NBN Co has released its plans for the 2021 pricing review consultation process. It is seeking retail service provider (RSP) and broader industry feedback on current and future matters of NBN wholesale pricing. However, in its outline of what will be reviewed, it became clear that the key issues are not on the discussion list. […]
Blog
$100 billion national broadband plan for America.
The new Biden Administration in the USA laid out a $100 billion proposal for broadband investment as part of its $2 trillion+ infrastructure plan. Under the proposal, the plan is to provide national broadband coverage. The Administration will use better competition measures, such a price transparency, the use of public utility infrastructure and subsidies for […]
Australians are going to pay for a failed national energy policy.
The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has indicated that the electricity grid is struggling to cope with the changing power landscape, which is generating more solar energy than ever before. It has also flagged therefore that Australians with rooftop solar panels could soon be charged for exporting electricity to the grid. This is, of course, […]
Connected Farms
Late last year I wrote an article on e-agriculture activities based on my trip into outback Queensland Agriculture ICT and travelling in Outback Queensland. I received this follow up from Tom Andrews from Connected Farms. I recall that last October you did an excellent article about the importance of connectivity for the Australian farming sector […]
Cybersecurity, an essential weapon in the cyberwarfare to protect our democracy.
We see the problems that we are facing within an increasingly digital society and economy. We cannot go backwards; the only way forward is to ensure that this new digital environment is made as safe as possible from a personal, social, political and economic perspective. We are currently struggling on these fronts. Unfortunately, we have […]
Broadband users are going to pay for failed NBN policies.
For more than a decade – dating back to the original NBN plan from the Labor Government – the retail service providers (RSPs) have argued against the unpredictable variable elements in its wholesale charges (the so-called connectivity virtual charges or CVCs). We have covered this at length in previous articles going back at least to […]
Are the LEOs going to disrupt the telco market?
We are getting closer to using alternative broadband solutions, offered by international companies. Local telecommunication entities will in this respect be relegated to resellers. The reality of accessing low Earth orbiting satellite (LEO) services is now clearly on the horizon. Most of the telcos as well as governments are not prepared for the potential shock […]
Telstra restructuring too little too late?
Telstra is finalising its restructuring that we discussed in previous articles here and here. With the restructuring, it very much looks like the focus will shift towards infrastructure rather than digital services — that battle might have been lost. While the Telstra restructuring is heralded as a good move, it is important to put this […]
The digital transformation of the Australian economy
The current pandemic, but also the previous Great Financial Crisis as well as an increase in more severe climatological events such as bushfires and floods, are all clear indications that we cannot just continue managing our society and our economy as usual. If one thing is becoming clear, we cannot go back to “normal” as […]
Australian fixed broadband in the international context.
During the past two decade, there have been considerable efforts undertaken by governments and national telecom regulators to ensure that their countries’ economic growth is underpinned by capable broadband infrastructure. The success of national policies has been variable, but the scale of investment and the way the development of fibre infrastructure has been encouraged has […]
Technology – a tool to increase our processes of thought and cognition
It is astonishing to look at the technological developments over the last 50 years, but even more so in the last ten years. Humans have always evolved with the assistance of tools, but in the past some of these developments took millennia or centuries to develop. For most people, let us say until the Middle […]
NBN too expensive, TPG wants to move customers.
Recently TPG announced its full-year results. Like many others in the industry, the company saw a decline in profits and like others, TPG also claimed that on COVID-19. But under the motto “never waste a good crisis”, TPG has come up with a plan to save costs. As I have mentioned time and time again, […]
NBN wants us to pay more for their broadband service.
Over the last few weeks, we have seen several new announcements from NBN Co. The key announcements include: A payment of $3 billion to the Government as a repayment of their $19.5 billion investment; An extra 100,000 fibre-to-the-node (FttN) premises will be upgraded to fibre-to-the-premise (FttP) infrastructure; and A complex review of their already complex […]
Facebook stays, everybody is happy but nothing has changed
After some turmoil, Facebook won the war with the Australian Government as the necessary changes were made to the legislation that avoids them needing to make changes to their business model. Those subtleties are lost in the general press. What counts for the popular media is that they were able to spin some great stories […]
Macquarie Group is set to shake up the digital infrastructure market.
A few months ago, I reported on the broader market of which telecommunications infrastructure is a part. I mentioned data centres, cloud computing and data analytics (big data). All together we can perhaps best call this digital infrastructure. While the importance of this merged set of infrastructures will benefit all economies and societies, I recently […]
Google set to survive in Oz, but far bigger threats are on the way.
The signs are that the Australian Government and Google are close to a compromise. The main demands made by the Government stay in place, but some of the details will be changed. This allows the Government to claim victory, while the damage to Google will be limited. See also my earlier blog on this topic: […]
Technology: doomsday or godsend – the choice is ours.
Following the American insurrection and the role the media played – social media, in particular – “doomsday scenario” started to appear again in relation to technological developments. Only a few years ago, a group of hi-tech companies including Tesla warned against the negative aspects of artificial intelligence (AI). Other technologies that could have a serious […]
Google vs. Australia – the war is on.
We have seen that Mel Silva, Google Australia’s Managing Director, threatening to shut down its search engine in Australia if a proposed law requiring tech giants to pay publishers for news isn’t changed. The most controversial issue is that it would have to pay publishers for links to news articles that appear in search results. […]
What will 2021 have install for the ICT industry?
While 2021 will remain a year with lots of uncertainties, at the same we can say that the pandemic has not affected the information and communications technology (ICT) industry in any significant way. Yes, there has been a slowdown, for example, in the sale of smartphones. Shortages in both materials and expertise are slowing the […]
What is next for America – and the rest of the democratic world.
With Trump gone, will the USA (and for that matter any other western nation facing political polarisation) be able to make structural changes to address the underlaying problems. Will Covid-19 be a catalyst in this process or perhaps the American insurrection? If we look at the western democracies than America is facing much deeper problems […]
Can we control the digital platforms?
The digital market has matured over the last 20 years and it is no longer an excuse for governments to do nothing with the aim to let new markets and innovations emerge without immediate regulatory oversight. It has become clear this period is now well and truly over. The European Commission has already launched several […]
Rhineland economic model is closest to smart city developments
It’s interesting to compare the major economic models in the Western world: the Anglo-Saxon model, the Rhineland model and the Scandinavian model. The Anglo-Saxon model is very much driven by small government, market-driven economic and social policies, and in general, has a large focus on shareholders’ value. By contrast, the other two models operate more […]
Another brochure to cover up NBN failings
It was astonishing to hear the news the Federal Government has set up the Regional Digital Tech Hub as part of their $220 million Stronger Digital Connect Package. It seemed like it would be great an infrastructure hub. But no it is just another website and a set of new brochures. Over the last 15 […]
Massive renewable energy projects underpinned by ICT technologies
In the mid to late 2000s, I set up the industry association Smart Grid Australia (SGA). The reason why I became involved in the smart energy sector was that earlier that decade I had established the industry group UtiliTel. At that time, Telstra was reluctant to go even beyond the integrated services digital network (ISDN) […]
Will it be third time lucky for Telstra?
Over the last few weeks I have reported on the restructuring of Telstra. The proposed restructuring is exciting new challenge for the company. It will now all depend on the direction the execution will take. This is the third significant opportunity for Telstra to reinvent itself. The first time was in the late 1990s when […]
What will 6G look like in a geopolitical divided world
A recent session of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and the Australian Smart Communities Association (ASCA) masterclass on 5G, featured Dr Ian Oppermann, the NSW Government’s Chief Data Scientist and one of the country’s most respected experts in radio technology. Ian is also the Chair of the scientific advisory board of the 6G Flagship organisation, […]
The break-up of Telstra: Interesting potential new telecoms scenarios.
For decades, we have basically been conditioned to look at the telecoms market based on the regulatory arrangements that exist around it. The Postmaster-General’s Department (PMG) which became Telecom Australia was a state-owned business that had the monopoly on all telecoms services and was mainly paid for by taxpayers. The market was opened in the […]
Disinformation and our technology industries
It was interesting to see that, albeit belatedly, the American media started to stop giving Trump opportunities to spew out his lies across the country and beyond. It obviously had now reached a point where the media realised that if they would continue to provide Trump with their avenues that this would make them accomplices […]
Will Infra Co be gamechanger in the telecoms market?
It has taken a long time but it is good to see that Telstra has finally recognised that a significant part of its business is infrastructure. The business model of infrastructure is rather different from that of services. Infrastructure will not necessarily achieve high short-term returns but it will deliver long term very steady returns […]
Smart Regional Towns – Game changers for reginal and rural Australia
Developments in telecommunications and technology are key to creating more liveable regional centres. At the recent CommsDay Summit, two interesting Low Earth Orbiting Satellites (LEOsat) services were mentioned. . A few months ago I wrote an extensive article on this subject., which provides some global background information on these satellite development. At the conference, Michael […]
Government backed NBN monopoly is flexing its muscles
Over the last year, we have discussed the unsustainably high wholesale charges that NBN Co is raking in. They need this just to recoup the blowout of the investments in their second-rate multi-technology mix (MtM) infrastructure. The Government, following its election win in 2013, handpicked a new NBN team. They were favourable to their policies, […]
NBN battle between the ACCC and the Government
It came as a surprise to many in the telecoms industry as well as in the legal profession that the Government issued a Statement of Expectation (SoE) to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). In my opinion, what this means is that the Government would like the ACCC to facilitate NBN Co to increase […]
Agriculture ICT and travelling in Outback Queensland
In October 2020, I went on a two-week tour into Queensland’s Outback, travelling through various landscapes from pastoral and agricultural lands to savanna and the desert. Leaving Brisbane, past Toowoomba you enter the Darling Downs. This is one of the richest agricultural areas in Australia. It was first explored by British Botanist Alan Cunningham in […]
Vale Brian Perkins
Former AAP Telecommunications executive Brian Perkins has died in Sydney, aged 88. Brian was my mentor in the telecoms industry during the 1990s. I have very fond memories of him, most importantly as a person. He generously shared his understanding of the industry and the many contacts he was able to build up during that […]
The existential dangers of social media
There has been an enormous amount of discussion on the damage that social media is causing on a global scale. While there is no indication that the companies who started these services had any evil act in mind – quite to the contrary – the social media have opened Pandora’s box. The technology itself is […]
Smart cities want to co-design change with Telcos
With 5G earmarked as a game-changer for cities, wireless technologies are already widely deployed by Australia’s leading smart cities. However, cities do not want to be locked into proprietary technology solutions, rather seeing themselves as a platform on which many organisations can build infrastructure, applications and services for the benefit of all citizens and all […]
Is laser going to be the next telecoms frontier?
When I became involved in the telecoms industry back in the late 1970s, we were just seeing fibre optic cables being commercially developed by Corning. Over the following decades, I have been asked many, many times — do we need fibre cables or wireless technologies and what is next? During all that time, my answer […]
Reversal of broadband fibre policies
It is great to see that the Government is finally backflipping on its denial on fibre optic networks. It has announced a $3.5 billion plan to bring fibre deeper into the neighbourhoods. The overall costs of a full upgrade have been estimated at around $16 billion. What the Government plans to do is to bring […]
Newcastle: Australia’s leading smart city
Over the last five years, I have seen from close the city of Newcastle moving towards becoming a smart city. Most certainly, the phrase “smart city” is a rather nebulous one, but it basically means utilising new technologies to enable communities to build a city that delivers more and better social and economic outcomes for […]
The importance of the emerging Data Trusts
I recently followed a webinar session organised by the University of Queensland on the factory of the future. Smart or not, the future will still need factories to make the stuff we humans use every day. One of the questions that were discussed included: “how will existing production models cope with the staggering and ongoing […]
5G will not be the panacea for all our communication needs
As I mentioned in a previous article, I chaired three masterclasses on 5G. It is always great to listen to experts who I trust as they provide important input in the knowledge I need to obtain for that higher level of insight I need to put a range of technical and business issues together in […]
The incredible telehealth transformation
There are many healthcare needs that can only be successfully addressed in face-to-face visits with health practitioners. It is necessary to see a medical practitioner when we need to discuss private health issues in detail, to canvass different health or treatment options and to assess our health. Having said this, there are many other situations […]
Telstra is going on to take the NBN monopoly
In a reversal of events, Telstra, being the former telecoms monopoly, is trying to take on NBN Co, the monopoly that displaced it. I am sure that many of you still remember the enormous battles that took place in the 1990s and early 2000s between Telstra on one side and the rest of the industry, […]
Smart Cities moving into 5G
Later this month, I will be sharing three masterclasses organised by the Australian Smart Communities Association (ASCA) and the Australian Computer Society (ASC) on the potential of using 5G as an infrastructure solution for smart cities. Just to make sure, I am doing this pro bono so no financial gain or otherwise for me. What […]
Call for an NBN user revolt
Early at the start of the pandemic, the Government allowed NBN Co to make 40 per cent more capacity available without an extra charge for this. This, of course, was widely welcomed by both the industry and the users. The core of the problem, however, is that this capacity is not available in a “normal […]
The government dug its own NBN hole, how to get out of it?
