Australia - Whether ALP or Coalition wins, the outcome will be new rural Internet services for rural and remote areas

[the australian] THE days of dial-up internet access could be over if a government is formed this week, but the shape of new services is far from clear.

Depending on which party takes minority rule, the new broadband services for rural and regional areas could vary greatly.

Labor and the Coalition have wagered their broadband policies as bargaining chips in the battle to secure the support of the three rural independents, Rob Oakeshott, Bob Katter and Tony Windsor.

At $43 billion, Labor's national broadband network is pricey and ambitious, and it offers regulatory reform, a future-proof fibre-to-the-home network for 93 per cent of the population, and wireless and satellite services for the rest.

The Coalition has declared it would scrap the NBN and replace it with $6.3bn worth of funding programs, including $3.5bn to build a nationwide fibre back-haul network to improve broadband services in the outback, and $2bn to build new fixed wireless networks in the urban and rural regions where internet access is not up to scratch.

Regardless of which broadband plan is implemented, metropolitan areas will remain winners as service providers continue to focus on densely populated centres.

Rural and regional areas are set to benefit from better broadband services, but in markedly different ways.

While both Labor and the Coalition say they aim to improve broadband in the bush, the way in which they want to deliver the service varies greatly.

Under Labor's NBN, large regional areas not served by metro-comparable broadband services will be hooked directly into the new fibre network. This means areas such as Cloncurry in the Kennedy electorate and Kempsey in Lyne will be served with broadband speeds of up to a gigabit per second when the NBN is completed.

And residents in the university city of Armidale, in the New England electorate, have been flagged as among the first to get a taste of what the NBN will offer.

But under the Coalition plan, these centres and many more are likely to be served by technologies with inferior internet service, such as fixed wireless and satellite networks that deliver only a fraction of the NBN's promised speeds.

Under the Coalition, internet service providers in outback areas would be given grants and funding to improve copper-based internet services such as ADSL or build next-generation fixed wireless networks with internet speeds not much better than those now on offer.

Using these technologies, the Coalition pledges to deliver "minimum peak" download speeds of 12Mbps.

Outside of the NBN's fibre footprint -- the last 7 per cent of the population -- Labor is also promising 12Mbps download speeds, but industry experts say the Coalition's plan makes delivery of their speed promise a near impossibility because of the lack of fibre infrastructure.

"The magic 12Mbps speed is what ADSL2+ gets when you are no more than 1.5km from an exchange," said a telco executive who asked to remain anonymous.

"You pretty much need a fibre-to-the-node network to do that, and you definitely can't get those speeds with just wireless by itself.

"If the opposition is promising a 12Mbps minimum speed, then they will either need lots of mobile towers and most of the available wireless spectrum, or a fibre-to-the-node network, which is a lot more expensive than what they are proposing."

When it comes to serving the most remote areas, both broadband policies rely on wireless and satellite networks. But NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley has said the two policies differ in the way they deliver the promised 12Mbps download speeds.

Mr Quigley says consumers will get a guaranteed minimum 12Mbps connection regardless of whether they are connected to the fibre network or being served by wireless or satellite delivery.

The NBN Co says it will be able to do this by spending $1bn to launch new satellites capable of delivering broadband services at committed rates. This differs from the Coalition's plan, which offers theoretical peak download speeds of 12Mbps.

The Coalition has denied these claims but has not offered any clarity on how it plans to ensure users get a 12Mbps download speed, saying it would prefer to leave technical delivery questions to the market, which will eventually provide the services.

"The Coalition's broadband plan will deliver a uniform national broadband network, under which 97 per cent of premises are able to be served by high-speed networks capable of delivering from 100 Mbps to a minimum of 12 Mbps peak speed, using a combination of technologies including HFC, DSL and fixed wireless," said opposition communications spokesman Tony Smith.

"We have consistently reaffirmed this."

Shape of regional internet hangs on battle to form government