Telecommunications in Australia
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Telecommunications in Australia refers to communication in Australia through electronic means, using devices such as telephone, television, radio or computer, and services such as the telephony and broadband networks. Telecommunications have always been important in Australia given the "tyranny of distance" with a dispersed population. Governments have driven telecommunication development and have a key role in its regulation.
History
Colonial period
Prior to Federation of Australia in 1901, each of the six Australian colonies had its own telephony communications network.[1] The Australian networks were government assets operating under colonial legislation modelled on that of Britain. The UK Telegraph Act 1868 for example empowered the Postmaster-General to "acquire, maintain and work electric telegraphs" and foreshadowed the 1870 nationalisation of competing British telegraph companies.
Australia's first telephone service (connecting the Melbourne and South Melbourne offices of Robinson Brothers, a Melbourne engineering firm) was launched in 1879.[2] The private Melbourne Telephone Exchange Company opened Australia's first telephone exchange in August 1880. Around 7,757 calls were handled in 1884.[2]
The nature of the networks meant that regulation in Australia was undemanding: network personnel were government employees or agents, legislation was enhanced on an incremental basis and restrictions could be achieved through infrastructure. All the colonies ran their telegraph networks at a deficit through investment in infrastructure and subsidisation of regional access, generally with bipartisan support.
Government-operated post office and telegraph networks – the largest parts of the bureaucracy – were combined into a single department in each colony on the model of the UK Post Office:
]At Federation (1901)
At Federation, the colonial networks (staff, switches, wires, handsets, buildings etc.) were transferred to the Commonwealth Postmaster-General's Department responsible for domestic postal, telephone and, telegraph services becoming the responsibility of the first Postmaster-General (PMG), a federal. With 16,000 staff (and assets of over £6 million) the PMG accounted for 80% of the new federal bureaucracy.
Public phones were available in a handful of post offices. Subscriber telephones were initially restricted to major businesses, government agencies, institutions and wealthier residences. Eight million telegrams were sent that year over 43,000 miles of line.
There were around 33,000 phones across Australia, with 7,502 telephone subscribers in inner Sydney and 4,800 in the Melbourne central business district.
Overseas cable links to Australia remained in private hands, reflecting the realities of imperial politics, demands on the new government's resources, and perceptions of its responsibilities.
After Federation
A trunk line between Melbourne (headquarters of the PMG Department) and Sydney was established in 1907, with extension to Adelaide in 1914, Brisbane in 1923, Perth in 1930 and Hobart in 1935.
On 12 July 1906 the first Australian wireless overseas messages were sent between Point Lonsdale, Victoria and Devonport, Tasmania.[3] Australia and New Zealand ratified the 1906 Berlin Radio-telegraph Convention in 1907. The PMG department became responsible for some international shortwave services, particularly from the 1920s and for a new Coastal Radio Service in 1911, with the first of a network of stations operational in February 1912.
The Sydney–Melbourne co-axial cable was officially opened on 9 April 1962.[4] The coaxial cable infrastructure supported the introduction of subscriber trunk dialling between the cities[5] and live television link-ups. After its commissioning in April 1962 the cable carried telegraph and telephone traffic.[6] It also provided the first inter-city television transmission in Australia, allowing simultaneous television broadcasting in Melbourne and Sydney for the first time.[7]
Optus was formed as AUSSAT, a government owned corporation, in 1981. It was privatized later in the 1980s under the Hawke Labor government. Telstra (previously known as Telecom), another government owned asset, was also privatized in 1997 under the Howard Liberal government.
Broadcasting in Australia
Australia developed its own radio broadcasting system, through its own engineers, manufacturers, retailers, newspapers, entertainment services, and news agencies. Initially hobbyists and amateurs were dominant, however with the
The first commercial broadcasters, originally known as "B" class stations were on the air as early as 1925. Many were sponsored by
Television
As early as 1929, two Melbourne commercial radio stations,
Television broadcasting officially began in Sydney and Melbourne just prior to the Melbourne Olympic Games in November/December 1956 and then phased in at other capital cities, and then into rural markets. Many forms of entertainment, particularly drama and variety, proved more suited to television than radio, so the actors and producers migrated there.