As with any large-scale project, you need a long-term vision on the investment that you are going to make. Once that vision is agreed upon, solid strategies need to be developed. Next is a careful design to ensure that what you have designed will work in practice. Only then are you going to start with […]
The digital economy is spreading out more broadly.
The pandemic has shown us that some of the early models in the so-called sharing economy have become more mainstream. The early pioneers were companies such as Uber, Airbnb, eBay and Gumtree. But others have been making a name for themselves in transport, for example, Shebah (all-female drivers) and Camplify (caravan sharing and RCs). Spacer, […]
Are we building a mediocre NBN for the ‘average user’?
Are we building a mediocre NBN for the average user? Interesting new research conducted by the Bureau of Communications and Arts Research predicts that average Australian data consumption is set to quadruple by 2028, based on figures from 2018. But they also predict that peak bandwidth will grow less rapidly. In their words: ‘Bandwidth requirements […]
City-as-a-service – new business and investment model
While there are plenty of opportunities for local councils to create cost savings – especially by cutting through their internal silos and using ICT and infrastructure technologies on a sharing basis across the various city systems – the problem remains that before these cost savings can be made, significant ICT investments are needed. The reality […]
Internet of Things requires a rethink of business models.
There certainly is a lot of interest in machine-to-machine communication (M2M) and the internet of things (IoT). But what we are seeing is only what is happening on the surface. Most of the M2M activities are taking place unnoticed. For example, most newly produced electronic devices are now all M2M enabled. Over 100 million smart […]
Nano networks set to revolutionise edge computing
I recently followed a “lunch box lecture”, organised by the University of Sydney. In the talk, Professor Zdenka Kuncic explored the very topical issue of artificial intelligence. The world is infatuated with artificial intelligence (AI), and understandably so, given its super-human ability to find patterns in big data as we all notice when using Google, […]
The NBN is finished so what’s next?
When the Coalition Government scrapped the fibre to the home (FTTH) project, the then-Minister for Communication, Malcolm Turnbull, proclaimed that we would build his newly concocted multi-technology mix version of the NBN for $25 million and that it would be ready by 2016. Since then, the roll-out target was changed several times to finally fit […]
New push for cheaper energy costs and a much more efficient energy industry.
As the initiator of Smart Energy Australia in 2007, I looked with the experts of this industry association at how we could use technologies to make our energy system more efficient, cheaper, and less polluting. Of course, this included the arrival of renewable energy and technology developments in areas such as microgrids, distributed energy and […]
Innovative entertainment industry will bounce forwards after Covid
My brother Rob lives in Rimini, Italy and he has his own company Màgina, involved in “tailor-made” events for large organisations throughout Europe. Their activities include team building, product launches, client shows and so on. Of course, with COVID-19 his business totally collapsed overnight. A few clients have indicated that they will review the situation […]
Hassle over LEOs
The following article is based on a blog written by my Dutch colleague Fred Kappetijn. We have worked together to present this to you. Every second, 4.5 billion people using computers and other electronic devices send 100,000 gigabytes of information to each other. Around 60% of the world’s population has an internet connection. North America […]
Digital economy essential for regional Australia
Back in the early 1990s, I was a founding board member of Service Providers Action Network (SPAN), which later became part of Communications Alliance. The key aim of this organisation was the promotion of new value-added services that could be provided over the telecommunications network. At this time there was no public internet and we […]
Smart City Moreton Bay
Moreton Bay Regional Council in South-East Queensland is one of the smart cities that is part of the Global Smart Community and City Alliance (GSC3). In all, some 25 cities formed part of this Alliance, which is no longer active. It is amazing to see the progress that Moreton Bay has made over the last […]
We need professionals to design the digital infrastructure in the post corona era
During this coronavirus crisis, it is great to see that our politicians are now respecting the medical scientists and professionals and are working very closely with them. Will our politicians now also listen to the experts in the other major problems that are facing us such as climate change, renewable energy, water management and so […]
The problem is not technology but politicians and their ideology
The world we live in has reached a critical juncture. We are faced with many challenges and the decisions we will now make will define our future. The recent bushfires in Australia and the global coronavirus pandemic are bringing the message very close to home. These developments should be enough to seriously start looking at […]
May 20 – ABC TV (video clip)
Foxtel’s uncertain future […]
Building independent Gig Cities: this happens when you have a 2nd rate NBN
Adelaide was one of the first cities to build a gigabit fibre optic network but soon others followed. Newcastle, Wollongong, Launceston and the NSW Central Coast Council are now all developing their own gigabit infrastructure. Now, the NSW Government is putting $100 million dollars aside for the provision of “innovative systems” to improve the price, […]
COVIDSafe risk assessment personal data vs your risk regarding the virus
For me, the reason to download the COVIDSafe app is that my personal risk of not using it is greater than the risk of the possible misuse of my data. From a technical and legal point, I am satisfied that the app is as safe as you can expect from any technology. If you are […]
Technologies for the post-humans
Philosophers involved in the theories of post-humanism and trans-humanism are captivated by the possibilities, or dangers, that the future poses to our understanding of human life. According to Wikipedia,, the idea of the post-human originates in the fields of science fiction, futurology, contemporary art and philosophy that literally refers to a person or entity that […]
Will technology destroy our democracy?
The results a study conducted by the Pew Research Centre stated: About half of those surveyed predict that humans’ use of technology will weaken democracy between now and 2030 due to the speed and scope of reality distortion, the decline of journalism and the impact of surveillance capitalism. A third expect technology to strengthen democracy […]
Encouraging online lessons from the corona crisis
The players in the telecommunications industry have decisively reacted to the COVID-19 crisis. The NBN is holding up and the company is effectively implementing a range of measures for those who rely on it. Equally, the support from the major telcos and the digital players has been first-class and, where needed, the industry is working […]
The enormous economic costs of the pandemic – How did we end up in this mess?
Over the last 20 years most of the western world moved into what has become known as a neoliberal political system. Basically, get the government as much as possible out of the market and let the economy be run by the market. This has resulted in large scale privatisations, ongoing budget cuts basically across all […]
Climate change, pandemic, terrorism and cybersecurity
Over the last few years, cybersecurity has been a hotly debated issue in Australia. There have been serious clashes over the heavy-handedness of the Australian Government and the industry and community fighting against the attacks on press freedom, demanding protection of journalists, protecting civil liberties and the openness and transparency of our democratic institutions. Let’s […]
Sustaining social and economic transformation beyond the crisis.
For those people who have been advocating social and economic changes for the last few decades, to a certain extent it looks like all our Christmases are arriving at once. Issues we have been lobbying for, for decades are now suddenly being addressed within days and weeks. Obviously, I don’t want to ignore the severity […]
Corona crisis – Update from Australia – April 1
I started writing this on the 29th of March 2020. Roughly two months after the outbreak started in all seriousness in Wuhan, China. Obviously from the start it was hot news. The initial information was confusing, especially as the infamous Chinese bureaucracy – on automatic pilot – immediately started to suppress any information on the […]
The COVID-19 Commission and the NBN
Is this the crisis we need to have to face the reality that, over the last 30 years or so, we might have taken a wrong turn in our society and our economy? Under neoliberal policies, the trend has been to leave as much as possible to the market to solve our problems and reduce […]
Will the NBN stand up in the Covid-19 pandemic?
In a previous blog I addressed the issue of teleworking and e-health application in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. I also mentioned the impact that this will have on our telecommunications networks. This time I would like to go a little bit deeper into this. It is a no-brainer to predict that when schools […]
Telecommuting and Covid-19
This is a bit of deja vu for me. In the 1990s, I received a lot of media attention because of the arrival of broadband networks in the promotion of telecommuting. After very little or no interest in teleworking over the last decade, I am suddenly asked again to comment on teleworking as it gets […]
The end of Foxtel’s pay TV service?
Back in the early 2000s when the apartment complex where we are currently living was built, Telstra installed a coax cable in the complex together with the ordinary copper cable. The Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) cable allowed Telstra to offer better broadband services and Foxtel to deliver its proprietary pay-TV service. There is now turmoil […]
Cracks appearing in Trump’s Huawei boycott
It must have been a galling experience for President Trump when his good mate British Prime Minister Boris Johnson failed to step in line with Trump’s demand that the UK should also boycott the Chinese firm Huawei by not allowing them to be involved in the roll out of 5G in Britain. However, the involvement […]
NBN Co is giving in to pressure to stop competing with its own retail customers.
The original plans for the NBN were to build a high-speed residential broadband network that would be made available to the other telcos on a wholesale basis. Corporate infrastructure was basically left out of the plan as these organisations were in general well serviced by competing networks. But wait there was a loophole. What exactly […]
NBN troubles continues
I had an interesting discussion on the NBN with several long-term colleagues. What triggered this discussion – we have had many more of them in the past – was the latest results from the Ookla fixed broadband speed rankings. The downward trend that we have seen now for the last decade continues. Australia is now […]
Jan 20 – Energy Central
Broadband driven Smart Energy Developments […]
The role of FttH in the development of 5G
As the rollout of fibre to the home project (FttH) remains a slow process it is no wonder that more and more people are looking towards mobile as a potential alternative. Obviously, mobile communication has improved over recent years in providing excellent access to broadband. It has also become more affordable. At the same time, […]
Follow up news – National Telecommunications Emergency Plan
21 January Communications minister Paul Fletcher has convened an industry roundtable on telecommunications resilience and repair following the national bushfires. It is good to see that most of the issues that we discussed here have been addressed. This includes: Access to power to achieve better infrastructure resilience. This includes site access and access to emergency […]
Broadband driven Smart Energy Developments
There is no doubt that we are in the midst of an energy revolution. Not only is the nature of energy changing from fossil-generated energy to renewable – there is a total change in the distribution structure occurring with less focus on centralisation and more on distributed energy. Concerns about issues such as energy security, […]
Jan 20 – SBS Radio – Jopie Witzand
Bosbranden en telecommunicatie: het kan veel beter […]
Suggestions for a national telecoms emergency plan
For follow up information since the start of this discussion see: https://paulbudde.com/blog/economic-social-and-political-issues-ict/follow-up-news-national-telecommunications-emergency-plan/ In October, the bushfires started around Bucketty. While Bucketty has so far been safe (fires are hovering at around 10 to 15 kilometres from this community now for several months), the people here are totally exhausted. On several occasions, families had to be […]
Analyses of the Australian bushfires
Some of you might recall that I lived in Bucketty in the Australian bush for more than 30 years. In August we sold our place and moved to Brisbane where two of our kids live. In October the bush fires started around Bucketty. Therefore, the new owners didn’t move in till last week. When we […]
The power of data in smart city developments
A few weeks, I attended a one-day conference at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) at the occasion of the launch of their new $7.5 million Centre for Data Science. This laboratory is also the lead node of a new Australian Data Science Network, bringing together data science organisations from across the country. The new […]
Full fibre NBN back on the agenda
Britain’s Labour Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn has promised a national fibre-to-home network for nine million homes in the UK to be completed by 2030 at a cost of £20 billion (AU$38 billion). In the same week, Australia’s Labor Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese made a similar promise regarding updating the current multi-mix technology national broadband network […]
Power, Hope and Social Change: The Rise of the City?
A recent event addressed the fact that the world’s liberal democracies are faltering. Many of the problems that result from this are acutely felt in cities. And if we look at some of the more dramatic fallouts of the crises, we see that there are the people using their combined “people-power” to try and demand […]
Smart devices ready to flood the energy market to force prices down.
