Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I know this is hitting a bit of a raw nerve over the other side. Mr Wozniczka, from Elders—and this was specifically raised by Senator Lundy in her primary question; I am sure I will get a penetrating supplementary—said:

This technology is scaleable. The long-term plans are to reach speeds of up to 50 to 70 megabits per second. The infrastructure that we are putting in place will allow Australia to continue to be at the leading edge of technology as new technology comes in.

I was interested to hear Mr Wozniczka comment that the opposition had not bothered to talk to Elders about this technology. Can you imagine, Mr President, that there is criticism of the technology? According to one of the companies that will be rolling it out in a joint venture, nobody has even bothered to ask them how they see this technology working.

It is also interesting that this company—the Elders and Optus joint venture, called OPEL—have actually got some skin in the game. This joint venture are putting $1 billion of their own money into this technology. Would they seriously back technology that they did not feel was capable of meeting the capabilities that they claim for it? WiMAX is a fourth generation wireless technology, and it is proven to provide high-speed broadband connections over long distances. Mr Wozniczka has confirmed the speeds that the technology is capable of. He said that it is a guaranteed speed, increasing to 12 megabits out to a radius of 20 kilometres, and that will be by 2009. (Time expired)