It now includes a broad range of public, commercial, community, subscription, narrowcast, and amateur stations across the country. Colour television in the PAL 625-line format went to a full-time basis in 1975. Subscription television, on the Galaxy platform, began in 1995. Digital terrestrial television was introduced in 2001.[14]
Australia moved from PAL 625 to DVB-T on 10 December 2013.
Subscription television, whether Foxtel or Netflix type services, has become more important and is one factor driving demand for the National Broadband Network.
Core technologies, the network, backhaul and the local loop
Copper cable and optical fibre networks
Prior to the government opening telecommunications to multi player competition the PMG (and later Telecom Australia) operated a
With opening telecommunications to multi provider competition the government required Telstra to sell wholesale access to its core facilities and networks.
In the 2000s, larger ISPs began taking over more of the delivery infrastructure themselves by taking advantage of regulated access to the
Telstra in 2006 proposed replacing its copper network with an optical fibre node network with the drop connection into end user premises being the existing copper cable. They abandoned this as under competition policy they would be required to open their network to competing carriers on a wholesale basis.
Further options were explored with the
After the election of the Abbott government in 2013 a Multi Technological Mix was implemented, replacing FTTP where development was yet to start with Fibre to the Node and also repurposing the Telstra and Optus hybrid fibre-coaxial networks.
Cable
In the late 1990s,
Satellite
The Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC) was established by Australia in August 1946 with responsibility for all international telecommunications services into, through and out of Australia.
In 1981 Aussat Pty Ltd was established as a GBE to operate domestic satellite telecommunication and broadcasting services. Aussat's charter restricted it from acting as a competitor to Telecom, including a prohibition on interconnecting public switched traffic with Telecom's network.
Proposals for a merger of Aussat and OTC (thereby permitting national delivery of telecommunication services in competition with Telecom) were rejected in favor of disposal of the satellite operator to a non-government entity that would be allowed to compete with Telecom.
Satellites are used to provide telecommunications services in very remote areas. These are primarily the
There are also a number of
- Intelsat has 10 earth stations, 4 for the Indian Ocean and 6 for the Pacific Ocean.
- Inmarsat has 2 earth stations, which serve the Indian and Pacific Ocean regions.
- SingTel Optus Earth Stationshas several earth stations located in the major cities.
- Sky Muster satellites operated as part of the National Broadband Network.
- Telstra has a totals of 48 earth stations, Located between sites in Sydney, Perth and Bendigo serving both the Australian Continent, Asia-Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean regions.
Submarine cables
Due to Australia's large size, sparse population, and relative remoteness to other countries, a significant amount of infrastructure is required for Internet communications. The vast majority of Australia's international telecommunications transit capacity is sourced from undersea several
- Southern Cross Cables to New Zealand, Hawaii and the US mainland with a capacity of 620 Gbit/s, with planned upgrade in Q2 2012.
- Southern Cross Cables to Fiji, Hawaii and the US mainland with a capacity of 620 Gbit/s, with planned upgrade in the Q2 2012.
- . Primarily used as an alternative path to the United States with a capacity of 320 Gbit/s.
- ]
- APNG2 (previously part of Pac Rim West) to Papua New Guineawith a capacity of 2x565 Mbit/s.
- INDIGO-West (linking Perth to Jakarta and Singapore.
- Gondwana-1 to New Caledonia.
- TGA to New Zealand.
- Telstra Endeavour to Hawaii with a capacity of 320 Gbit/s.
The Postmaster-General's Department regulated telecommunications and operated telephone and related communications within Australia over the copper telephony network from federation up to 22 December 1975,[17] replaced by the Postal and Telecommunications Department.
In mid-1975 the department was disaggregated by the Whitlam government into the two Government Business Enterprises: the Australian Telecommunications Commission (trading as Telecom Australia) and the Australian Postal Commission (trading as Australia Post) with a new Postal and Telecommunications Department.[18] The change was intended to take account of the increase in the functions of the department to include all electronic media matters which had previously been the responsibility of the Department of the Media.[18]
The 1982 Davidson Inquiry regarding private sector involvement in delivery of existing/proposed telecommunications services recommended ending Telecom Australia's monopoly.[19]
In June 1991, legislation was passed allowing duopoly competition with Telstra, Optus Communications became Australia's second general telecommunications carrier.[20] It was guaranteed access to Telecom's existing infrastructure on reasonable terms - meant to ensure its viability. Other players were prevented from entering the general telephone market until 1997.