Over the last decade there have been excellent reports from the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) as well as from various industry bodies on reforming the energy market. The reports state this should be done through opening the market up to modernisation, more competition, better interoperability arrangements and better levels of transparency, all based on […]
Successful smart cities require significant ICT infrastructure
Telecommunications infrastructure plays an important role in providing the backbone for building the Smart Cities and Smart Homes which are emerging around the world. It is encouraging to see that so many governments and telecoms operators are working hard and investing heavily to deploy this underlying infrastructure which we will need for the future. Fixed-broadband […]
Australia leads the South East Asian data centre market
Australia has progressed to now be one of the four major sub-markets for data centres in Asia alongside Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. As data centres become larger and more efficient, new data centres are generally being built in centralised areas, mainly in the larger cities of Sydney and Melbourne, in order to achieve the […]
Power, Hope and Social Change: The Rise of the City?
A recent event addressed the fact that the world’s liberal democracies are faltering. Many of the problems that result from this are acutely felt in cities. And if we look at some of the more dramatic fallouts of the crises, we see that there are the people using their combined “people-power” to try and demand […]
Australia’s NBN makes slow progress
While fixed-line telephony traffic and revenue are declining, the mobile broadband market is growing steadily. Fixed-line broadband on the copper network is also declining as fibre and fixed-wireless broadband services become more widely available, through the NBN’s multi-technology architecture, with its emphasis on VDSL with Fibre-to-the Node (FttN). In time, much of the voice traffic […]
Be aware of the surveillance state Australia
recently reported on the new developments in China regarding its social code citizens’ surveillance system. This has since been extended to businesses as well. By now, thousands of Australian citizens will also have been included in this system, especially people travelling to China for business or tourism. Chinese students in Australia and Chinese visitors to […]
Successful smart cities require significant ICT infrastructure
Telecommunications infrastructure plays an important role in providing the backbone for building the Smart Cities and Smart Homes which are emerging around the world. It is encouraging to see that so many governments and telecoms operators are working hard and investing heavily to deploy this underlying infrastructure which we will need for the future. Fixed-broadband […]
July 2019 – Peter Ryan – ABC
Huawei not a ‘real risk’ to 5G security, company protests I […]
Monetising solutions for the telcos
Developments in the telecommunications industry and the broader digital economy have opened up many new markets over the last few decades. Telecoms has changed from a more or less standalone, horizontally-organised industry to one that has become a key facilitator in a range of vertical markets. The keyword that is used to indicate that change […]
The NBN now attacked from all directions
The gloves are off now that Telstra has stopped using diplomatic language to savage the NBN. Its chairman stated that Telstra and its competitors could have built a better NBN at lower costs. It is, however, important to first go back to the original NBN — a fibre to the home network to 96 per […]
Jumping on the Australian streaming boom
Large scale video streaming arrived rather late in Australia. But when Netflix finally made its entry in Australia – five years after its launch in North America – it had very easy pickings Down Under. By that time, the country had been suffering for over two decades from a de facto Foxtel pay-TV monopoly, with […]
Message from the coalface – NBN pricing
This is a message I received following my article in which I argue that the NBN pricing is widening the equality gap in relation to access to the NBN and thus also to the digital economy and digital society. When going back to the start of the NBN, now close to 15 years ago, the […]
NBN pricing is widening the inequality gap in Australia
The ACCC has slapped a new range of fines and rebate obligations on the providers of NBN services. This shows the deplorable situation the NBN is in. However, it fails to address the far more serious underlying problems with the NBN. This Government-owned monopoly requires far more serious interventions. A typical feature of monopolies is […]
The positive role of technology in democracy
There are plenty of doom and gloom stories regarding the future of our democracy. Technology is certainly playing a key role in this. However, technology could equally be an important part of solving the problem. Let’s, for example, look at often-maligned social media. While trust is at an all-time low in relation to politicians, corporations […]
Truly terrible broadband is depriving people from work opportunities
The my recent article on Fibre to the Farm, ‘A community fix for Australia’s second-rate rural broadband’, received interesting reactions — two especially so. The first one, from regional Queensland, complained about poor broadband and said they had only just got 3G connected — so much for digital progress. However, the discussion went further. There […]
Fibre to the farm provides opportunities for rural Australia
Over the last decade, Australia has spent $5.5 billion on satellite and fixed wireless broadband services and another $650 million on mobile blackspots. After last year’s Regional Telecommunications Review, the Government earlier this year indicated another $220 million for mobile blackspots, money for digital inclusions projects and $60 million for a regional connectivity program. It […]
Changing the goalposts and voila here is the new NBN corporate plan
Since the Coalition Government has taken over the NBN back in 2013, we have seen the goalposts being changed nearly on an annual basis. It started soon after Malcolm Turnbull’s infamous announcement: “we will bring you the NBN for around $25 billion and deliver it in 2016”. The reality, of course, is that now in […]
Do we need 5G to compete with the NBN
For as long the NBN has been under development we have heard comments that the NBN is not needed as the world will go wireless. In the early days, this was an argument from, among others, Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. However, while he didn’t often repeat this argument of fear, uncertainty and doubt, the […]
The privatisation of the NBN
Last week, TelSoc organised a panel discussion about the privatisation of the NBN, as is foreshadowed in the NBN legislation of 2009. The presenters were Professor Peter Gerrand, consultant and ex-Telstra executive Dr Jim Holmes, former chairman of the ACCC Graeme Samuel and executive general manager of the ACCC Infrastructure Regulation division Michael Cosgrave. The […]
NBN Co’s gain is the retailer’s loss
However, as we have heard now for over a year, this has been at the costs of the margins of the retail service providers. NBN Co’s high wholesale prices have squeezed margins for some of them to close to 10%. Companies such as Telstra were used to margins of 30-40%. Without any wholesale infrastructure competition, […]
Are the telcos crying wolf?
We recently have heard a lot of complaining from the telecommunications companies in relation to the margin squeeze they experience from NBN Co. While they certainly do have a point, it is also important to look at the other side of the coin. Why have the telcos allowed this situation to happen in the first […]
Telstra and the expensive NBN: The gloves are off
After nearly a year of diplomatic comments on the need to change the wholesale price of the NBN, it looks like Telstra has had enough. On a media tour, CEO Andy Penn has made it now overly clear that the wholesale pricing structure of the NBN needs to be changed, in particular in the area […]
Will the data retention scheme result in a cost blow out for the roll-out of 5G?
Optus recently requested a proper investigation by the Government in relation to a potential data storage cost blowout to retain 5G metadata. This is data that labels information about other data such as files, videos, instructions, images and so on. The telcos are now required by law to collect and store metadata and to make […]
Minister Fletcher’s first in-depth comments on the NBN.
Recently the Minister made his first more in-depth public comments on various aspects of the NBN. The fact that the telecommunications industry had a sigh of relief when the new comms minister Paul Fletcher mentioned that the government would not sell the NBN to Telstra is an indication how low trust in politics has sunk […]
Not Netflix but Government killed the NBN
In a recent ABC interview, Sam Dimarco, Head of Stakeholder Relations at NBN Co, asserted that Netflix has been a catalyst for change. It has been blamed as the principal reason why the NBN is unable to deliver the quality that was promised by the Government. The article also mentioned Bill Morrow’s comment on this, admitting that […]
Do we want to create true human robots?
Recently, I went to a lecture organised by the University of Sydney titled ‘Why should the perfect robot look and think just like a human?’ I was intrigued and perhaps even a bit dismayed about this title as I strongly believe that this is not the best direction for robotics. Furthermore, such a new human […]
The NBN and Net Neutrality
While the network neutrality debate mainly applies in the U.S., it recently flared up in Australia when NBN Co discussed separate pricing regimes for video-based infrastructure. Net neutrality is breached when telecommunication companies provide a preferential pricing regime for companies offering video-based service. This basically creates a two-tiered system: a premium service for those providers […]
The West is shooting itself in its IT foot
In our globalised economy, it is important that we do establish levels of fair trade and the U.S. is right in addressing that issue. However, making technology a key element of the trade war will backfire. Let’s take (again) the Huawei issue as an example. The company has admitted that the U.S/ boycott is hitting […]
The ‘Us’ and the ‘Them’ will need to come together – soon
The populist maelstrom is becoming a threat to the social and economic future of the West. Policies which normally would generate national bipartisanship are suddenly becoming politicised, often simply for political gain. The leadership that the West has previously shown in international affairs is slipping away. Now more than ever the West is faced with […]
Factfulness – there is also lots of positive news
I recently attended a lecture by Ola Rosling of the Swedish-based Gapminder Foundation, organised by the University of NSW. This was a refreshing event in a world of doom of gloom. In discussing what people know in relation to the developments in the world around us, it is frightening to hear how few people have […]
5G and the health scare
Having been involved in the telecommunications industry for a long time, I followed many of the discussions involving health concerns when the 3G and 4G mobile technologies were introduced. This time, with 5G, the situation is no different. Again, there are many communities worried about the potential negative health effects of the radiation that emanates […]
Have we reached ‘Peak Telecom’ and what does this mean for 5G
“Peak telecom” is described as the maximum point of expansion reached by the traditional telecommunications industry before the internet commoditised the industry to a utility pipe. I had to think of this when I read the recent outcomes of the famous Ericsson Consumer Lab survey. The company used the result of the survey to counteract market criticism […]
With failing neoliberalism in the West, let us look to the East.
There is no way around it – across the western world there is a strong push away from progressive policies towards more conservative ones. Changes in globalisation, migration, productivity and efficiency have happened very quickly. And rapid developments in technology over the last 30 years have played a critical role in this. After the booming […]
Telecoms wish list for the new minister.
With a new government and a new Minister for Communication in place it is an appropriate time to start looking at the telecommunications issues that need to be addressed. I welcome the new Minister Paul Fletcher as he is by far the best qualified in government to take on the telecoms portfolio. I know him […]
Trade war is turning into a technology war
President Trump knows that in the current trade war the Huawei issue is perhaps one of the most important issues for the Chinese government. It directly undermines the Chinese prestige and the ban create global anxiety. This is resulting in discussions in many countries, assessing their relationship with China. It highlights the domination of the […]
IoT – The Game Changer
Guestblog by Ana Bera It is estimated that by 2020, there will be 50 billion IoT devices will be up and running. To put things in context, the number of connected devices in 2015 was 25 billion, which only goes to show how quickly this technology is taking off. The future is happening now, and […]
Spinning the pay TV pirating issue
It is interesting to follow announcements from former leaders. I recently compared Malcolm Turnbull’s suggestion for government intervention in the telecoms manufacturing market with his stand as a liberal politician who frowns upon government intervention. This time- but on a different topic – I am looking at an assessment Kim Williams, a former CEO of […]
Smart Energy review – Transactive Energy Models
In my review of the smart energy market I looked at new technological developments and innovations that the industry discussed a decade ago, but that never led us anywhere as successive government have failed to come up with a smart energy policy for the country and as a consequence we have not seen any of […]
The Vodafone-TPG merger dilemma
The Vodafone-TPG merger dilemma, what to make of the ACCC decision not to allow the merger between Vodafone and TPG? […]
Smart Energy Exchanges – engaging consumers in the electricity market.
During my time as director of Smart Grid Australia and the Global Smart Grid Federation I often used my experience from the telecoms industry to look at new opportunities in the smart energy market. While I started to talk about distributed energy infrastructure over a decade ago, nothing much has happened in the meantime. The […]
What is the business case for 5G?
What is the business case for 5G? There is a lot of hype around 5G but none of it is new. We saw the same propaganda – fuelled by the manufacturers – in the run-up to the launch of the 3G and 4G versions of the mobile technology. Driverless cars and a range of other […]
Where Do We Want to Go As Open Societies? Laws, Tech, and Narratives for the Future
By my colleague David Bray, PhD Through shared narratives, the enforcement of laws, and through use of technologies, humans have shaped social norms and reshaped how power (i.e., the capability to compel or oblige someone to take a certain a certain course of actions) has been distributed in our communities. Now with the beginning of […]
Did the NBN Board deliver the promised NBN outcomes?
