Ovum analysts Kevin Noonan and David Kennedy said the Australian community was ready to have a “grown-up discussion” about broadband speeds and coverage.
They said no political party could afford to be caught unprepared on key technology issues.
"In the post-election carve-up, both sides of politics have assigned experienced ministers to lead the charge on communications policy, and both have nominated broadband as one of the key battlegrounds for winning or retaining government," the analysts said.
"In announcing her new ministerial line-up, Prime Minister Gillard clearly stated that communications minister Conroy will not only be directly responsible for delivering the NBN, but also he will assist the PM in making sure every government agency is focused on deriving maximum value from the NBN.
"This means all agencies will feel the blowtorch to add just a little more encouragement to find innovative ways to capitalize on the NBN’s capabilities."
Noonan and Kennedy said there were major opportunities for government suppliers in what might otherwise be a tight government market.
The Government’s service delivery agencies already have a good reputation for delivering innovative online services, but in the past these services have been constrained by a lowest common denominator of bandwidth in some parts of Australia, they said.
Noonan and Kennedy said the new challenge was to look at what sort of service could be provided if bandwidth restrictions were relaxed.
"Existing cloud computing providers already offer a variety of services that could easily be taken up by town councils and small business in regional Australia," they said.
"With local cloud providers now entering the market, and the availability of higher broadband speeds, the door will be open for new IT services without necessarily incurring high capital start-up costs.
"Given Australia’s geographic spread, e-health would appear to be a natural fit for high-speed broadband services.
"It is now time to think long and hard about the opportunities offered by a national broadband network."
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Quelle/Source: Government News, 17.12.2010
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