Telecom Australia changed its name to Telstra in 1995 and has since been privatised. It faced growing competition in market niches such as long distance corporate voice and data services. Telstra was progressively privatised (33.3% 1997, 16.6% 1999, 33.3% 2006, with 17% transferred to the Future Fund.)
Numbers of licensed telecommunications carriers grew from: ~20 controlling facilities in Australia at 1998 (with several hundred entities providing services using those facilities to
Regulation
The Postmaster-General's Department regulated telecommunications and operated telephone and related communications within Australia over the copper telephony network from federation up to 22 December 1975,[17] replaced by the Postal and Telecommunications Department.
On 1 July 2005, the
General censorship
Internet censorship
On 31 December 2007,
Internet
Permanent
The .au domain (
A permanent connection between
In 1992 there were two competing commercial ISPs expanding to excess of 100 by June 1995 [Internet Australasia Magazine], attributing some fifth of all AARNet traffic.
The
Broadband access
Broadband internet access is available in Australia using predominantly ADSL, plus cable, fibre, satellite and wireless technologies. Since July 2008 almost two thirds of Australian households have had internet access, with broadband connections outnumbering dial-up two to one.[33] According to the recent ABS statistics the non-dial-up services outnumber dial up services 3.6 to 1.
xDSL
In 2000, the first consumer ADSL services were made available via Telstra Bigpond, at speeds of 256/64 kbit/s (downstream/upstream), 512/128 kbit/s, and 1500/256 kbit/s. Telstra chose to artificially limit all ADSL speeds to a maximum of 1500/256 kbit/s. As ADSL required access to the telephone exchange and the copper line – which only Telstra had – this allowed Telstra to be dominant due to the expense of roll-out for other companies and Telstra's established customer base. Other ISPs followed suit soon after; reselling connections purchased wholesale from Telstra.[34]
In response to Telstra's monopolisation of ADSL provision other carriers installed their own
The presence of non-Telstra DSLAMs allowed the service providers to control the speed of connection, and most offered "uncapped" speeds, allowing the customers to connect at whatever speed their copper pair would allow, up to 8 Mbit/s. Ratification of
In November 2007 the first Naked DSL product was announced by iiNet.[37] Shortly after this other internet providers also started to provide DSL products without telephony service over copper, reducing line rental fees.[38][39]
Telstra FTTN
Telstra proposed to upgrade to Fibre to the Node (FTTN) in 2006 but did not pursue the development because it would be required to share the network.[40]
Wireless broadband
Wireless broadband in Australia is widespread, with many point-to-point fixed wireless broadband providers serving broadband-poor regional and rural areas, predominantly with
Rural coverage
Delivering competitive telecommunications services to regional and rural areas is a major issue, with Telstra having a
National Broadband Network
The National Broadband Network was initially a
The network will be the largest single infrastructure investment in Australia's history.[49]
Incidents
2023 Optus outage
On 8 November 2023 at around 04:00
See also
- List of LTE networks
- List of planned LTE networks
- List of mobile network operators of the Asia Pacific region
- Indigenous Remote Communications Association
References
- ^ "160 years of Australian telecommunications | Telsoc". telsoc.org. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
- ^ a b "When and How Did Telephones Come to Victoria?". Museums Victoria. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
- ^ http://tja.org.au/index.php/tja/article/view/9/30 Given, Jock. 2010. 'Wireless politics: Marconi and the Parliament at Point Lonsdale, 12 July 1906'. Telecommunications Journal of Australia. 60 (4): pp. 60.1 to 60.7. Monash University ePress.
- ^ "Australia's Prime Ministers". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
- ^ The Australasian Engineer, 1962, p.32.
- ^ Telecommunications Journal of Australia, vol.13, no.3, February 1962 (special edition), p.173.
- ^ The Australasian Engineer, 1962, p.33.
- ^ Denis Cryle, 'The press and public service broadcasting: Neville Petersen's news not views and the case for Australian exceptionalism.' (2014) Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture & Policy Issue 151 (May 2014): 56+.
- ^ R.R. Walker, The Magic Spark – 50 Years of Radio in Australia (1973).
