Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can I read to you from the WiMAX fact sheet, which states:

WiMAX is a fourth-generation wireless technology that provides high-speed broadband connections over distances of up to 50 kilometres.

That is from your own press release today. Is the minister further aware that Optus’s fact sheet on its wireless network provides:

Broadband wireless will use public and apparatus licensed spectrum.

The term ‘WiMAX’ is used in this fact sheet as a generic term to describe a family of technologies that include broadband wireless access. Won’t this use of public shared spectrum raise interference issues that will prevent this network ensuring quality of service? Can the Optus network formally be described as a WiMAX network? If so, what WiMAX standard is the Optus wireless network using?