Wednesday 18th April 2007

ABC Riverina – ABC News Radio

COMPERE: And joining me in the studio, the Federal Communications Minister, Senator Helen Coonan.

Good morning, and welcome back to the Riverina Senator Coonan.

SENATOR HELEN COONAN: Oh, thank you. Good morning. I'm so pleased to be here.

COMPERE: You've got some great news for us. We've been talking about it for a while; but News Radio finally coming to the Riverina.

SENATOR COONAN: Yes, look, it's been a while coming, and I'm just delighted today to be able to do an official launch to bring News Radio to Wagga, and also to the south-west slopes, which includes Coota and Gundagai and Junee and Temora, for anyone listening out there. At last, News Radio will be part of your life.

COMPERE: And the frequencies - 105.1...

SENATOR COONAN: Yes.

COMPERE: ...and 91.5.

SENATOR COONAN: That's true.

COMPERE: So if you're in the Wagga city area, 105.1; and when I say the Wagga city area, it probably stretches for about 40 or 50 kilometres out...

SENATOR COONAN: Yes, about, yes it does. I think actually up to about 50. That's my understanding. But, look...

COMPERE: Even your old stomping ground.

SENATOR COONAN: [Laughs]. Well I don't know whether Mangoplah gets it, but I hope so. Hello to all the folks out at Mango, and it's wonderful to be in close proximity to you today.

COMPERE: And, it's great to have you in today.

So that's the good news on the News Radio front. And the test broadcasts are happening now, and most of the time you can actually listen to the service. It might sort of...

SENATOR COONAN: Yes, I think it's trialling a bit, but I think in about a month, all the bugs ought to be ironed out and ready to roll.

But, it's a great service, because it is, it's unique. I mean, it is the only 24 hour news service, rolling news service, and you get such good updates. It's a wonderful thing to be able to access no matter where you are in Australia. That's my objective, to get it out to about 95% of the population, and it's a very important, I think, device to be able to keep in touch with what's happening, not only here, but round the world, and particularly if you love parliament guys.

Now, there, you can listen to parliament. [Laughter]. He's laughing.

COMPERE: I'm a big fan. I'm a huge fan of News Radio. My family get really annoyed with me, because we go to Canberra, and it's straight over to 103.9, or we go to Sydney and it's straight over to 630. See, I even know all the frequencies. I'm a News Radio junkie.

So, my family is going to hate it now, because I'll be turning - backwards and forwards - saying, I've got to listen to my station, now got to listen to News Radio, so backwards and forwards. It's one of those, you can dip in and out, and in about 15 minutes your get the whole world.

SENATOR COONAN: Well that's fantastic, and that's the really good thing is that if you're a busy person you can keep across really what's happening; not only locally, but really nationally, and certainly internationally. They're wonderful programs that News Radio runs from Radio Deutsche Welle and you know all sorts of other services. It really is a comprehensive and very good service that I very much enjoy.

COMPERE: How many of these have your got to roll out now? What is it...

SENATOR COONAN: It's a lot.

COMPERE: ...to get to every population centre of 10,000 or more.

SENATOR COONAN: Yes, that's right. So there's a lot. We're going to do it in three stages. This is the first stage now, and there will be about 17 services that will be part of the first stage, and then we'll gradually push it out so that over the next couple of years we will have covered, hopefully 95% of the population.

COMPERE: And we got it first.

SENATOR COONAN: You are absolutely first. Now I'm not saying there's any bias here mind you...

COMPERE: [Laughs].

SENATOR COONAN: ...but I think it's good fun. I always come back to Wagga whenever I can.

COMPERE: And I know that later in the year, for our listeners in the western parts of the MIA - Griffith are online from about September.

SENATOR COONAN: Yes, that's right, that's true. So, round this area you'll be able to be very well informed - not that you're not already of course. But, it's better I think to be able to have a service like News Radio where you can, you can really choose when you get your full news service and when you just want an update.

COMPERE: Absolutely. So that's the big, the big news for News Radio.

Big news for radio, specifically in the Wagga city region, and we've had a few people ringing us saying, I can pick you up a bit better now.

SENATOR COONAN: Yes. Yes, it's basically to increase the power. I've actually got some, a bit of information here. The increase in power is expected to provide a much more, what you'd call a robust signal, to the existing coverage area, rather than rally to spread it out further.

But, for people who get very concerned about the fact that it's a bit patchy, or they can't actually get a clear signal, this should really do it.

So, I think it's a very important extension and enhancement to the service that's already here, as well as pushing out this new service.

