Abstract
In April 2009, the Australian Government announced plans to roll-out the National Broadband Network (NBN) Company Open Access Network in Australia. Australia’s NBN will bring high speed internet access to areas and people that otherwise would have been without. Predicting consequences (both positive and negative) arising from the NBN, as well as risks and opportunities that it will generate differentially between places, groups and sectors, is inherently uncertain. With little reliable data available on social impacts of NBN-style access at the household and community level, policy-making and regulation risks responding to optimistic speculation and commercially motivated spin rather than carefully weighed evidence. The research reported in this paper aimed to address this gap with a preliminary assessment of the social impacts of the NBN-like broadband roll-out at one New South Wales test site in southwest Sydney. The paper discusses the research methods and findings and frames recommendations for further research to address both limitations that arose in the research reported here, and broader gaps in understanding the social impacts of new forms of broadband access and associated applications. Keywords : Social Impacts, Communication Technologies, High Speed Internet
Highlights
Roll-out of new broadband capacity in Australia Access to high-speed internet capacity is widely agreed to be basic infrastructure, central to economic and educational opportunities, political and social participation, and social equity across geographical scales
Creation of high-speed broadband access for the vast majority of Australians has been prioritised across the political spectrum – the means of achieving this has been a point of significant policy differences between the major parties (Gerrand, 2010)
The research reported in this paper aimed to address this gap with a preliminary assessment of the social impacts of the National Broadband Network (NBN)-like broadband roll-out at one New South Wales test site, the newly-established community at Parkbridge Estate, Middleton Grange in southwest Sydney
Summary
Roll-out of new broadband capacity in Australia Access to high-speed internet capacity is widely agreed to be basic infrastructure, central to economic and educational opportunities, political and social participation, and social equity across geographical scales. Creation of high-speed broadband access for the vast majority of Australians has been prioritised across the political spectrum – the means of achieving this has been a point of significant policy differences between the major parties (Gerrand, 2010). The aim of the NBN is to connect all Australian homes, businesses, and education facilities in towns with a population of 1,000 or more with optical fibre-based internet access (Willson, Marshall, & McCann, 2009). The policy anticipates that at least ninety-three percent of Australian residential and business premises will be connected to high speed optical fibre by the end of the rollout (Australian Labor Party, 2010), with the remaining seven percent having access to wireless or satellite services, potentially having significant impacts at the community and household levels
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
