To Acquire Intellink Pty Ltd!!!, page-5

QTL are in the sweet patch in telecommunications. The ACCC reported yesterday that broadband connections had increased to 251,500 by March 2002 but still we are well behind other countries. QTL stand to gain with both DSL and Cable Modem technologies and they virtually have the market sewn up.


Communications Day 20 June 2002 Page 1

Broadband connections keep growing, but is it at a fast enough rate?
Broadband take-up in Australia is escalating at a promising rate according to statistics released yesterday by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
The ACCC’s Snapshot of Broadband Deployment report revealed that as of the end of March 2002, there were
251,500 broadband services connected across Australia. The figures represent a doubling of the amount of connections recorded at the end of July 2001.
ACCC chairman, Allan Fels said “growth in the take-up of DSL technology has significantly exceeded the
growth take-up in cable technologies.” Take-up of DSL services increased by 206% in the nine months to March 2002. By comparison, there was a 71% increase in the number of subscribers for cable broadband services.
Although the number of cable services (157,800) still significantly exceeds the number of DSL services (85,800). "Broadband infrastructure is of particular and growing importance to the future of Internet services. For the Internet to develop beyond its existing technical and commercial limitations, it needs broadband access technologies made available on a reasonable basis,” he said adding however that numbers overall remain low.
"While this report shows promising levels of growth in the take-up of broadband services, the overall number of services remains low. Fels said that the ACCC will continue to monitor this market, looking closely at any behaviour by those with market power to stifle competition through high prices or by holding back access to new services. "Where necessary the ACCC will act to change behaviour in the market.”
Natalie Apostolou