could become a serious contender

Article from: The Australian

ACCESS to high-speed broadband could be twice as cheap and up to five times faster if little-known Canadian group Axia NetMedia gets its wish to build the federal Government's $15 billion national broadband network.

The group's cost modelling is based on what it expects to offer in Singapore, where Axia is in a consortium with Optus's parent, Singapore Telecommunications, to build a $2 billion national fibre network on the island.

Axia is touting a no-frills broadband charge to consumers of $15 a month, compared with the $85 a month being talked about by Telstra.

"In Singapore, on a fibre-to-the-premise network, we can offer an access price of $15 per resident per month. You could do this with similar pricing in any major metropolitan city, including Sydney," Axia NetMedia chief executive and chairman Art Price told The Australian.

On top of this basic service, providers would then add options that would cost the consumer more.

"Users now want to be able to choose what services they want so the right answer is to unbundle these networks from the services they offer," Mr Price said.

"That's the right answer from an end-user point of view and an economies-of-scale point of view."

Telstra has proposed an average access price of $85 per month for a slower broadband service -- more than most users pay today.

The proposed Axia pricing makes a mockery of the wholesale price that Telstra charges internet service providers to access its copper network.

Telstra has long argued it should be able to charge $30 per month for access on its ageing copper wires.

Mr Price said incumbents and retailers were fatally conflicted when it came to building next-generation networks.

"We are the new guy on the block who builds in environments that welcome transformational structure," he said.

"We only go where governments say they want next-generation networks on a no-customer-conflict open access basis."

This weekend, Axia will present its case to the Government's eight-person expert panel on its credentials to build the NBN, kicking off a frantic six weeks of discussions ahead of a recommendation to the Government at the end of January.

Axia has broadband projects under way in France, Canada and Singapore, but until yesterday had kept out of the spotlight in Australia.

For years, Telstra has ignored calls from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to lower wholesale access pricing to its network.

Telstra currently charges between $17 and $22 a month in most of Australia to access its copper network, which at best is only capable of providing internet speeds up to 24 megabits per second (Mbps).

In comparison, a fibre network to homes and businesses can deliver broadband speeds that exceed 100Mbps to homes in metropolitan areas.

"It's a very basic question. If you can have fibre to the premise in a metropolitan centre for $15 a month, then who is justifying $15 for the local copper loop? How are people debating $20, $30 for just the local copper loop?" Mr Price said.

Axia comes to the NBN bidding table as an outsider but one with considerable experience in building next-generation networks and dislodging incumbents.

Aside from its recent win to build the Singapore NBN, the group has already completed an open-access fibre network to service rural and metropolitan communities in the Canadian state of Alberta.

It is now building 12 regional networks in French provinces.