A call for the resignation of the NBN Board goes to the heart of the NBN issue. Why did we build the NBN? What was the original vision? And why was the government willing to invest? At the time this was seen as a national asset. The call for resignation was made by Commpete, the […]
Broadcasting – Submission to Productivity Commission from 1999 (20 years ago)
The wonders of electronics. I suddenly received a notification about this submission I made in 1999. It is interesting to look back on predictions I made 20 years ago 🙂 From: Paul Budde Sent: Monday, May 03, 1999 4:34 PM To: ’broadcasting@pc.gov.au’ Subject: Broadcasting – Submission to Productivity Commission Broadcasting – Submission to Productivity […]
How to best manage the social media
How to best manage the social media The internet started to take on momentum in the 1990s. At that time many analysts, myself included, marvelled at the opportunity of creating a platform that would boost grassroot democracy. There was no need for a middleman and there were few barriers to ordinary people becoming involved. This […]
Can Macquarie Bank run a niche mobile service?
Macquarie Bank Is going to launch a mobile product in the telecoms market. This is an interesting development.. It doesn’t happen that often that an investment itself launches a mobile service, to be known as Nu Mobile. Even more remarkable is that it launches a niche mobile service known as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator […]
Is digital democracy an option – and what is involved in it?
Is digital democracy an option – and what is involved in it? Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the internet Berners-Lee, the father of the internet, reiterated his suggestion for a radical change, which would improve the functionality of the internet for the benefit of society. He suggests a sort of refoundation of the web, creating […]
Labor’s NBN strategy
It doesn’t come as a surprise that Labor’s plan for the NBN start with a full blown technical and financial review of the NBN. Labor’s election plan for the NBN was announced this morning by the Shadow Minister for Communication Michelle Rowland. It is impossible to come up with any good strategy for the future […]
Budget: Short-term sugar hits without national long-term vision
Because there will be an election in just over a month the Budget is aimed at injecting sugar hits into the electorate. And no doubt Labor will match these sugar hits. It is regrettable that the extra money will not be used to come up with a vision for the future of our country, with […]
Breaking up the digital giants
There are an increasing number of reasons why there are now calls for the breakup of the tech-giants. The most recent one being the failure by these companies to stop the live-stream video of the Christchurch massacre. These hi-tech companies should have systems in place to immediately stop the spread of such high levels of […]
The Huawei issue in the broader context of global politics
It is very sad to see that Huawei has become a victim of US-China trade war politics and it will be very interesting to see how their court case against the US Government will pan out, the company claims that the ban of its products is “unconstitutional”. There is no indication that Huawei has been […]
Will the Federal election be able to end the NBN mess?
Over the last few months further information has come to light about the problems the NBN is facing and it is clear that the government will have to step in in order to address the mountain problems of the service. However, in all reality this will not happen till after the Federal Elections. The regular […]
The death of competition
Competition has worked well for many decades after World War II, especially since the 1970s and 1980s when, thanks to liberal policies, competition made a wonderful job of creating the dynamic world we now live in. But is liberalism now turning against us? Has competition peaked? Is it still delivering those dynamic benefits? The signs […]
Telecommunications in Armenia
You might recall my recent visit to Armenia, where I had several smart city discussions. Of course, it was with great interest that I read BuddeComm’s new report on Armenia, a country that I will keep an eye on and certainly a country that warrants the attention of innovators, start-ups and investors as a range […]
Macau’s smart city project gains momentum
Macau boasts a sophisticated, independently regulated communications market. Gradual liberalisation has now fully opened the telecoms market with the full impact slowly becoming evident. Fixed line subscriptions in Macau continue to fall. Macau’s fixed-line market is transitioning to a fibre broadband market as CTM invests significantly in fibre access networks, a project made possible given […]
Putting cyber threats into perspective
As society uses more digital technologies we are increasingly also faced with its problems. Most of us will have some horror stories to tell about using computers, smart phones and the internet. But this hasn’t stopped us from using the technology more and more. I believe that most people would say that their lives would […]
The importance of government leadership in digital transformation
Our societies and our economies have reached a new threshold, the developments leading to this are a logical continuation of our evolutionary process, but interestingly the current rapid societal changes are coinciding with the availability of new ICT tools. These tools can assist us in: Political transformation – creating a more democratic environment at grass […]
Will we get NBN 3.0 right this time?
Since early last year I have been commenting on the potential write-off that is needed in order to get the NBN back into a more viable business model. During that time others, such as PWC, Standard & Poor and the Productivity Commission, have made similar comments. With an election looming and a possible change of […]
New opportunities to open up the mobile market.
In my various media comments on TPG’s withdrawal from the mobile network market, I commented on the one side that the government’s ban on Huawei was a great excuse for the company to abandon its ambitious infrastructure plans. Building such a new network doesn’t make economic sense, especially within the context of a merger with […]
Cybersecurity is failing big-time and this is hard to fix.
It has become clear that having a big cybersecurity war room is not enough to deliver true end-to-end security throughout the complex networks, systems and structures on which our modern society is based. Furthermore, looking at the forever changing draconian government interventions in this space, it is also obvious that they are often stabbing in […]
Could cybersecurity become a new driver for business transformation?
My involvement in the ICT industry over the last 40 years has always been to look at the strategic advantages that new technologies have to offer. I entered the industry through a proto-internet development called videotext. I looked at this technology, at what organisations could do with it, and assisted, for example, in the 1980s […]
Happy New Year – The NBN and the Australian Telecoms Year ahead.
I hope that those of you who celebrated Christmas enjoyed being together with families and friends, and that everyone took the opportunity for a break from the everyday world. Happily the holiday season continues so most of us will have a bit more relaxing time ahead. And of course the new year is upon us. […]
Christmas Blog – Political, economic and cultural effects of connectivity, communications, surveillance and data analysis
This is a good time of the year to reflect on our industry and its place in today’s society – not so much in respect of all of the important issues of the day, or from the year past, but on the broader developments in society in which our industry plays a key role and […]
Barcelona’s Smart City Strategist visiting Australia
As the Digital Business Strategist for the Barcelona City Council, Joaquim Alvarez has been instrumental in helping transform the City of Barcelona into what Fortune Magazine recently called the Most Wired City in the World. Joaquim comes from a telecommunication engineering background, and is a specialist in software development and telematics communications. His passion for […]
Comments on the 5G auction
The 5G auction brought in $853 million in the government’s coffers, while this is a lot of money the total amount of the spectrum sale is lower because of limited competition, partly because of the restrictions there were put on Optus and the nbn company regarding the amount of spectrum they can have in metropolitan […]
No quick wins with 5G for Telstra
Despite the big PR splash from Telstra in relation to its 5G announcement, there was not much news beyond phones that look very similar to 4G phones and (video) services that can also be provided over 4G. I remain convinced that 5G is not going to provide any new revenues for Telstra and for Optus […]
The digital wars between BATX and GAFAM
As has become very clear in recent years a Cold War is going on between the three superpowers – USA, China and Russia. The struggle for world power is immense and while the USA still has by far the largest military power China is catching up. What is perhaps even more important than these military […]
The collapse of cryptocurrencies?
The dramatic collapse of the Bitcoin bubble (and of other cryptocurrencies) is a clear indication that in its current format this new digital payment system is not going to make it. I don’t believe this is just a dip and that the system will suddenly revive itself again. While there are certain benefits of a […]
Facebook is set to fail.
With a tumbling share price and increased pressure from governments across the world Facebook will have to make major changes quickly if the company is to survive. Despite the enormous success – indicated by the fact that people just love to use Facebook, as well as the enormous amount of good that the company has […]
Reforming the Global Trading System of the WTO
Global Business Coalition issues statement ahead of the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires The multilateral trading order has proven to be essential for our businesses. For decades it has been the foundation of our global economic success. However, the Word Trade Organization (WTO) is increasingly under stress. For years, WTO members have not shown the […]
High-speed broadband infrastructure plays an important role in Smart Cities
With the majority of citizens living in urban centres around the world, there has been a growing interest in ensuring these highly concentrated populations are living in the most sustainable and efficient environments possible. Smart Cities offer the ability to manage our growing populations and the limited resources and environmental issues we face. In […]
Smart housing is an essential part of mega-city strategy
There are many reasons for the current significant problems with housing in our major cities. A rapid increase in population, the move to cities and the often unaffordable house prices are among the most serious issues. If we look at this in the context of smart cities, it is clear that a far more holistic […]
Cooperative structure option for the NBN
Guest blog by Stewart Fist Cooperative structure option for the NBN The value of the full-fibre NBN being a “common good” – should be seen the same as roadways. But like toll-ways, governments and corporations can still find ways to export these facilities either for profit, or for stoking up their budgets. However there often […]
Telstra banned from buying the NBN – why?
A day or so after Telstra indicated that in the right circumstances, and if the opportunity were to occur, it would be interested in buying the NBN but hot on the heels, the ACCC announced that Telstra would not be allowed to buy the NBN. On the surface this makes sense. The disastrous situation […]
NBN and the common good – write offs and Telstra’s interest in buying it.
Looking back over the last 30 years less emphasis is now placed on the ‘common good’ than was the case before the 1980s. I will link this to the NBN a bit further in this analysis. Over the last few decades, often for very good reasons, we began to privatise what had been government businesses […]
Australian/New Zealand ‘Smart Urban Solutions’ mission to the Netherlands
Following the Smart City mission from the Netherlands that coincided with the visit of the Dutch Royal Couple in November 2016, earlier this month a combined Australian/New Zealand ‘Smart Urban Solutions’ mission visited the Netherlands. The week-long visit focused on urban (re)development, smart mobility, the future of energy and sustainable building and innovative solutions created […]
Smart cities – hype or reality?
Smart cities – hype or reality? I have recently read several critical and sceptical articles and announcements in relation to smart cities, and I have to say that I do share some of that cynicism. Unfortunately in most the cases projects, pilots and technologies that are carried out in the name of smart cities are […]
An overhaul of political and economic structures is needed for AI and big data
I recently went to an industry event organised by InnovationAus.com which was unique in several respects. First of all, there was hardly any techno talk. The presentations and discussion took place on a far more strategic level in relation to the effects of technology – in particular AI and big data – on our society […]
Infratech reality or marketing plot.
Infratech seems to be a new buzzword in our world of technology. It covers the area of convergence between technology and infrastructure. I have been involved in this market since its early beginnings, some 25 years ago (since the internet became mainstream) and I have seen first-hand how difficult it is to marry the two […]
More competition in countries with four rather than 3 mobile providers
The merger between Vodafone and TPG will bring the number of Mobile Network Operators in Australia from four to three. Since the announcement there have been plenty of discussions if this merger will reduce competition and thus favour Telstra and Optus or if TPG will indeed maintain its position as national price beater in the […]
National Plan of Settlement: Good content – wrong strategy
I must have missed the run-up to this and so was surprised when the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities last week published a report called National Plan of Settlement. According to this report Australia needs a national plan to encourage denser, better-connected and more sustainable cities. Among its 37 recommendations are two […]
Smart Armenia – suggestion for a national approach
Last month I was honoured to be invited to be the special guest at BreakFAST, a Sunday morning breakfast meeting organised by Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST) in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, this allowed me to share my telecoms and smart city insights with a group of select government, business and academic […]
Political commiserations with a new Australian government – more power to (smart) cities.
In general this new government is a further thrust to the right– looking at the developments during the period of the Turnbull government – where little progress has been made in relation to more progressive policies – this further push to the right will most likely have a further negative effect on progressive policies, innovations, […]
Armenia – socio-economic and political observations
During a recent three-month trip we visited various countries. This time I would like to share, not ICT-related ideas, but my socio-economic and political observations, starting with the very interesting but little-known country of Armenia. We travelled to Armenia – in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia – for several reasons. Firstly, due to our […]
Russia – social, economic and political observations
For starters I have to admit that the key reason for my second visit to this country was to attend the World Cup, together with my son. Having said that, we also spent plenty of time away from the football fun. I caught up with one of my colleagues in the Gordon Cook network, Arcady […]
The Huawei and ZTE issue is political not technical
Huawei and ZTE have now been banned by the Australian government from being involved in the development of 5G networks. However it is important to state that this is a political issue not a technical one. There is no evidence whatsoever that some clever bits of technology have been added to networks designed and developed […]
New CEO at the NBN company – where to go from here?