- ^ John Potts, Radio in Australia (1986)
- ^ Graeme Davison et al., eds., The Oxford Companion to Australian History (2001), pp 546–47, 637–38
- ^ College Roll: McDowall, Valentine, The Royal Australasian College of Physicians
- ^ Charles Porter, (1962), Broadcasting in Queensland. Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 6 4, pp. 750-761.
- ^ Albert Moran and Chris Keating. The A to Z of Australian Radio and Television (Scarecrow Press, 2009)
- ^ 'iinet archives' Retrieved on 25 September 2008.
- ^ ITNews, PPC-1 delivers more speed than expected by Ben Grubb Oct 8, 2009
- ^ a b CA 9: Postmaster-General's Department, Central Administration, National Archives of Australia, retrieved 5 December 2013
- ^ a b Fraser, Malcolm (18 December 1975). "Major Changes in Ministerial And Departmental Responsibilities And Functions" (Press release). Archived from the original on 11 January 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-644-01231-7)
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link - ^ Mitchell Bingemann, (30 January 2012), Optus rings up 20 years, sticking to its guns, The Australian Retrieved 9 February 2017
- ^ CA 9024: an Communications and Media Authority, Central Office, Canberra, National Archives of Australia, retrieved 9 December 2013
- ^ "Conroy announces mandatory internet filters to protect children". Australia: ABC News. 31 December 2007. Retrieved 3 March 2008.
- ^ "Government Claims Data Retention Laws Only Target Extremists". Retrieved 20 November 2014.
- ^ a b "Roger Clarke's 'The Internet in Australia' – 4.3 1985–1989". Rogerclarke.com. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
- ^ a b "History". AARNET. Archived from the original on 20 December 2010. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
- ^ a b "Hobbes' Internet Timeline". Zakon.org. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
- ^ Origins and Nature of the Internet in Australia – Roger Clarke. Published 29 January 2004
- ^ Origins and Nature of the Internet in Australia – Roger Clarke. Published 29 January 2004
- ^ "A separate company for a broadband network". Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. 11 April 2008. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 5 December 2008.
- ^ "ccTLD Agreement Signed with auDA". ICANN. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
- ^ "Roger Clarke's 'The Internet in Australia' – 4.2 1975–1984". Rogerclarke.com. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
- ^ "AARNET - About us - History". Archived from the original on 18 February 2008. Retrieved 4 January 2008. AARNet History
- ^ "Latest Stories From News.Com.Au".
- ^ Telstra Wholesale
- ^ Optus "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 January 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Press Release – First competitive DSL network opens for business - ^ "Internode - News and Media - Internode Covers Coorong with Solar-Powered Broadband". Archived from the original on 6 January 2007. Retrieved 21 May 2007.
- ^ 'ZDnet iiNet keeps Raincoat on, ready to expose naked DSL' Retrieved on 9 December 2008.
- ^ 'AAPT Promises Naked DSL by Christmas' Retrieved on 9 December 2008
- ^ "iiNet leaps out and exposes naked DSL". Zdnet.com.au. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
- ^ "Telstra scraps broadband network plan". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 7 August 2006.
- ^ 'example of Bigpond plan' Archived 15 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 25 September 2008.
- ^ Znet Optus story Retrieved on 25 September 2008.
- ^ 'Vodafone news.com' Archived 2 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 25 September 2008.
- ^ Hutchison Telecommunications news.com Archived 17 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 25 September 2008.
- ^ "NBN now to reach 93% of population – Communications – News". Zdnet.com.au. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
- ^ BigPond News – NBN Archived 11 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Fibre to the Node Explained". NBN co. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
- ^ Francis, Hannah. "Ten cool facts about NBN's forthcoming Sky Muster satellite service". Retrieved 6 July 2016.
- ^ Egan, Michael (5 September 2008). "A separate company for a broadband network". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 7 September 2008.
- ^ "How the Optus outage disrupted millions of Australians". ABC News. 8 November 2023. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
Further reading
- ISBN 017006266X.
External links
- Whirlpool – "Whirlpool.net.au is a fully independent, non-commercial, community website, run by a team of unpaid volunteers, which is devoted to keeping the public informed about the state of broadband in Australia." Australian ADSL news, information, and forums.
- Internet Choice – Broadband Comparison website comparing a range of the leading internet providers in Australia.