COMPERE: We've had called from Lockhardt.

SENATOR COONAN: Yes.

COMPERE: People can now pick it up on, pick us up on 102.7 in Lockhardt, which they've never been able to do before.

SENATOR COONAN: That is fabulous.

COMPERE: Also, and I know from personal experience, drive into the underground car parks around Wagga city now, and it, we come in clear as a bell, which we have never done before.

SENATOR COONAN: That's terrific stuff.

COMPERE: So, that's great news. And we have a separate line now that goes from here to the Wagga transmitter which means we can do a few extra things, and we will be doing a few extra things that more directly target localised audiences down the track.

SENATOR COONAN: Yeah. Oh well that's, that's absolutely fantastic, because there is no doubt that the ABC plays a very big role in most people's lives, particularly out of major centres where there often is not a lot of choice, and the ABC is rally part of your life, part of your community, and will, I think, be the source that people rely on to get their news and to make sure that they're in touch with their local community.

So, there's, I think, only good news in making the ABC better able to deliver these services for everyone.

COMPERE: Nine to 11. I'm talking with Senator Helen Coonan on ABC Riverina Mornings today.

Senator Coonan, lots of other issues in the communications...

SENATOR COONAN: Always. It's a very big complex portfolio, and it never stays still. It moves every day.

COMPERE: Can we talk about broadband?

SENATOR COONAN: Yes.

COMPERE: Because I know yesterday, you made an announcement in Albury. Can you just explain a little what that was about?

SENATOR COONAN: Yes, look, broadband is an interesting story. It's an evolving story. Once again, it's not whether you should have broadband, it's a matter that you must, and you will. And it's a matter of getting the very best service that we possibly can,.

And what I was announcing yesterday was a program called Clever Networks, which is about smart solutions for difficult problems.

And so what we did yesterday was announce a program - and there's a lot more to come; there's about 16 programs to be announced in this first round of this funding - to allow organisations to link up with people that they look after; people with disabilities.

And so it was for an organisation called Scope, to actually be able to deal with their particular clients or consumers or customers; when they're out on the road they can access their medical records; they can understand the case histories; they can provide a service without necessarily having to go face-to-face.

It covers about eight different regions in Victoria, and over 100 services. So it's a fabulous solution to there not being enough therapists around, and over 3,500 people needing a service.

There are a lot of people with disabilities, and being able to provide technology that will give them solutions that they couldn't otherwise have, is one of the great joys of this portfolio.

COMPERE: So, what technology will the, will this Scope project be using?

SENATOR COONAN: Well basically wireless. It's basically a wireless and computer facilities. It'll be a web cam, so that you can actually contact somebody in their home, and yo don't actually have to be, you know, in your own office to do it.

So it's to make people more mobile, to give them a much greater range of being able to provide these services.

And we look right - it doesn't have to be just for people with disabilities. We look at enhancing all different kind of community services with this money.

It's for smart solutions, and to use technology to deliver a good outcome.

COMPERE: Okay, but obviously the need better access to broadband services to do it.

SENATOR COONAN: Well this is a broadband service, so it's basically an underlying broadband service that enable, that provides capacity to be able to have fast Internet.

COMPERE: We're hearing calls, we're getting calls regularly from people - I guess I'm lucky, my broadband was recently upgraded at home to ADSL 2.

SENATOR COONAN: Oh, you're, you're laughing.

COMPERE: I went to a mate's - yeah - I went to a mate's place who is still on dial-up...

SENATOR COONAN: Yes.

COMPERE: ...can't get broadband.

SENATOR COONAN: Yes. WEll...

COMPERE: It's very difficult for people...

SENATOR COONAN: Well look, it is. It is.

COMPERE: ...especialy with more and more content online, more and more stuff being crammed into web pages. How do we get the broadband out to the people who need it faster?

SENATOR COONAN: There's two points about it. One, it's getting better all the time, and it will get much better. We're about to announce a very big major new rollout of a new wholesale network round rural and regional Australia, that will actually help people like your friend.

And also, enabling the exchanges better, betting much better wireless applications available, and also if all else fails, we have a broadband guarantee - he should be able to get a satellite service - a two-way sat service - for a reasonable price now. The technology is improving all the time.

But we're looking very hard now at getting a big fibre rollout that will have a footprint into major regional centres, and a wholesale new network that will actually solve the problems of being able to turn it up as people's appetite for needing to do more and more things online, increases.

And dial-up is no longer acceptable. We need fast Internet for everyone.