The internal appointment of Stephen Rue clearly indicates that neither the government nor the NBN company are planning any changes. Some of the questions that have been raised over the last year include; does part of the nbn investment needs to be written down in order for it the be financial viable; what are the […]
Iceland – the Pots and Pans Revolution and resultant political and social changes
A relatively small island of only 375,000 people – of which one-third live in the capital Reykjavik – in one of the harshest climates on earth, Iceland also has the highest (or second-highest, depending who measures it) per capita income in the world. Until the 20th century it was one of the poorest countries in […]
Vodafone – TPG merger
While I would have loved to see TPG entering the mobile market to bring some good competition to it, in the end business sense has prevailed and Vodafone and TPG have decided to look at merging the two companies. The market has long been dominated by egos and that has made it difficult sometimes to […]
Armenia using digital technologies to speed up its development
We are now on our last leg of our 3-month trip and are leaving Europe on a day the Netherlands is sweltering in 37C, we basically had three months of unbelievable good summer weather. The reason why we were attracted to Armenia is twofold. I was inspired by the passion for his country by my […]
Smart City in Greater Copenhagen
I am still traveling through northern Europe, after Iceland, Netherlands, Germany and Russia it is now Denmark. On a private note I am visiting two early medieval Viking towns Hedeby and Ribe. These were already ‘smart’ towns between 800 and 1000, becoming part of the handful of leading trading cities in those days. Those who […]
The city of Eindhoven promotes a smart society
The next Dutch city that I would like to focus on after Amsterdam and ‘s-Hertogenbosch is Eindhoven. This is the city where Philips started its business some 150 years ago. And they developed this from light bulbs to some of the most sophisticated electronic devices in the world. But, as is the case for so […]
Smart ‘s-Hertogenbosch is driven by data
After Russia I am now back in the Netherlands and, as mentioned in my previous blog on Amsterdam , I would like to highlight some of the smaller cities in the Netherlands. Amsterdam continues to receive most of the smart city attention, both internationally and in the Netherlands itself; but lots of interesting developments are […]
Saint Petersburg Smart City 2030
When I travelled to Russia back in 1972 I was very much impressed by St Petersburg (then called Leningrad) as it was, at that time, already more westernised than Moscow. And on this trip, while this city also has seen massive changes I found the atmosphere still comparable to 1972 – rather different from what […]
Telstra’s only option is cost cutting.
Comment This cost cutting was basically the only option out for Telstra in its current difficult situation. Over the last 30 years it has tried a lot of different things. I was at the launch of their Asia campaign in Geneva in 1992 where they claimed that by 2000, 25% of revenues would come from […]
Smart City Moscow and the Wold Cup
If you have followed my previous blogs, I am on a smart city tour through Europe. The next few blogs will cover developments in Russia. With the World Cup taking place (where we are barracking for the Australian team) the city, under the charismatic mayoral leadership of Sergey Sobyanin, used the occasion to spend $500 […]
Big data portal for smart cities – and indeed a smart country
After Iceland, back in the Netherlands again and, as promised, a bit more information from this part of the world. It certainly is not just Amsterdam that is active in smart cities. In this article I will point to some 40+ local councils in the Netherlands that are providing smart city information. Setting an example […]
The Greater Lyon data platform
Further to my blog on Lyon a few weeks ago, here is some more information on the city’s data platform, which is based entirely on free software and has many features to facilitate the use of data. This data platform offers broad access to metropolitan data. It contributes to the objectives of the Lyon Métropole […]
Smart City Reykjavík
After traveling through France and the Netherlands (see previous blogs) we are now in Iceland. Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic, with a population of 350,000 and an area of 103,000 square kilometres – mainly tundra – making it the most sparsely populated country in Europe. The capital and largest city […]
Update on Amsterdam Smart City
During our European trip (see also my previous blogs on France), the Netherlands has been our home base; so there are and will be plenty of opportunities to also make contact with our many smart city friends and colleagues here. Amsterdam remains the smart city capital of this country, but cities such as Eindhoven, The […]
Lyon’s smart city strategy
Leaving Toulouse and Marseille (see previous blogs) we travelled to Lyon. The main reason for our visit to this city was that exactly a year ago I sold the research arm of my company to Ubiquick, and the new owners of BuddeComm are based in Lyon. We caught up with the management team and it […]
Smart Marseille: a changing port city
For those of you who did not read my report on Toulouse. I am visiting a number of smart cities in Europe. Next is Marseille, this is the second-largest municipality in France and the third-largest conurbation, with over 1.5 million inhabitants. As a metropolis, a port and a city steeped in history, Marseille faces a […]
Smart City Metropolis 2015-2020 – Toulouse open!
This is the first report from my smart city trip, which will take me from France to the Netherlands, Iceland, Russia and Armenia. We are also combining this trip with pleasure. Over the next three months you can expect regular travelogues from relevant smart city developments in the places I visit. We started in the […]
No leading role for NBN in Budget IT announcements
It was good to see that the Buget included some interesting ICT projects. However it failed again to bring some cohesion to the wide variety of projects. There is no holistic strategy behind it. Again the government failed to use the NBN as a unifying opportunity for a smart national approach. The long-awaited space agency […]
Is this the NBN cost-benefit vindication?
I was very pleasantly surprised to see Bill Morrow so publicly talking up the social and economic benefits of the NBN. As mentioned only a few weeks ago this was the element that was most missing from the NBN’s business case, both under Prime Ministers Rudd and under Turnbull. For over a decade this has […]
Is there a business case for the National Broadband Network?
It will come as no surprise to those who have followed my analyses of the NBN over the last decade that in my submission to the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network Inquiry into the business case for the National Broadband Network I stated that the business model and investment model for the […]
It is time to seriously start to deploy our ICT innovations
The last 50-70 years have seen an enormous amount of innovation. In particular there has been an acceleration in the ICT space over the last 20 years, and this is affecting every single aspect of our society and our economy. It is providing us with tools to address the challenges that we are facing – […]
Don’t miss Australia’s leading smart city event
In just over a month Australia’s leading smart city event will take place in Melbourne (10 and 11 May), organised by the Australian Smart Community Association (ASCA). One of the main reasons I call this the leading smart city event is that this is the only smart city conference in Australia where half of the […]
A new smart suburb for the city of Helmond in the Netherlands
The city council of Helmond (a city in the south of the Netherland, close to Eindhoven) has approved plans for the construction of their Brainport Smart District (BSD). They will start with the preparation for its first projects, the building of around 1,500 new homes in a totally new suburb; a 12-hectare industrial estate will […]
Green Smart Cities Expo 2022 in the Netherlands
GSC3 will play an instrumental role in the Smart City Floriade Expo which will take place in the Netherlands in 2022. What can ‘green thinking’ do for you and for the world? Exhibits and presentations at Expo 2022 Floriade Almere will show how the green city concept can be implemented and how to deal with […]
Big data for the common good of local communities
There is no doubt that big data is going to be one of the most important tools that will assist human society in the future. Our increasingly complex society has been able to move forward, and it will continue to do so, based on rational, scientific facts and figures within the context of the needs […]
Disruptive technology can benefit our society
Disruptive technology can benefit our society There are plenty of discussions concerning the various disruptions that are taking place; this not only effects industries and markets but also politics and in society in general. Although technologies are key tools used by nearly all of us who are, willingly or unwillingly involved in creating disruption, however, […]
Will 5G trigger smart city PPP collaboration?
As discussed in previous analyses, the arrival of 5G will trigger a totally new development in telecommunications. Not just in relation to better broadband services on mobile phones – it will also generate opportunities for a range of IoT (internet of things) developments that among other projects are grouped together under smart cities (feel free […]
Transition of the telecoms industry is overdue
It is interesting to observe the changes in the telecommunications environment over the last few decades. Before videotex (the predecessor of the internet) arrived in the late 1970s early 1980s, 90% of telecommunications revolved around telephone calls. And at that time telephony was still a luxury for many, as making calls was expensive. I remember […]
Good opportunities for the NBN
Ever since we started talking about the national broadband network there has been a constant flow of confusing information about the need for fixed broadband, especially in comparison with all the fascinating mobile broadband developments that are taking place. Often that confusion is fuelled from the top. Not so very long ago Malcolm Turnbull, when […]
Smart City Barcelona goes open source
When talking about smart cities Barcelona has a special place in my heart. You might recall my blog from Barcelona late last year, reporting on the changes in that city. Barcelona was one of the first to tackle so-called smart city issues. Over the years they received internal criticism – claims that it was all […]
Long-term investment opportunities in smart cities
Questions for the investment community The federal government’s Smart City Plan, with a follow-up $75 million in grants as well as its City Deals, is stimulating a more strategic approach towards smart cities. In all, there are a dozen cities in Australia that have a solid smart strategy in place, backed up by high-level city […]
The Dutch Smart City Strategy
There is close collaboration between the Australian and Dutch smart city movements – Amsterdam has presented its smart city activities here in Australia at many events over the last five years; there has been an Australian-Dutch Smart City Summit in Sydney in 2016; there have been ministerial visits from both sides; and most recently the […]
Organisms are Algorithms.
Yuval Noah Harari has written two incredible books: Sapiens and Homo Deus. His 3rd book comes out summer 2018 titled 21 lessons for the 21st century. His session at the WEF was sandwiched between Angela Merkel’s and Emmanuel Macron’s, perhaps the only historian to be given such spotlight according to Gillian Tet (editor of Financial […]
Optus makes sure there will be competition in 5G
After lots of talk about 5G being a potential competitor to the NBN, Optus is throwing the cat among the pigeons. Its announcement of a fixed wireless product is challenging the NBN head-on. It will be interesting to see what the reaction from the national broadband company will be, as it has already hinted at […]
Youth Mobility Index Report in Asia
Info supplied by YMI.Asia. To commemorate its 10th year anniversary, operator of the ‘.Asia’ domain, released a ‘Youth Mobility Index (YMI.Asia)’ report. It aims to measure the social, geo-physical and digital mobility of younger generations across Asia to better support young Asian entrepreneurs setting out to change the world. YMI.Asia rankings are built on their […]
Nationalisation of American mobile networks opens up interesting discussions
A leaked document from the US indicates a proposal for a nationalised 5G network. Who would have thought this – coming from a country where even the slightest government intervention in the market is often reported as ‘communism’? It is nearly impossible to believe that this proposal will fly. It won’t get bipartisan support and […]
Smart cities should be based on social considerations
While there is a general positive vibe regarding smart cities ther are also serious concerns about the way developments are currently taking place. This has mainly to do with a general lack of a people-focussed strategy – in particular in relation to social elements and personal morals, beliefs and emotions. We have been following what […]
Mobile broadband is no alternative for fixed broadband
With a faltering NBN in Australia, many people in the media and outside the industry are suggesting that perhaps we don’t need an NBN at all as with new mobile technologies such as 5G the quality problem of broadband access in Australia could be solved in this way. This argument is not new, the Prime […]
What is the future for our mobile network operators?
‘Wireless is just one wire less’ or ‘Wireless is just spectrum wrapped around a fibre core” The Australian mobile telecommunication industry is continuing to resist structural changes, but the reality is that if they don’t transform, technology will do it for them. We have seen the fixed telecom operators slowly being pushed back into the […]
An NBN write down is now firmly on the agenda
It was interesting to see that the ACCC has now indicated that a different financial structure for the NBN might have to be the next major step in the Australian broadband saga. After it became clear that, following his proper election in 2016, the Prime Minister didn’t take the opportunity to introduce the essential structural […]
Vocus and TPG continue to challenge Telstra and Optus
TPG Telecom Limited acquired local ISP iiNet. TPG is now Australia’s second-biggest provider of fixed-line broadband in Australia with over 1.7 million customers. Services including voice, internet and data solutions are provided to a customer base ranging from the consumer market through to small and medium enterprises, corporate and government sectors. The company also owns a […]
Net neutrality not a serious issue in Australia
Most countries, including Australia, don’t have to fear internet quality problems in the same way as might be the case in the USA. The US competition watchdog has little power to hold telcos accountable for the nature of their broadband services. Back in 1996 broadband was classified as a content service and not a telecom […]
Australia’s top three Telcos face growing competition
Telstra is Australia’s largest telecommunications provider offering a full range of telecom services throughout Australia. The company provides basic access services to most homes and businesses, local and long-distance telephone call services, and mobile and internet services. Wholesale services are also provided to ISPs and RSPs while advertising and subscription television services are provided through subsidiary […]
Unstoppable smart energy
Regardless of whether there are leftish, right-wing or central politics at play, people power and market forces are pushing the use of smarter energy forward at considerable speed. The deployment of the largest battery storage facility in the world in South Australia, together with the many solar and wind farms that are relentlessly being developed […]
The NBN in the broader context of global telecom developments
Just back from my trip to Europe where I followed some of the key international telecoms developments. Because of the highly politicised situation around the NBN in Australia it is important to look beyond the sometimes parochially-focussed NBN discussion in our country. At the joint forum of the Long-Term Infrastructure Investments Association (LTIIA) and the […]
HFC: the next NBN debacle.
