alive Technologies.

Representing another area of potential collaboration is the multiplayer online gaming technology from BigWorld, regarded by Microsoft as “ the most advanced and comprehensive solution that has ever been offered for massively multiplayer game development”.

I understand that online gaming over broadband is an enormous past time here in Korea, with a recent survey by IDC suggesting that half of Korea’s 30 million Internet users play games online and the world’s most popular online games come from Korea.

The BigWorld technology is already being utilised by Korean games developer Joy City Entertainment, but I can see this as being an area of significant collaboration going forward.

This Summit is a valuable opportunity to identify other areas for us to work together - whether in software and applications, content development or delivery.

In Australia, I recently established a process to identify key priority areas for ICT industry development in Australia.

Opportunities for collaboration with world leaders in ICT development like Korea will be a major consideration of this exercise.

The Korean eight-three-nine strategy provides an interesting model for setting priorities in ICT industry development and I’m keen to learn more about this strategy.

Australian Participation

Over the next two days we are going to hear from some of Australia, New Zealand and Korea’s finest in ICT and digital content.

For my part, I am proud to be able to say that this is the largest Ministerial-led ICT delegation out of Australia.

Our industry associations and representative organisations are well represented through: the Chief Executive of the Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association, Angus Robinson; Tony Hill, the President of the Internet Society of Australia and current Chair of the National ICT Industry Alliance; and Professor Mike Miller, the director of the Australia-Korea Foundation and a driving force behind the establishment of better links between our two countries.

I’m understandably proud of the Australian technology on display but I’m also very excited to learn more about the significant technological advances made by our hosts.

Conclusion

In April of this year I released a report called Achieving Value from ICT: key management strategies.

This study of more than 1,000 Australian companies clearly demonstrated that no matter what the size of the company or the sector they operate in, the organisations that took a strategic approach to investing in ICT were the ones to get the greatest value from their investment.

These lessons are just as true for international cooperation.

It is important that we realise the strategic potential inherent in our partnership and that we cooperate in mutually beneficial ways.

Like all good partnerships we complement each other well.

I believe there is great value that can be achieved from our cooperation and I believe that there is a clear commitment to strengthening our relationship on ICT.

The Australian Government and industry is committed to working with Korea on this venture and I look forward to great things being achieved over the course of this Summit.

Thank you.