COMPERE: When do you expect to be able to announce that, that's in place?

SENATOR COONAN: I expect, it'll be about the middle of the year, and it'll take 18 months to roll out.

COMPERE: Okay. So that's, that's relatively quick.

SENATOR COONAN: Well it is relatively quick, but, you know, I have a lot of sympathy for people who are very frustrated with having to cope with it, with old technology. Dial-up is not longer sufficient.

But we also have to remember that there's a price point in all of this, and I'm trying to make sure that there's a bit of balance here, and that we don't end up with just a Rolls Royce service that no-one can afford, or that people don't particularly want.

You've got to at least have a range of things; get the infrastructure in, so that people can make sensible choices about what they really need to do their business, and what that, whatever else they need it for.

COMPERE: The other thing about broadband, it really is a case of, there's the field of dreams things though - if you build it, they will come.

SENATOR COONAN: I think that's basically right. I think the infrastructure is the important thing to get in place, then there has to be the content service providers - obviously people who have businesses that are rich in content, want the infrastructure to be able to provide the services.

And the last part of the puzzle is consumers being willing to access it and pay for it.

COMPERE: Four to 11. Helen Coonan in the studio with me this morning.

And I don't know whether you were able to listen earlier this morning while you were travelling around the region; we had a couple of callers, several callers in fact - ironic - one part of the Next G network is down in the region at the moment.

Now we've had callers about that this morning. We've had callers over the past few weeks too, you know, talking lack of signal on that, and that they don't feel that the CDMA signal is as strong.

I appreciate it's difficult with Telstra becoming a privately owned, a fully privately owned company and so on, but the government; what's the situation with regard to rollout of this Next G and the CDMA network, keeping it up and running and so on, until next February, and is there a chance that CDMA may be extended beyond February, or...

SENATOR COONAN: Ah, yes. Yes to both of those. I now currently have a very important and dedicated working party working with Telstra to, and the regulator, to be able to do audits around the place to actually get after these particular problems of weak signal strength, things dropping out.

I'm very concerned that the CDMA signal, which seemed to provide pretty good technology in rural and regional areas, isn't just simply switched off without 3G working very well.

So we're well and truly after the issue. I can assure your listeners that they're not the only people who have brought this problem to my attention. That's why we've got this working party to do the audits, to work with Telstra to ensure that people aren't going to be left in the lurch with the CDMA being turned off, and 3G not working.

I think it's a serious issue. There's a lot of teething problems. 3G is wonderful when it's working. When it's not working, it's not worth anything. So we've got to make sure that it actually provides the service intended for.

COMPERE: Now you've got mobile phone providers - and I don't think it's just Telstra [indistinct] - saying, you know, we can't run the Next G and the CDMA network at the same time, at their full efficiency, because they, they come off the same towers. That's my understanding of it.

How do you get them to continue the CDMA service to allow more people to change over if the Next G isn't deemed up to scratch?

SENATOR COONAN: Well you, what you can do is extend the time for the CDMA switch over. It's like any technology. You remember years ago when, I think it was the predecessors - the Labor Party - turned off the analogue signal and there wasn't any CDMA in place. And so there was this huge problem.

Any switch over of technologies is always complex, but we do understand that people rely on us, rely on my department, and rely on the regulators to ensure that you do get proper signals and that the service that they buy and expect is there.

COMPERE: Senator Helen Coonan, it's been great to have you in the studio this morning. Thank you for coming in, and welcome to Wagga Wagga and welcome to the Riverina, and we're glad to have you here to launch News Radio today.

SENATOR COONAN: Oh thank you very much, and thanks for inviting me on.

COMPERE: Senator Helen Coonan on ABC Riverina. It's the Morning Program. We're in the dying stages, and I'm going to do someone a a gross injustice here - Russell Powell from News Radio has just, just slipped into the studio...

RUSSELL POWELL: I understand, timing considerations. That's okay.

COMPERE: Russell, what we may do is just say a very quick welcome to Wagga Wagga, and welcome to the Riverina.

RUSSELL POWELL: Thank you.

COMPERE: It's great to have you here. We might record an interview today...

RUSSELL POWELL: Absolutely.

COMPERE: ...that we can run for people tomorrow.

RUSSELL POWELL: I'll be talking to the people of the Riverina for quite a while yet.

COMPERE: We look forward to hearing much more from your over, over the coming weeks, months, and years.

RUSSELL POWELL: That's great Chris. Thank you.

COMPERE: Russell Powell from News Radio who is here.