The problem with the NBN multi technology mix (MtM) policy is that they are using old technologies and if you are going to upgrade this you will come across lots of nasty surprises, as already has become clear in relation to the FttN part of the project. Some parts of the cable infrastructure is even […]
Smart city the long-term investment dilemma
Tell me what your problem is and I’ll tell you what the solution is – money. There is little doubt that citizens, their cities and communities as well businesses, all support the development of smart cities with its promise of increased liveability, sustainability, mobility, social and economic infrastructure and so on. The enormous increase in […]
National vs city-based democracy
There are some interesting but at the same time frightening developments in politics around the world. This is mainly driven by the fact that people no longer trust their traditional politicians and authorities. The differences between socialist (workers) and liberal (business/professionals) parties have been turned upside down. The liberals are now more conservative, with a […]
Call for national smart city collaboration and the formation of the Council of Smart City Mayors
With the announcement of the government’s first smart city grants in WA and the NT – with others to follow soon – it is time to start looking at national smart city collaboration in order to achieve a maximum outcome from the funds that are made available and to ensure that we don’t simply end […]
Smart City World Congress Barcelona: Dutch Australian Collaboration
A key reason for my participation in the Smart City World Congress in Barcelona was to further work on international smart city collaboration that was started exactly a year ago at the Dutch Australian Smart City Summit in Sydney, which was attended by Her Majesty Queen Maxima of the Netherlands. Since that time there have […]
Housing affordability and smart cities
Only a few decades ago there were only a handful of megacities around the world. Now there are more than 1000 cities with between 1 and 2 million inhabitants, and 40 cities with more than 10 million people. If we look at population growth in these megacities it is interesting to note that in general […]
Hello from Smart City Barcelona
I am in Barcelona at the moment for the Smart City World Congress. With Catalonia and its capital city Barcelona currently in the international political spotlight it’s a fascinating time to be here again. From my visitor’s perspective life looks normal – perhaps a few more Catalonian flags around, but most were there already when […]
The next NBN battle: Affordability vs Profit
The ACCC has announced an investigation into the NBN. The trouble is that the NBN needs a political solution; the current problems can’t be solved through regulatory changes. The underlying policy model is flawed and that issue will need to be addressed before we can solve the rest of the mess. Sadly, this will not […]
The Smart City Expo World Congress 2017 in Barcelona
The Global Smart City and Community Coalition (GSC3) is running the famous Holland Pavilion (those who have been in Barcelona before, know what I mean 😊. At the GSC3 stand also the eight Australian GSC3 cities will be on display: Adelaide, Bendigo, Canberra, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Sydney, Ipswich and Moreton Bay. Several representatives of these […]
Charles Todd Medal acceptance speech
This year I have been awarded with the prestigious Charles Todd Medal for Excellence in Communications. The presentation was done by Charles’ great-grandson Barry in the presence of representatives of the telecommunications industry at a luncheon organised by Telsoc. The Charles Todd Medal The award was established by ATUG (the Australian Telecommunications Users […]
And so the NBN blame games start
It has taken four years for the government and the nbn company to finally admit what many people have been predicting since the very beginning of the change in NBN plans from FttH (fibre-to-the-home) to FttN (fibre-to-the-node). The Prime Minister now claims that the train wreck was always in the making If that is so, why […]
Cost savings on petrol could propel EVs in Australia
There recently have been reports in the Australian media about a report from the Australian Institute that the country is internationally lagging in the sale of electric vehicles (EVs). Only 0.1% of all cars sold in Australia were electric in 2015 (just over 1100 new EVs were bought here), compared with 23% of all new […]
Smart states and cities will not let the government wind back the energy clock
A big yawn and finally the federal government has woken up from its decade-long ‘sleep at the wheel’ to launch its energy policy. Perhaps it would have made some sense if it had launched this plan a decade ago, but the world has moved on while they kept bickering in parliament. Unfortunately for the government […]
Australia progressing as a major APAC data centre hub
BuddeComm describes ‘big data’ as looking at intelligent outcomes that can be achieved from data collaboration. The most critical issue here is strategic management, rather than technology. Big data has become a vital tool as competition is forcing many companies to transform their organisations from a company-centric approach to a customer-centric one. The fact that […]
Dark business clouds ahead for the social media.
There is no doubt that social media has become an enormous success over the last decade and that it has in many ways made a great impact on how we interact with each other. One could argue that this was exactly what the early innovators envisioned – disrupting the incumbent, fat and often arrogant traditional […]
Will we miss out on the next multibillion dollar smart energy opportunity?
While Australia was a relative latecomer to the smart energy market over the last five years it has climbed quickly up the ladder and is now in the global top ten countries. Close to 1.5 million households now have solar panels on their roofs and Australia is one of the leaders in the development of […]
The future NBN might look rather different
In all reality it looks like the multi-technology mix (MTM) as it is currently being rolled out by the nbn company is as good as it will get. Some Australians will have an excellent service, especially those on fibre-to-the-home (FttH) and fibre-to-the-curb (FttC) technologies. Others won’t see any difference from the current ADSL services they […]
Don’t look at Kenya, look at Sweden.
A recent article from Bloomberg on the NBN, in which I was also quoted, mentioned that Kenya had faster broadband than Australia. While that was true for a tiny part of that country, most people in Kenya don’t have speeds that high. The Australian Prime Minister jumped on that and ridiculed the Bloomberg comparison. […]
The Business of Regulations
Recently I participated in a study conducted by FTI Consulting on ‘The Business of Regulation’ Their audit provides deeper insight into: the drivers of politically-motivated regulation the importance of conduct and compliance in managing that risk, and how a new approach to communication and engagement can help companies shape their regulatory environment. The Business of […]
Smart energy – or tilting at windmills
I have been involved in smart energy developments since 2001 (UtiliTel, Digital Economy Working Group, Smart Grid Australia, Global Smart Grid Federation). During this time I have been in contact with all levels of government and all major energy companies as well as with the broader business and R&D eco-systems around them. See No smart […]
Digital media and media diversity
The changes recently proposed to the Broadcasting Act will allow for a further concentration of media power in Australia. While from a commercial point of view the traditional media most certainly are under attack from the digital media the fact is that the traditional media wield a far greater power over national politics than all […]
The importance of high-speed broadband in regional Australia
It is still a battle to extend the perception of the importance of high-speed broadband beyond fast access to the internet or to Netflix. But the social and economic benefits are equally important, especially looking towards medium- and long-term future development of the region. The healthcare, government services and education sectors are undergoing massive transformations, […]
Upgrading the NBN with G.fast has its limitations
Quite coincidentally, at the same time that G.fast is being discussed in Australia a similar discussion is taking place in the USA; and there is doubt there too about the contribution that G.fast can make to improve the performance of the faltering broadband systems in both countries. G.fast is a band-aid solution that can be […]
Mass media and the increased perception of the threat of terrorism
While it is intuitive to accept that the media plays a key role in the level of perceived fear in society in relation to terrorist attacks, it was with interest that I read the bachelor thesis of my Italian nephew, who is studying at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. It provides an interesting […]
The end of the Foxtel wars
The announcement of the proposed merger of Foxtel with Fox Sport Australia, combined with Telstra’s agreement to dilute its shareholding in the pay TV operator, paves the way for the end of the Foxtel war between News Corp Australia (formerly News Limited) and Telstra. The decline in revenue and subscriber numbers will most certainly have […]
Telstra: shareholders vs customers
It is worthwhile to analyse what is behind Telstra’s recent announcements that it will both cut its dividend and sell $5bn in future NBN revenue. These announcements drowned out the rather solid earnings for the previous financial year and an interesting program of capital investments in its existing network. While the NBN deals negotiated by […]
Various drivers are propelling Smart City developments
The impetuous towards developing Smart Cities can be driven by a number of factors. It may be that citizens, who have increasingly becoming accustomed to the convenience of services being made available through the internet and through apps on their smart phones and tablets become frustrated when ICT services and infrastructure aren’t keeping up. This […]
NBN goes against the very principles of conservative government
This again became very clear to me in my discussion with the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network. When addressing the various well-documented problems of the NBN the chair of the committee repeatedly mentioned in defence of the current multi-technology-mix MtM policy that many other counties were also not deploying national FttH. However […]
Government policy is to blame not the nbn nor the RSPs
It is interesting, but sad, to see the blame game that is going on in the telecoms industry. As with so many of the nbn problems, at the core it is a problem created by politicians. This one goes back to the original nbn policy, and it was the Labor government that created the CVC […]
Submission for the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network
Mid-year NBN assessment The rollout of the NBN has been gathering pace, but many problems remain. Most of the issues mentioned below have been addressed by me at various Senate Inquiries over the last decade. The fact that they have not been addressed and/or resolved it is an indication that politicians have so far failed […]
Let’s press the reset button on the NBN
Opinion editorial for the Australian Financial Review There are now overwhelming signs that all is not well with the NBN, through its ACMA intervention the government now also admits that all is not well. ACMA will investigate the war that is going on between the nbn company and its customers, the retail service providers (RSPs). […]
The smart city market moving towards 2018
Back in 2001 I initiated the very first smart city event in Australia. In all some 75 representatives of Australian local councils gathered in Brighton-Le-Sands in Sydney. The focus of that event was the broadbanding of local communities around the country. This was seen by the local councils as one of the most important elements […]
Fixed broadband is a key infrastructure for future progress
It has become very clear that innovation related to ICT and digital technologies is one of the key components for future economic and social strength. Countries with a sophisticated fixed and mobile telecoms infrastructure are well placed to take advantage of these future technological and societal developments. Countries without the necessary infrastructure however are expected […]
Smart Cities: Technologies, Challenges and Future Prospects
As you can see below I am one of the authors of this publication. On behalf of the publishers, I can offer a 20% discount on any pre-orders of the book (I am not receiving any royalties nor do I have any other financial interest in this publication). There are several different definitions of “smart cities” […]
Australian National Broadband Network rollout finally gains momentum
Within the market there is a dynamic shift among customers to fibre networks, as this infrastructure is being built out by nbn (NBN Co), the company responsible for the national broadband deployment. Australia’s broadband sector is making improved progress in its migration to a multi-technology the NBN. Growth in the overall number of broadband subscribers […]
Telcos players in the US set to become even lazier
With all of the current turbulence in the American society it is no wonder that its telecommunications market is also under severe pressure. In his election campaign Trump promised his American supporters to make changes to what he called the Washington swamp, but it has become clear that the opposite is happening. While in previous […]
FttH business model is gaining strength
The message I am getting from talks with some of the European telcos is that many of them who began to implement FttN solutions a decade or so ago now see that a profitable business model for a full FttH network is within reach. The uptake of higher-speed packages is steadily increasing. In general terms, […]
Australia’s NBN preps for G.fast and DOCSIS3.1 services in 2017
Growth in the Australian fixed broadband market has slowed in line with higher penetration rates. Within the market there is a dynamic shift among customers to fibre networks, as this infrastructure is being built out by nbn (NBN Co), the company responsible for the national broadband deployment. While fibre has become by far the fastest […]
Update on Singapore’s journey towards a smart nation
Just over two years ago Singapore announced its proposals for a program which was entitled Smart Nation. The ambitious project was designed in order to fasten the city, residents and government into a new digital age of innovation and industry. Singapore is making the bold transition from a successful city to Smart Nation. It already […]
NBN legislation might still work out positively
There are many problems with the NBN, but one of the few elements of the original plan that has not been changed might have a longer-term positive outcome – that is, if the nbn company is in fact able to upgrade most of its network to FttC and FttH. I am talking about the monopoly […]
IoT network for farmers
