Press Releases

Historic broadband deal to deliver increased competition to Regional Australia

05 Aug 2002

Regional Australia will benefit from new competitive high-speed broadband services as part of an historic spectrum sharing deal between Telstra Wholesale and Agile Communications.

South Australia-based Agile is the first regional carrier to agree to acquire Telstra Wholesale's new Spectrum Sharing service in order to provide broadband services to regional Australia.

Telstra Wholesale's Spectrum Sharing service provides other telecommunications companies with a new way of accessing Telstra's local loop for high-speed internet services by allowing two different providers to offer simultaneous voice and ADSL data services over a single phone line.

Agile Technical Director, Mr Simon Hackett, said the deal with Telstra Wholesale would open up competition in some towns, while others will receive a high speed DSL internet service for the first time. Agile will offer business voice and data services using its DSL infrastructure, linked back to Adelaide over its own long haul broadband network.

"Agile operates its own high speed infrastructure, based on long haul microwave network links, linking the rural SA towns of Mengingie, Tintinara, Tailem Bend and Murray Bridge back to Adelaide. This independently owned and operated network brings broadband access into the Agile point of presence in each town, but until now we've lacked a 'last mile' solution to deliver broadband access to our customers," Mr Hackett said.

"The towns of Meningie, Tintinara and Tailem Bend have no ADSL services available to them today - this deployment will mark the first time that an alternative ADSL broadband service is delivered to a rural Australian community, using Spectrum Sharing access to deliver broadband services over the existing copper telephone lines," he said.

Telstra Wholesale's Chief of Commercial Operations, Ms Deena Shiff said the Agile deal was a good example of how the new Telstra Wholesale Spectrum Sharing Service would help drive broadband competition and investment throughout Australia.

"Telstra is one of the first, if not the only, Telecommunications company in the world to voluntarily offer its 'last mile' infrastructure to other service providers via spectrum sharing on commercial terms, without the need for intervention from the regulator," Ms Shiff said.

"In this case, the flexibility of commercial negotiations have allowed us to meet quickly the specific needs of a regional service provider."

Mr Hackett said the initial test deployments of Agile's new services were scheduled to take place by the end of 2002, with production deployment of DSL services expected to occur in the first quarter of 2003.

While other telecommunications companies have reached similar agreements with Telstra Wholesale to utilize its commercial Spectrum Sharing service, their focus has been on CBD and metropolitan areas.

(The text on this page is mirrored on the Telstra Newsroom Website - URL: http://www.telstra.com.au/newsroom/release.cfm?ReleaseID=21661)