Keeping Us in the Loop
Launch of Unwired Australia

It's a great pleasure to be here to officially launch a special initiative that's linking up this city.

Unwired Australia is a welcome addition to the broadband market and is offering a unique and highly sought-after service to the people of Sydney.

It is a truly innovative service - providing broadband through a network of towers similar to those used by the mobile phone industry.

More importantly for consumers, it provides a service that's easy to set up and affordable to run.

It offers the fast speed, 'always-on' service of other broadband connections plus some added bonuses.

Because Unwired connects customers to the Internet over the air, rather than through a phone line or cable, it's portable.

With Unwired, broadband access is generally available anywhere within the coverage area, so people aren't necessarily restricted to the home or the office.

Unwired now has coverage across more than 90 per cent of homes in the Sydney region.

This is a huge achievement and is providing broadband to a whole new market of customers.

This is also an especially significant day for many people living in the outer metropolitan areas of Sydney - such as Campbelltown and Blacktown - who due to various technical impediments will now, for the first time, have access to an affordable broadband solution.

Competition

The development of Unwired is a great example of what can be achieved when an innovative company takes advantage of the competitive environment established by this Government.

Competition is the Howard Government's principal strategy to improve telecommunications services in Australia.

And as we are demonstrating today, this strategy of encouraging effective competition between service providers and carriers is working well - delivering new, innovative and affordable services to Australian business and consumers.

Australia 's broadband market in particular is becoming increasingly competitive - leading to great improvements in both the quality and price of the services available.

Recent falls in broadband pricing have seen more and more Australians realising the benefits of broadband.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recently reported that there were about 830,000 broadband subscribers at the end of March this year.

Even more recent evidence seems to put this figure closer to a million - which is almost double where we were at this time last year.

Unwired Australia's entrance into the market is well timed to take advantage of this sudden upswing in the demand for broadband.

The Benefits of Broadband

The Government recognises the important role that broadband will play in the economic, social and cultural development of Australia, and we are committed to strengthening and encouraging its development.

The widespread adoption of broadband will lead to productivity gains for individuals and businesses.

The Government is particularly interested in the opportunities to improve the delivery of essential services such as health and education to rural and regional Australia.

The National Broadband Strategy was developed to address this need and assist with increasing the availability, take-up and effective use of broadband services around the country.

Of particular significance, $107.8 million has been provided over four years to the Higher Bandwidth Incentive Scheme (HiBIS).

HiBIS encourages infrastructure development in areas of regional and remote areas currently considered commercially unattractive, by giving incentive payments to service providers.

And I'm pleased to say this scheme is already delivering more affordable broadband for regional and rural Australians.

The Unwired network has the scope to provide broadband access to regional areas and has the potential to offer a real infrastructure alternative to ADSL in many areas of Australia.

Several broadband providers have already become HiBIS registered providers and if Unwired is looking to take its product into rural and regional Australia - I would suggest they seriously consider the benefits associated with becoming a HiBIS provider.

Conclusion

The Unwired local loop continues a trend in Australian telecommunications.

That is a trend of Australians increasingly relying on services delivered to them over wireless networks.

Eighty per cent of Australians now carry a mobile phone - so this trend is clearly evidenced in voice communications.

Now we see it emerging in the delivery of Internet and data communications.

Unwired has made a large investment in building a network capable of delivering a truly innovative product.

It provides a great degree of mobility allowing customers to take their broadband connection with them anywhere within a large and expanding coverage area.

The price and speed of the service compares favourably with those offered by fixed line networks, and I have no doubt that Unwired will prove a very attractive offering.

Indeed with enough spectrum at its disposal to serve 95 per cent of the Australian population and plans to expand into other capital cities, Unwired is in a position to become quite a force in the Australian telecommunications market.

I would now like to officially launch Unwired Australia and wish them every success for the future.

Congratulations to everyone involved.

Thank you.