Agriculture is forecast to be one of the key industries where the Internet of Things can make a significant contribution to Australia’s future growth and competitiveness. The future of farming is in collecting and analysing big data in order to maximise efficiency, mitigate risk and drive productivity. Connected farmers will be able to monitor and […]
Telecoms infrastructure and digital technologies lead the way
There are a number of industries leading the current changes brought about by the digital evolution – but none more so than the ICT industry. This sector alone has been transformational in developing the appropriate infrastructure, services and equipment required to underpin our societies of the future. The enormous shift towards digital technologies continues […]
Global Smart Energy Developments
There is no doubt that we are in the midst of an energy revolution. Not only is the nature of energy changing from fossil-generated energy to renewable – there is a total change in the distribution structure occurring with less focus on centralisation and more on distributed energy. Concerns about issues such as energy security, […]
BuddeComm sale to Ubiquick
Personal message from Paul Budde I take great pleasure in announcing that BuddeComm has recently been acquired by the French-based research company the Ubiquick Group. After creating BuddeComm nearly 40 years ago it is time to look towards a change for Louise and myself. A key factor in this decision was the purchaser’s ability to […]
Dutch Smart City Delegation back in Australia
It will be the third time in six months that a Dutch Smart City Mission will visit Australia. This time the visit will coincide with next week’s Smart Communities Conference in Adelaide, organised by the Australian Smart Communities Association (ASCA). The first visit took place in November last year when Queen Maxima of the Netherlands […]
The Australian Digital Media Industry Continues its Transformation
With the rise of digital platforms, the media industry has had to change and the transformation continues in 2017. In newspaper and book publishing, TV and radio broadcasting, film, music, and other forms of media, we see that the national walls that protect local organisations within traditional models are crumbling. In other words, it is […]
Consolidation in Australia’s VOD Market Begins
Australia’s leading pay TV provider FOXTEL during the last few years has struggled to increase pay TV penetration in Australia. The market has also seen the launch of competing OTT platforms, including Stan and Netflix. These offer competitively priced basic packages, commonly below AU$10 per month letting consumers’ view content at a time of their […]
People are ready for smart environments
With an increased awareness of the importance of digital infrastructure many local councils are disillusioned by not having access to infrastructure such as FttH and smart grids. The organisations involved in the delivery of this are slow in upgrading their infrastructure since in many cases they will not be the recipients of the benefits derived […]
Adding creativity to collaborative innovation and other smart developments
A few months ago I reported on the many incubation hubs and innovation labs that have sprung up around the country, and indeed around the world. Many of these centres are developed within smart cities; some are using local libraries; many ICT companies have their own centres; and the universities have also become key players […]
Telecoms competition on a downhill slide in America
That is what happens when you base your telecommunications policies on the wrong foundations. The problems with the telecommunications industry in America go back to 1996, when the FCC decided that broadband in America should be classified as internet (being content) and that therefore it would not fall under the normal telecommunication regulations. Suddenly what […]
Smart budget – potential for smart developments
Will this be the turnaround for the government that many of us hoped for when Malcolm Turnbull took over from Tony Abbott? While politics remains politics, and governments remain governments, the tone of this Budget is completely different from the shock horror Budget of 2014 that resulted in political uproar, a gridlocked parliament, and the […]
The broadband tax
From the moment this suggestion was first mooted I was strongly opposed to the broadband tax that the government proposed in December 2016. It will slam around $7 per month on fixed broadband subscriptions, making the price broadband services in Australia among the highest in the developed economies. The aim of the tax is to […]
The role of FttH in the development of 5G
As the roll out of FttH remains a slow process it is no wonder that more and more people are looking towards mobile as a potential alternative. Obviously mobile communication has improved over recent years in providing excellent access to broadband; and it has also become more affordable. At the same time there is the […]
Smart Homes
Back in 1980 when I still lived in the Netherlands I worked with the Dutch futurist Griet Titulaer (an astronomer by trade) in building ‘The Home of the Future’. I would say that at that stage it was more built around innovative interior design with automation features. Home entertainment also played a key role in […]
360VR video of Australia’s leading smart cities
Last November the Global Smart Communities and Cities Coalition (GSC3) started to set up partnerships with Australian cities. ASCA was one of the first organisations who signed a MoU with GSC3 in the presence of the Queen Maxima of the Netherlands during the Australian – Netherlands Smart City Summit co-hosted by ASCA. GSC3 was back […]
The role of the NBN in the development of 5G
With an NBN that is failing many customers it is no wonder that more and more people are looking towards mobile as a potential alternative. Obviously mobile communication has improved over recent years in providing excellent access to broadband; and it has also become more affordable. At the same time there is the fabulous hype […]
Today’s key problem is the lack of trust
If we look at the turbulence that we are facing today in many of our western societies it becomes clear that a key underlying reason for the current chaotic situation is the lack of trust that has crept into our societies over the last decade or so. See also my blog from earlier this year: […]
2Degrees – where to go from here?
For more than a decade I have followed the trials and tribulations of New Zealand’s third mobile operator, 2Degrees. This story started at a time when regulation in New Zealand (or more to the point, the lack of it) very much favoured the incumbent operator, at that stage called Telecom New Zealand. From the very […]
The remarkable story of Fetch
Broadcasting, video media, streaming are topics that are always in the headlines of the media. But it is a mixed bag of comments that you hear: ‘Broadcasting is on the way out’ ‘Netflix reaches 2 million users’, ‘Telstra struggles with Big Pond’, ‘Video streaming overtakes mobile usage’…. the list goes on. We saw the traditional […]
Mobile infrastructure will ultimately rely on fibre broadband
In 2017 mobile broadband subscriptions are growing rapidly and LTE infrastructure now carries over 65% of all global mobile traffic. While mobile and fixed will always exist in parallel, there is no doubt that with a faltering fixed network and an excellent mobile network, mobile will give fixed a run for its money. With competitively […]
Competitive global mobile market sees the rise of regional leaders
The global mobile market has become far more competitive in most markets around the world due to liberalisation, the rise of Over-The-Top (OTT) providers and, in some cases, the introduction of MVNOs. In addition, as operators go hunting for new revenue streams, there has been much regional and international expansion occurring – along with consolidation. […]
The Next Big Thing
Last week I chaired a number of very well-attended sessions at the Connect Conference in Melbourne. My compliments to the organisers, who had gathered together a range of excellent speakers, very different from the commercially motivated group of speakers who so often feature at commercial conferences. The Plenary Opening session featured Dr Amanda Caples, the […]
Netherlands Smart City Strategy and the role of GSC3
As mentioned in last week’s blog, as we speak Assistant Minister Angus Taylor is now in the Netherlands. He will also be briefed on the Dutch Smart City Strategy that was launched last week. After Australia, the Netherlands is now the second country with a national smart city strategy and there is obviously interest on […]
Rhineland economic model is closest to smart city developments
It is interesting to compare the major economic models in the western world – the American Anglo-Saxon model, the European Rhineland model and the Scandinavian model. The Anglo-Saxon model is very much driven by small government, market-driven economic and social policies, and in general has a large focus on shareholders value. By contrast the other […]
Australia’s telco market grows slowly with mobile broadband driving growth
The overall telecoms services revenue reached over $42 billion in 2016, a growth of under 1% for the 12 months to June 2016. The overall market is predicted to grow at a stronger rate in 2017. The strongest growth is coming from the second tier providers, which grew at over 10% during that time period. […]
International expansion has strengthened the operations of many mobile operators
In 2017 the global mobile market has its sights firmly set on the opportunities offered through mobile data as well as looking for potential new revenues streams presented by the enterprise sector, data mining, 5G and international expansion. Mobile saturation has occurred in many of the developed markets and this has forced some of the […]
No smart energy policy for Australia
My involvement in the Australian energy market started in 2001 when I brought the energy companies together in Sydney, be it at that at that time we were looking at utilising their infrastructure to assist the ailing telecommunications market that was dominated by Telstra who was at that time unwilling to introduce residential broadband services […]
Australia progressing as a major APAC data centre hub
BuddeComm describes ‘big data’ as looking at intelligent outcomes that can be achieved from data collaboration. The most critical issue here is strategic management, rather than technology. Big data has become a vital tool as competition is forcing many companies to transform their organisations from a company-centric approach to a customer-centric one. The fact that […]
The effect of American politics
Having followed developments in the American telecoms market since the late 1980s, and having been involved with the Obama Administration in the development of their National Broadband Plan – at which time I was also invited to do a presentation at the White House – I do have some insights into the workings of the […]
Does Australia need a proper nbn?
ere we go again with more useless debates about whether the country needs a first-class national broadband network or a second-rate one; and again there are discussions around what other flavours of the multi-mix technology can we now add to it to strengthen the brew. By now we have lost most of Australians in this […]
The state of telecoms competition in Australia
fter the rowdy 1990s and early 00s the dust did settle a bit on the competition problems that continued during that period – more than 20 Inquiries, many court cases and ongoing regulatory corrections. The situation settled down somewhat with the arrival of a new CEO at Telstra, David Thodey in 2006. Subsequent changes to […]
NBN customer service is appalling
Back in October last year we reported on our disappointment regarding our two NBN services. We have an FttB service in Sydney (replacing our ADSL2+ service) and a satellite connection in Bucketty (100km from Sydney). As reported, both services are disappointing. The service in Sydney is no better than the previous ADSL2+ service, but at least no […]
Will Telstra be able to create a more affordable alternative to the NBN
If we go back to the early days of the NBN, now more than a decade ago, some of you might recall that from the very first day we have maintained that affordability was more important than the latest technology. I actually said that affordability was THE most important element of an NBN. Subsequent governments […]
ICT industry stands up against Trump
Trump’s first week in office has been an interesting, if shocking, one. While many other presidents have been blamed for not using their first 100 days in office to put their stamp on the direction of their presidency, Trump is most certainly doing this. And we no longer need to wonder whether his talk is […]
Australia’s MNOs prepare for migration to 5G
The Australian mobile market is dominated by the three major mobile network operators Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone (VHA), though there are numerous MVNOs which have a significant market share. MVNOs have been able to offer LTE services on a wholesale basis since early 2016, thus encouraging growth in the LTE sector and cementing the role […]
How can smart communities assist in addressing populism?
The fact that the election of Donald Trump came as such a shock shows the deep division, especially in America, between the people in the upper echelons of society and those who are less-educated, underserviced, and in many cases poorer. While the top 50% of society has, in general terms, done well economically over the […]
Golden Ratio statues presented to five Australian smart city organisations
At the Dutch Australian Smart City Summit that I organised today, five Australian smart city organisations have received the Golden Ratio statue in recognition for their future collaboration with the Global Smart City and Community Coalition (GSC3). The presentation followed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the GSC3 and the Australian Smart […]
Telstra, Optus and Vodafone face increasing threat from 2nd Tier Market
The overall telecoms services revenue reached over $40 billion in 2016, a growth of 2.0% for the 12 months to June 2016. The overall market is predicted to grow more strongly in 2017. The strongest growth is coming from the second tier providers, which grew at over 10% during that time period. The market incumbent […]
Venice: a model for smart cities?
Hello from Bella Italia and in this case from the previous Republic of Venezia. The town has long been a city state and this has helped them in being strategic about its role in a world where more and more policies are pushed back to a city level. Furthermore as we all know Venice has […]
Report from smart city Naples
This time a report from Napoli; an amazing city more authentic Italian than the ‘real’ holidays cities in Italy. It has a very long history it started as a Greek city (Neapolis) around 600BC. During the Middle Ages it was – after Paris – the 2nd largest city in Europe. As of the whole of Southern […]
Disappointment with our NBN services
As we have mentioned before, the NBN, as it is being rolled out at the moment, is as good as it will get for many years to come. While we remain critical of the government decision to abandon the FttH rollout we are also realistic and there is no option other than to accept what […]
Mobile roaming – does customer service matter to the mobile operators?
