1. ‘Broadband for the Bush’ Forum
Alice Springs 30th June 2011
A Remote Perspective
Presenter: Daniel Featherstone
Indigenous Remote Communications Association
2. Challenges for remote communities
• Remoteness- limited communications
• Dispersed, mobile populations
• Low income & high costs of living
• Limited education, employment & economic opportunities
• Limited access to services- banking, government services, telephony
and IT facilities, reliable power and water, library, mail
• Low indicators for health, education, housing, incarceration
• Indigenous first language, low English literacy
• Extreme weather conditions (cyclones, floods, road closures)
9. Issues with satellite
• Latency issues
• Effect of cloud cover (and dust, smoke, cyclones)
• Upload/download speed uneven, limits two-way
applications
• Costs for satellite services and downloads
• Does not address need for improved telephony
services
• Higher maintenance needs
• Trouble-shooting can be difficult
10. Preferred model- Terrestrial broadband backhaul
to hub sites
• Link hub sites via fibre optic cable or microwave
• Low latency
• Robust infrastructure, more reliable, low
maintenance
• Capacity for high speed two-way streaming
• More affordable services and download usage
• Ability to use as backhaul for mobile
telephony, fixed telephony, and network
extension
11. Key broadband applications used
in remote communities
• Basic telephony services, especially
Mobile telephony
• Tele-Health, Education, Justice and
services
• Internet, email, Youtube,
Indigitube
• IP Videoconferencing, Skype, VoIP
• New applications- Land
management, archive retrieval (eg
Ara Irititja), IP-TV (post Digital
Switchover), GIS, e-tourism
12. Last Mile Options
• ADSL
• Shared WiFi or WiMax- aggregated
usage
• 3G (and 4G) mobile telephony
• Ethernet over Power
• Community access ICT facilities
13. Conclusions
• To Do: Needs Analysis for remote users and applications
• Terrestrial is more reliable & cost-effective than satellite
• Existing fibre networks in remote areas to be linked to NBN
• Last mile delivery is crucial to community access
• Shared or aggregated usage of service ideal
• Telephony (esp. mobile) highest priority for indigenous users
• Remote people are rapid adopters of new technology
• Need funding for IT access facilities, training, applications (esp. to develop
creative software solutions)
Notes de l'éditeur
Access to broadband telecommunications can play a crucial role in overcoming inequities due to remoteness, and help to close the gap on access to health, education, training and employment opportunities and other basic services. It can provide important social outcomes in connecting up separated families and support the maintenance of Australia’s unique Indigenous culture and languages. Broadband would reduce the vast digital divide for remote Indigenous populations and provide significant outcomes in terms of social, economic and cultural development and connect remote regions with the broader community. Effective broadband connectivity can significantly increase the sustainability of remote communities, especially in smaller sites where human services are being withdrawn.
All of these factors make reliable telecommunications essential in remote communities
There are 1113 remote Indigenous communities across Australia.
Some parts of remote Australia already networked with fibre-optic cable rolled out to remote communities, however currently not included on NBN maps. Why? In many sites, exchange upgrades have only been partially carried out, providing Next G mobile telephony but not ADSL services or business-grade broadband services. We urge the government to consider an holistic and long-term approach to delivery of services as part of this rollout. By upgrading these exchanges, a major reduction in the number of Australian households without access to the National Broadband Network may be achieved.
Current planning for remote area delivery of the NBN is for a 12 Mbps satellite solution. IRCA urges thorough consultation and long-term cost analysis prior to selection of technology. Considerations such as applications, latency, upload/download speeds, usage cost structures, maintenance costs, download caps, contention ratios, real-time streaming capability, network management, last-mile delivery systems, and ability to aggregate usage within a community or region, will all help to determine the usefulness and potential uptake and future applications in remote communities. IRCA strongly urges the use of terrestrial broadband delivery (i.e. fibre optic or microwave) rather than satellite backhaul delivery for remote areas to reduce ongoing costs and latency, improve reliability and provide future capacity;
· Latency issues impact on the capacity of high-bandwidth applications such as videoconferencing, VoIP, and other two-way streaming applications;· Cloud cover can substantially reduce the reliability of this service, potentially leaving sites without access to safety information when required (e.g. during cyclones or storms, common in Top End);· Costs for satellite services are generally higher than equivalent ADSL services, with download limits capped and high excess use costs (limiting many applications);· Satellite delivery system may be limited to broadband services only and not address the critical issue of lack of telephony services· Satellite dishes tend to require more maintenance than other technologies, especially in coastal regions with corrosion and high winds;· Trouble-shooting satellite systems can be difficult and responsibility of customer (not telco).
IRCA suggests that regional ‘node’ communities be identified and linked with fibre optic backhaul, with the surrounding cluster of communities supplied via microwave links. Microwave can provide a relatively low latency and high bandwidth traffic flow, provided distance to the ‘node’ is not too long. Remote areas are familiar with the use of microwave for telephony and, while there are occasional outages, a well-designed network can build in redundancy loops to avoid this. Towers already in place.
Basic telephony needs in remote communities should be addressed as a matter of priority. Selection of backhaul technology should support telephony as well as broadband access;Mobile telephony should be seen as a primary telephony service for remote Australia, with a USO arrangement to ensure affordable access/ capped calls;Local exchange upgrades and last-mile networking audits should be carried out as part of the project to ensure access for Indigenous users;Sufficient broadband capacity be provided to enable use of two-way streaming applications (fast upload as well as download), including telephony, videoconferencing, VoIP, IP-TV
Wireless last-mile internet connectivity (via WiFi or WiMax) be made available to enable shared access and use of home computers and mobile devices;Licencing or regulatory changes to enable aggregated regional use and low-cost regional communications;Recurrent ICT program needed to provide IT access facilities, training, technical support and on-line content in remote areas, including for media production and distribution, language and cultural heritage and archiving;RIMOs are ideally placed to be regional hubs (or nodes) for supporting broadband uptake and coordination of ICT facilities and programs;
IRCA, with the RIMOs, is well positioned to play a key role in community consultation, awareness raising, baseline data collection on current usage, and policy advice for remote Australia.