Since the ACCC indicated that it is again opening up its investigation into mobile roaming there has been a great deal of noise from the various telco players regarding the pros and cons of mobile roaming. However very little attention has been given to the more subtle underlying issues. While most the operators involved in […]
Hello from Amsterdam
This time to report, not on developments in the Netherlands, but on the progress of the Dutch Smart City mission that will be arriving in Australia at the end of October. This year is the 400th anniversary of the landing of Dirk Hartog in what is now Shark Bay, Western Australia. He placed an inscribed pewter […]
Technology and the fight against inequality
Referring to our recent report: Smart Cities – How cities can contribute to social stability and security, I agree that technological and economic developments over the last few decades have led to an increase in inequality. The financial benefits of technological developments and globalisation have – in the western economies – largely been delivered to the […]
From DSL to FttN, G.FAST, Fttdp, XG-FAST – building the NBN the tortuous way
In September 2016, NBN Co indicated its interest in a technology known as XG.Fast, it is a next level up from the G.Fast technology they started to trial in 2015 and it also needs to be seen in the yet still bigger picture of Fttdp (fibre to the distribution point). The development and deployment of […]
QUESS and Quantum Communications
In mid August China launched “QUESS” (Quantum Experiments at Space Scale), a new type of satellite that it hopes will be capable of “quantum communications” which is supposed to be hack-proof, through the use of “quantum entanglement”. This allows the operator to ensure that no one else is listening to your communications by reliably distributing […]
Flawed NBN structure undermines competition
Bevan Slattery’s scathing attack on ACCC boss Rod Sims in CommsDay might be a reflection of the attacker’s towering personality but he most certainly has a point. When the government changed the NBN policy from full fibre to mixed technology they fundamentally changed the nature of the project, including the underlying fundamentals. That being the case, […]
High-speed infrastructure takes hold – paving the way for revenue streams
Recently there was an important development for the broadband sector when the market share of fibre infrastructure lines finally overtook DSL technologies as the largest on a global level. The fixed broadband network is the infrastructure needed to meet the needs, both economic and societal, of the developed markets. In fact in many of these […]
The next development in wireless broadband
In the USA the FCC has started the discussion on the next level of telecoms in the wireless market, aimed at making spectrum in bands above 24GHz available for flexible-use of wireless services, including next-generation, or 5G networks and technologies. New technologies such as massive-MIMO are going to make it possible to deliver ‘fibre-like’ speeds […]
Fibre optic technologies for the next 50 years
It might be hard to imagine but we were already talking about fibre to the home networks back in the 1970s and 1980s. This was in the early days of interactive TV and pay TV and fibre optics were already at that time seen as the next level of telecoms infrastructure needed for such services. […]
Australia’s MVNOs now accessing the world’s fastest LTE networks
The three LTE networks operated by Optus, Telstra and Vodafone have been developed rapidly during the past two years. These MNOs are striving to provide an infrastructure capable of meetings customer demand for mobile broadband services, and are also preparing for the possibilities anticipated through the deployment of 5G within the next few years. Telstra […]
Populism and hi-tech
At a recent panel discussion in Berkeley, USA, the topic – The Moral Economy of Tech – was explored. The panel discussed the way hi-tech people in general view themselves and their work, and even though I am not an engineer or a developer of software and algorithms I could very much relate to that. I often […]
Tesla doing a Google in the Australian electricity industry?
Back in 2001 I established Utilitel, an industry alliance of all the major electricity companies in Australia. The initial set-up was aimed at looking at business opportunities for the utilities in the telecoms industry and over the subsequent years various new telecoms businesses were established by the utilities. Obviously this was a tough market and […]
Vodafone New Zealand’s merger with Sky shows continuing pressure to provide a full suite of services
The merger was not approved by the New Zealand Regulator (6/2017). During the last decade there has been considerable merger and acquisition activity in the telecoms sector across global regions. Where these processes are not possible, for regulatory or commercial reasons, operators have found ways to share resources in a bid to provide improved services […]
The complexity of multifunctional smart city projects
One of the so-called low-hanging fruits in smart city plans is street lighting. Significant savings can be achieved by replacing the existing system with LED light and allowing for the management of light contingent on the level of traffic. This, of course, also results in cost savings. I discussed the street lighting project with my […]
Pay TV market under increasing threat from Video Streaming market
The digital TV and video streaming industry has changed beyond recognition and it continues to evolve in 2016. Consumer habits are shifting from broadcast TV to on-demand content – especially streaming. Traditional TV viewing is increasingly facing competition from other viewing platforms such as smart phones, tablets, and Smart TVs. Choice is the key. Broadcasters […]
The Apps and Entertainment market continues to evolve
With the rise of digital platforms, the media industry is rapidly changing. In newspaper and book publishing, TV and radio broadcasting, film, music, and other forms of media, we see that the national walls that protect local organisations within traditional models are crumbling. In other words, it is no longer an issue of local market […]
How cities can contribute to social stability and security
Interestingly, during the process of establishing the Smart City Industry Collaborative one of the blue chip companies I contacted indicated that they were not a big fan of smart cities as their company was not really in the business of ‘making people happy’. They were selling ICTs to ‘make cities smarter’. This conversation took place a few […]
China Continues to Evolve as a World Leader in the Digital Media Sector
The Chinese telecom market is the largest in the world in terms of subscribers and is undergoing transition. Mobile subscriptions outnumber fixed voice connections and voice is giving way to data as the primary revenue generator. China’s telecom market is served by three operators; China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile. All three are integrated […]
Is 5G over-hyped?
It probably is because we are so good at doing that in our industry. We start with over-promising and under-delivering and then in following years we fix it. So why would 5G be different? Our admirable technology companies are telling us that 5G will be 100x faster than 4G and that it will have 50x […]
Are blockchains the solution to financing smart cities?
One of the most difficult elements in the development of smart cities is how to finance them. Local government doesn’t have the money for it and while state and federal governments might have more money to spend there is no way that their current tax funds could pay for even a fraction of the investments […]
The global streaming revolution is taking place
The global digital media entertainment market continues to go from strength to strength in 2016. In particular the global streaming revolution is gathering pace. Streaming is closing in on broadcast TV and the Internet now rivals broadcast TV as a vehicle to deliver consumer content. The entertainment industry generally is flourishing on the back of […]
Why we need fibre-to-the-farm
One of the discussions I am currently having with my international colleagues is about the international trend towards urbanisation and the resulting shift of political, economic and financial powers from centralised states and federal structures to mega-city or mega-urban region centres. Some of my American colleagues expressed the fear that this would further marginalise rural […]
Government-industry collaboration is better than developing a surveillance state.
In a recent speech President Obama again stressed the need for better collaboration between the tech industry and the government. He referred to his own White House initiative – this has resulted in the newly-formed US Digital Service, which is trying to recruit the tech industry to work with and for government. One of the key reasons […]
Is building FttH cheaper than upgrading the HFC networks?
Within the debate of the Multi Technology Mix of the Australian NBN, where the HFC also gets included in this mix for approx 20-25% of the connections, it interesting to follow the debate on the upgrade of this infrastructure in America. Cable networks around the world are now faced with a major technology upgrade known […]
Lake Macquarie Smart Council, Smart City
Lake Macquarie City Council has laid the foundation for creating a more connected, innovative and resilient city, with the adoption of the Lake Mac Smart City, Smart Council Digital Economy Strategy. A key development here has been that the council started this project by looking internally. They understood that if they were to develop a […]
Smart Cities and the open data dilemma
Many city councils are grappling with the big data issue. A key driver for their city to become smarter is to provide citizens with access to data sets that they can use to build new applications and services. As mentioned before, the smartest city will be the one with the smartest apps. On the one […]
Waiting 30 years for smart homes and still counting
Back in 1980 when I still lived in the Netherlands I worked with the Dutch futurist Griet Titulaer (an astronomer by trade) in building ‘The Home of the Future’. I would say that at that stage it was more built around innovative interior design with automation features. Home entertainment also played a key role in […]
Hamburg – Smart Seatropolis
For some time now Hamburg has been working on becoming the world’s first Smart Seatropolis through a partnership between the City of Hamburg, the Hamburg Port Authorities and Cisco. With an advanced, end-to-end network being built that connects real-time information between urban services and adjacent port operations historic Hamburg is leapfrogging into the 21st century. […]
Sunshine Coast leading the smart city movement
Sunshine Coast Council hosted the inaugural Australian Smart Communities Summit in Caloundra. The fact that the event happened there is a reflection of the commitment that this council has to the development of a smart city. One of the most critical elements here is leadership, and both the mayor and the CEO are passionate about […]
Smart City Ipswich
When the Australian government’s National Broadband Network was announced in 2009, Ipswich partnered with surrounding regions to create what they called the Western Corridor National Broadband Network in order to attract national interests and investments. This early start paid off well for the council as it became one of the first recipients of the NBN […]
VR demand set to grow, but little prospect for telcos
Over the last 20 years or so we have regularly revisited the developments in virtual reality (VR). I remember experiencing VR for the first time in the late 1980s, so this technology has been in the making for a very long time. And we are still uncertain about its growth over the next decade. There […]
Will STEM and flipped classrooms lead the e-education transformation?
At regular intervals I like to report on developments in e-education. As far back as the 1990s I earmarked the education sector as one of the major beneficiaries of the new developments in digital technologies. I even predicted that this would be one of the first sectors that would take advantage of the transformational aspects […]
The maturing of the sharing economy
With some of the poster-child services of the sharing economy now becoming more mainstream it is interesting to follow the developments that are taking place in this early stage of development. All those actively participating in services such as Uber, AirB&B and Lyft have seen regulations creeping up on them, be it in relation to […]
Smart City Geelong
As with so many forward-looking cities Geelong started to implement a ‘smart’ project well before the term ‘smart city’ became fashionable. But, as we have been discussing, like most of these projects also this one was at the start not undertaken in a strategic context, and again like most other projects elsewhere being implemented as […]
City-as-a-service – new business and investment model
While there are plenty of opportunities for local councils to create cost savings – especially by cutting through their internal silos and using ICT and infrastructure technologies on a sharing basis across the various city systems – the problem remains that before these cost savings can be made significant ICT investments are needed, and the […]
Will telcos become the OTT players in smart energy?
As I am involved in both the smart energy and the telecoms market I am in a good position to make comparisons and observations in relation to these utility markets. I have been following the telecoms market for over 30 years and the electricity market for 15+ years – in both cases well and truly […]
The end of our printed era – 1983-2015 Telecoms & Broadband Business Newsletter
After 32 years of publishing the monthly Telecommunications Newsletter in print, we have reached the end of our printed era. We were the first telecommunications newsletter to be printed in Australia but it will now only be available online, where it continues as a free weekly newsletter to some 4,000 customers, as well as a blog (2,000 […]
Smart community conference Tokyo
Last week I attended this most interesting conference. One striking element of the event was that every Japanese presenter mentioned ‘the disaster’ at least once in their presentation. This is how they refer to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. They almost never specify the ‘nuclear’ disaster; if they don’t just use the word ‘disaster’ they refer […]
The highway of the future – Oss, The Netherlands
On my recent trip to Europe I also visited my hometown Oss, Brabant, in the southern (better J) part of the Netherlands. Here I drove on the ‘Highway of the Future’, a 6km access road from one of the main the freeways into the city and its industrial areas. This local project has national significance […]
Most M2M activity is taking place unnoticed
There certainly is a lot of interest in the M2M and Internet of Everything (IoT) market in 2016. But what we are seeing is only what is happening on the surface. Most of the M2M activities are taking place unnoticed. For example, all new electronic devices are now M2M devices. Tens of millions of smart […]
My personal journey: Exploring science and religion
Discussion paper for family and friends. This is a draft version and I never expect a final version. My personal journey: Exploring science and religion Introduction In this essay I would like to explore the role that religion and science has played in our insatiable quest of the meaning of life[1] with questions such […]
The Internet Monopoly
The all-powerful social network sites People are increasingly becoming aware of the emerging ‘internet monopoly’. Companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and many the other (local) social network and media sites are becoming so large and powerful that they can dictate the use of their services in such a way that people lose control over […]
Broadband: a Platform for Progress – speech at UNESCO HQ
In 2011 I presented the report, Broadband: a Platform for Progress, to the Broadband Commission for Digital Development at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Secretary-General of the ITU, Dr Hamadoun Touré, thanked the team of experts that, as lead author of the report, I brought together. And the Director-General of UNESCO, Dr Irina Bokova, endorsed the report […]
Trans sector meeting with Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs
The following is a translation of the press release that was issued by the Ministry after my meeting with Minister Frank Heemskerk in 2009 whereby I officially presented him with a copy of the Big Think Report on Trans Sector Thinking. The Minister, on June 3rd met with Paul Budde to discuss broadband policies. Minister […]